What to say when somebody asks about the big bang

[wiploc]

What do I say when somebody asks me about the Big Bang theory?

Bertrand Russell said something like, "When the experts are agreed, the layman does well not to hold a contrary opinion.  When the experts disagree, the layman does well not to hold any opinion at all." 

Now I'm not an expert on cosmology, but the experts do seem to be agreed on the big bang, so I have a lightly held belief that the big bang happened. 

As to what happened before the big bang, their is no expert consensus, so I don't have an opinion.  It's a good question; I'm curious just like you are.  But I don't have an answer. 

A Christian once told me that there was an answer.  I forget what he said it was.  I didn't believe him, but I wanted support for my position, so I went up on campus to the physics department.  I found a cosmologist, and I put the question to him.  He said, "Nobody knows what happened before the big bang.  Nobody knows what happened before the big bang.  Nobody knows what happened before the big bang." 

So my position is this:  I don't know.  And I feel comfortable knowing that my ignorance is supported by the ignorance of experts. 

Theists may hope that you'll think something like this:  "I don't know the answer, so your answer must be correct."  But they don't know the answer either.  They have made up the goddidit answer, but they can't say what came before god any more than you can say what came before the big bang. 

Suppose you said, "You ask how things began, why there something rather than nothing?  It happened like this:  Some minutes after the big bang, things cooled down enough that matter formed."  How would they respond?  They would say, "Wait, that's not the beginning.  I asked how things got started originally, why there's something rather than nothing!  Where did these things come from that cooled down enough to form matter?"

Then you say, "Ah, I see your point.  You're saying that goddidit doesn't really explain anything because you don't know where god came from.  You haven't explained the actual beginning until you explain how god began, and why there are gods rather than nothing.  Do I have that right?"

If they say god has always existed because god is necessary, then you get to say something like, "That's glib enough, but there isn't any reason to think it true.  It's a made-up explanation, unsupportable.  Would you be satisfied if I said the universe is necessary, and the universe has always existed?  If not, then you have offered me an explanation that you wouldn't accept yourself."