(January 20, 2017 at 2:43 pm)Aristocatt Wrote: I haven't read the entire thread. Just wanted to say, I think it's awesome your daughter is asking these questions at her age. When I think about why I became an atheist, it was because I was curious, and wanted to try to understand how the world operated. Her reasoning may be a bit off, and some of the answers to these questions require more than just a casual understanding of the science behind it, but that curiosity and drive not to accept received wisdom out of hand, I think is an amazing asset.
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-28...fall-2013/
I believe the first lecture or two in that course explains some of the stuff she is wondering.
I am fairly certain it explains why the big bang was poorly named a bang. And it briefly goes over what the big bang is, and why we believe it to be true.
The rest of it would be pretty too math heavy for most college grads, let alone a 14 year old. Iirc, the first lecture or two is just an introduction almost completely devoid of math. I think it would be reasonable for a 14 year old to watch it and understand it...but if you were interested, maybe you could watch it and then decide for yourself!
She can also read this:
http://www.academia.edu/9399067/Halliday...th_edition
It's the first 3-semester calculus-based physics textbook, an earlier edition that I used long, long ago. Big Bang cosmology is pretty well established, and as with the rotation of the Earth, something that is not doubted at all.
