Dear Resident Theists

[Whateverist]

Who said the Big Bang needed a cause?

Most things happen because of a cause. Science is always looking for a cause. The more answers we get, the more questions come up. To say the big bang had no cause is like giving up on science.

And that might be an option because the big bang is the beginning of space and time, and our scientific method fails when we go beyond space and time. Beyond that, we go into philosophy.

I agree that what takes place beyond the level of the universe of which we are a part certainly seems beyond the reach of science at this point, and quite likely for all time. Perhaps someone will propose an indicator which would be, for theoretical reasons, an indicator of a multiverse. I don't know, but I doubt there will ever be an entirely satisfying conclusion which will convince all parties.

So we can call the alternatives philosophy but really, aren't we just spitballing possibilities? What I think you really must give up saying is that the universe, space and time had a beginning before which there was absolutely nothing. There is no more reason for thinking that than for thinking there is a multiverse or for thinking something supernatural.

Nothing is the one thing we can all rule out. There was never nothing. As far back as we can investigate, there are always pre-existing conditions which meld with what follows. (That was what I wished to imply by the 'turtles all the way down' analogy.) Even if you choose to believe time, space and everything had a beginning, you still believe there was a God capable of bringing all that into being. So you really do not believe in a true nothingness.

Or we can propose other sci-fi versions of reality like multiple universes. Who knows?

Indeed, who? Not me. Not you. But we are all free to speculate. For me it is impossible to imagine that there is not a level of description -perhaps with its own timeline- wherein big bangs are a dime a dozen and their expansion and contraction are like a big pile of frothy bubbles. That anything happens in isolation is beyond the power of my imagination.