(August 1, 2013 at 3:50 pm)John79 Wrote: This is a question i have wanted to ask atheists (and anyone else) for a long time. I would like to understand what you believe is the cause of the universe and the world's existance. Obviously Christians moslems and others believe in creation, and I think its true most or all atheists believe in a big bang theory.
i have read some about this theory and I can't find where the cause of it is explained. What do you think?
The Big Bang Theory is simply the most popular (and by that I mean well known not necessarily liked) of a number of Universe Origin Theories.
Most Physicists today would rather it be called the Big Expansion Theory although given the speed and violence of it all 'Bang' is not necessarily out of place.
My personal choice is the 'Something from Nothing Theory', that in very simple terms means you do not need anything to create a Universe full of matter (NB- very simple terms).
It's very difficult to explain to people how this works without getting deep into Quantum Physics, but to keep it simple it can be said that the 'Laws of Physics' (although the term 'Law' is not strictly accurate) are exactly the same laws as of nothing. There needs to be no change in these 'Laws of Physics' to create matter out of nothing.
Scientists have attempted to create 'nothingness' but the closest they can get is a Quantum Vacuum, which is far from empty. A quantum vacuum is full of particles popping in and out of existence. We have observed this and measured it.
"Prof. Edward Tryon of Hunter College of the City University of New York thought so when he proposed in 1973 that our Universe may have originated as a fluctuation of the vacuum on a large scale, as "simply one of those things which happen from time to time." This idea was later refined and updated within the context of inflationary cosmology by Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University, who proposed that the universe is created by quantum tunneling from literally nothing into the something we call our universe." - Dr. H. E. Puthoff, Institute for Advanced Studies, Austin, Texas.
The idea that the Universe came into existence from a void is not a new idea, its been around at least 40 years. But its not a popular idea, because it requires more than a passing understanding of a number of branches of physics to grasp.
But to keep it on a simple level, the Universe and everything in it can have come into existence from nothing (or at least a quantum vacuum). Not only does this idea make logical sense (it stands to reason that at some point there must have been nothing) it answers the question of what came before the 'Big Bang', and interestingly it hints at what might come next...
The main reason this has never really caught on like the Big Bang Theory is simple, no one likes the idea that we are just patterns in the void.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
