Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: June 5, 2024, 8:22 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Principle of Contingent Causation: The Impossibility of Infinite Regress.
RE: The Principle of Contingent Causation: The Impossibility of Infinite Regress.
(July 7, 2023 at 12:21 pm)Nishant Xavier Wrote: 3. As for the Universe allegedly being the Necessary Being, GN, the Universe cannot be because (1) it began to exist and (2) can cease to exist. Do you deny (1) the Big Bang or (2) the Big Crunch? Not to mention doesnt demonstrate (3) non potentiality and therefore is contingent.

[emphasis mine]

No, this is not a correct understanding.

Quote:Suppose we ask: where did spacetime itself arise from? Then we can go on turning the clock yet further back, into the truly ancient "Planck epoch" – a period so early in the Universe's history that our best theories of physics break down. This era occurred only one ten-millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. At this point, space and time themselves became subject to quantum fluctuations. Physicists ordinarily work separately with quantum mechanics, which rules the microworld of particles, and with general relativity, which applies on large, cosmic scales. But to truly understand the Planck epoch, we need a complete theory of quantum gravity, merging the two.

We still don't have a perfect theory of quantum gravity, but there are attempts – like string theory and loop quantum gravity. In these attempts, ordinary space and time are typically seen as emergent, like the waves on the surface of a deep ocean. What we experience as space and time are the product of quantum processes operating at a deeper, microscopic level – processes that don't make much sense to us as creatures rooted in the macroscopic world.

In the Planck epoch, our ordinary understanding of space and time breaks down, so we can't any longer rely on our ordinary understanding of cause and effect either. Despite this, all candidate theories of quantum gravity describe something physical that was going on in the Planck epoch – some quantum precursor of ordinary space and time. But where did that come from?

Even if causality no longer applies in any ordinary fashion, it might still be possible to explain one component of the Planck-epoch universe in terms of another. Unfortunately, by now even our best physics fails completely to provide answers. Until we make further progress towards a "theory of everything", we won't be able to give any definitive answer. The most we can say with confidence at this stage is that physics has so far found no confirmed instances of something arising from nothing.

BBC | What existed before the Big Bang?

[emphasis mine]
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: The Principle of Contingent Causation: The Impossibility of Infinite Regress. - by Angrboda - July 7, 2023 at 3:10 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Fine Tuning Principle: Devastating Disproof and Scientific Refutation of Atheism. Nishant Xavier 97 7594 September 20, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Last Post: Foxaèr
  An infinite progress FortyTwo 185 15622 September 13, 2021 at 2:12 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Anthropic Principle vs Goddidit Coffee Jesus 39 5651 April 24, 2014 at 9:35 am
Last Post: Ryantology
  "The Judeo-Christian God Is Infinite"-Einstein michaelsherlock 7 3092 April 13, 2012 at 8:25 am
Last Post: Phil



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)