What is "FAITH"

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Everything that happens in our universe has a cause. Our understanding of cause and effect comes from every single one of our experiences on this planet, and everywhere else in our universe.
How, then, can the vessel of all cause and effect itself not follow the laws of cause and effect?

This is like meeting an alien race and asking them: where are your elephants? we have them on earth, how can you not have elephants?

[Bad Writer]

I'm travelling backwards in my time machine and then I hit zero. Everything freezes. I cannot travel past zero.
Luckily I programmed an auto reverse and everything unfroze.

I get it, but what I'm saying is that I'm not sure how anyone one can know if you would freeze in that instant. Time existing before the Big Bang, in my book, is just as speculative as time not existing. I can get on board with either theory as long as there is evidence to support it. Can you point out the evidence for us that shows how time doesn't exist before the Big Bang?

[fr0d0]

Can you point out the evidence for us that shows how time doesn't exist before the Big Bang?

Here's Stephen Hawkins explanation:

As we look out at the universe, we are looking back in time, because light had to leave distant objects a long time ago, to reach us at the present time. This means that the events we observe lie on what is called our past light cone.
The point of the cone is at our position, at the present time. As one goes back in time on the diagram, the light cone spreads out to greater distances, and its area increases. However, if there is sufficient matter on our past light cone, it will bend the rays of light towards each other.
This will mean that, as one goes back into the past, the area of our past light cone will reach a maximum, and then start to decrease. It is this focussing of our past light cone, by the gravitational effect of the matter in the universe, that is the signal that the universe is within its horizon, like the time reverse of a black hole. If one can determine that there is enough matter in the universe, to focus our past light cone, one can then apply the singularity theorems, to show that time must have a beginning.

From here: http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html

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Maybe this bit:

" the theory that the universe has existed forever is in serious difficulty with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Second Law, states that disorder always increases with time. Like the argument about human progress, it indicates that there must have been a beginning. Otherwise, the universe would be in a state of complete disorder by now, and everything would be at the same temperature. In an infinite and everlasting universe, every line of sight would end on the surface of a star. This would mean that the night sky would have been as bright as the surface of the Sun. The only way of avoiding this problem would be if, for some reason, the stars did not shine before a certain time."

[Bad Writer]

From the same article:

"Since events before the Big Bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory, and say that time began at the Big Bang. Events before the Big Bang, are simply not defined, because there's no way one could measure what happened at them."

We are just saying that time began at the Big Bang because, before that, we have no idea what time looked like. He's saying the same thing I am.

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I'll admit, it's akin to quote mining, but I can't see it as being out of context, so I think it's still a valid point.

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Excellent article, by the way.

[fr0d0]

"No way to measure", and "we don't know what that looked like" I think because it's not anything we know about: time and space as we experience it .

You're entitled to your own view of course. Many ideas makes the subject better researched/ considered.

[Bad Writer]

True story.

[Consilius]

Everything that happens in our universe has a cause. Our understanding of cause and effect comes from every single one of our experiences on this planet, and everywhere else in our universe.
How, then, can the vessel of all cause and effect itself not follow the laws of cause and effect?

This is like meeting an alien race and asking them: where are your elephants? we have them on earth, how can you not have elephants?

Our universe is not a seperate entity from everything in it. We know that everyting has a cause from what we've experienced in our very own universe. In this universe, every effect has a cause. Why wouldn't our universe have a cause if everything else about it is cause and effect?

[pineapplebunnybounce]

This is like meeting an alien race and asking them: where are your elephants? we have them on earth, how can you not have elephants?

Our universe is not a seperate entity from everything in it. We know that everyting has a cause from what we've experienced in our very own universe. In this universe, every effect has a cause. Why wouldn't our universe have a cause if everything else about it is cause and effect?

I can't do this anymore, you just keep repeating yourself without considering what others are saying.

[Rahul]

You guys know that my wife and I saw Stephen Hawking at a lecture a couple years ago? The information he presented was pretty basic and I already knew it all. But still it was great to see the guy in real life.

He stops by this town every few years. In the middle of Texas for crying out loud.

[Consilius]

I can't do this anymore, you just keep repeating yourself without considering what others are saying.

How so? An alien race and the human race are different versions of the same thing. They are independent of one another. Everything we percieve in our universe is much more closely related to our universe as a whole.
Thought is caused.
Life is caused.
Our planet is caused.
Neptune is caused.
The Milky Way is caused.
The entire Solar System is caused.
The compilation of all these things as a unit, not caused?