Space, Time and Stuff 6.
For some reason the Big Bang theory has always bothered me, but like most people, I guess, I never questioned it much and just accepted the ‘science’. These days, I’m trying to be more consistent in my ‘belief’ of questioning everything.
So, what are the things that bother me about the Big Bang theory?
Firstly, the whole theory is based on an assumption. In this case, the assumption is that the universe has a beginning. You can question or argue about the idea of eternity, but unless you know something no one else does, or have travelled back in time, then simply denying the possibility is an assumption.
Then, of course, time is supposed to have begun with the Big Bang. My question has always been that if time began with the Big Bang, how did the Big Bang happen? Surely time was needed. What are the possibilities?
1. Time always existed as an eternal dimension.
2. The singularity existed inside an eternal space where time was only a measurement.
3. Time existed but only inside the singularity.
4. Time didn’t exist but was only a measurement of the events that occurred to initiate the Big Bank. Then dimensional time began.
5. Time has never existed and is only a measurement of events.
Those are some of the possibilities, but there are probably others that my layman’s brain can’t conceive of. I’m definitely not an astrophysicist and the only other option I could think of would be ‘God’, because if the Big Bang just suddenly happened, then surely someone or something had to click its fingers or wave a wand.
And then there’s the whole idea of the singularity. My poor old brain just can’t comprehend the idea that every particle of matter and every bit of energy and force that make up our universe once existed within a singularity the size of a small dot.
Really?
Then it exploded. No, it expanded.
The question here is what did it expand into?
Did the singularity create space as it expanded? That would surely mean it would have to still be doing that at the edges of the universe. That is surely a wild idea.
A much more likely assumption would be that space already existed outside the singularity. And that space would have to contain nothing which would need to be infinite, because if it wasn’t, the singularity didn’t contain ‘everything’.
The best evidence we have for the Big Bang theory is that the universe is expanding. But remember that the amount of time we have been observing this compared to the time since the Big Bang is miniscule. And if eternity does exist, then the best comparison would be nothing. You simply can’t compare any amount of time to eternity.
So, I certainly don’t claim to know better, but my tired old brain really does have trouble accepting the idea of the Big Bang.
Yep, Just my thoughts. Nope, not much research.
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