What could be outside the universe? (believe, Allah, science, evidence)

[Evidence-is-key]

So, we've all heard about the universe and its 100 Billion Galaxies and the 1012 stars etc.
We've also heard that the universe has "no boundaries", "no center", "no edge", and we've all heard that it is "expanding", then came to the conclusion that it may not be expanding...

i understand that this is the beauty of science and that 'theories' as we know them today may change tomorrow given newly discovered evidence.

my question to you is this: What do you think is outside the boundary-less boundaries of the universe? Are there a hundred billion universes similar to the 100 billion galaxies that i mentioned and we are simply in one of those univserses?

thoughts? :-)


ps. Please leave the non-existant God/jebus/allah/etc. out of this thread.

[MontanaGuy]

My knowledge of the subject is limited and I would imagine that everyone else's is as well but as I understand it the universe is all that actually exists and there is nothing outside of it at all, not even space. It appears to be expanding at an ever increasing rate but it isn't expanding into something else because nothing else is there. That's a hard thing to comprehend but I believe that's a widely accepted view.

[Evidence-is-key]

Originally Posted by MontanaGuy

My knowledge of the subject is limited and I would imagine that everyone else's is as well but as I understand it the universe is all that actually exists and there is nothing outside of it at all, not even space. It appears to be expanding at an ever increasing rate but it isn't expanding into something else because nothing else is there. That's a hard thing to comprehend but I believe that's a widely accepted view.

yes, i too have heard that before.....however, how can something not exist outside of it? everything has an outside...how can we define something that doesn't have an edge?

[scarmig]

"Nothing" isn't expanding. It's the "stuff" inside the "nothing" that is expanding. Energy and matter are moving through nothing, without boundaries. The boundary is not a boundary to "nothing", but a boundary of how far measurable energy and matter have traveled.

[fatmancomics]

Who cares? God, no god, universe expanding, not expanding, who cares? Until we can devise a method of travel that actually takes us there and back within one human lifetime, we're not going to know and so far our "laws" of physics say that type of travel is an impossibility. I just want to know how I'm going to pay all my bills and still manage to retire by age 60.

[LogicIsYourFriend]

I think the term "universe" means everything that exists, so by this definition nothing can exist outside the universe. When we discover new things they are still part of the universe; same with things we don't know about.

[Evidence-is-key]

Originally Posted by scarmig

"Nothing" isn't expanding. It's the "stuff" inside the "nothing" that is expanding. Energy and matter are moving through nothing, without boundaries. The boundary is not a boundary to "nothing", but a boundary of how far measurable energy and matter have traveled.

if we can measure "how far measurable energy and matter have traveled", then should there be "more room" to travel? if so, that would be the "outside" i'm referring to...i think....

regardless, i know this is a question that can not currently be answered.....I'm more interested in learning what your theories might be...

[Evidence-is-key]

Originally Posted by fatmancomics

Who cares? God, no god, universe expanding, not expanding, who cares? Until we can devise a method of travel that actually takes us there and back within one human lifetime, we're not going to know and so far our "laws" of physics say that type of travel is an impossibility. I just want to know how I'm going to pay all my bills and still manage to retire by age 60.

that to me is very very sad! a very sad way to live ones life! all you care about is how to pay your bills and retirement/death? might as well bite the bullet now my friend.

you ask 'who cares'? I do! this type of stuff interests me and not knowing the answer makes me want to know it even more!

[NightBazaar]

Originally Posted by Evidence-is-key

yes, i too have heard that before.....however, how can something not exist outside of it? everything has an outside...how can we define something that doesn't have an edge?

Actually, this is a subject that has been discussed on the Science and Technology forum. This isn't a great illustration, but maybe it can help understand how something with no edge can be defined.

Imagine you have a balloon filled with a colored gas. Now imagine popping the rubber balloon. For a moment, the colored gas that was contained in the balloon is still there, but it has no distinct edge. But now its become blended with the air that's outside of the balloon. There's no edge and no boundary of the gas.

You're also asking what's outside of the universe. This isn't all that helpful, but it's kind of like asking when you travel East, where do you reach West? If there is an 'outside' of the universe, then it might be some kind of hyperspace. However, we don't know because we are limited by the confines of the interior of the universe. If you could somehow step outside of the universe and look at it, it would probably look pretty strange and shapeless, like a tightly meshed mass of interconnected roots. These are called filaments.

I've posted this before, but it may be worth posting again. It's a computer simulation based on what we know about the universe which gives an idea of what the universe looks like.


YouTube - Millennium Simulation: "The Largest Model of Our Universe"

[Reverend1111]

If you read the Urantia Book, there are 7 superuniverses There is a Grand Universe that holds those seven. We are in number 7. Don't know how much of that is true but it's the only book that I know of that explains the universe in depth.