Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What caused the Big Bang? Or is the Big Bang of the universe cyclical, expanding and contracting eternally?
Is there enough matter/gravity for the universe to cease expanding and contract? There doesn't seem to be so science proposes there is dark matter. Matter we can't see but is there responsible for keeping the universe from expanding so much that it never contracts again and just fizzles out in every direction. It's a belief in dark matter, which is important from a scientific view because were the universe tightly bound up in dense matter/black hole for eternity, never beginning, no starting point, always there, and it was to suddenly explode for no reason, it would be illogical.
Or something made the Big Bang happen. I'm not saying it's God, but if something else caused the universe to expand once then the universe isn't eternal and that other thing is or at least precedes the universe.
It is possible that the big bang did not have a cause. It may seem hard for us to grasp such a concept. But this is the understanding that modern physics appears to be pointing to. Space, time, matter, energy and natural laws arose spontaneously from nothing.
In the late 1990s, it was discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Physicists have theorized that a form of energy called dark energy accounts for this acceleration. No one knows what dark energy really is. Just that it makes up most of the mass-energy of the universe.
A Nobel Prize is likely awaiting anyone who can solve the mystery of dark energy.
It is possible that the big bang did not have a cause. It may seem hard for us to grasp such a concept. But this is the understanding that modern physics appears to be pointing to. Space, time, matter, energy and natural laws arose spontaneously from nothing.
In the late 1990s, it was discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Physicists have theorized that a form of energy called dark energy accounts for this acceleration. No one knows what dark energy really is. Just that it makes up most of the mass-energy of the universe.
A Nobel Prize is likely awaiting anyone who can solve the mystery of dark energy.
It's possible it had no cause, though everything arising from nothing is just as plausible as god (arising from nothing sounds buddhist).
If matter and energy and everything were in a very dense, compact form going back forever with no beginning then it just exploding at one point all of a sudden for no reason, a viewpoint can be logically argued that something else made it happen(which created the universe). It doesn't prove the existence of deity but it says to me that using logic we can take the most we know from science about the origin of everything and understand that there may or may not be the possibility of something or even something divine outside of empirical proof. I think it's narrow minded faith to say that only the material universe exists indefinitely.
I have a friend who considers herself a Christian, but believes that current "Christian" churches have long evolved away from whatever the earliest Christians believed and practiced. Therefore, she believes in none of them. She says that she tries to use the New Testament as her guide, though she does not believe that it is free of errors. Beyond that I have never pursued the topic with her.
Regarding her position on organized religion, your friend and I may not be on the same page, but are at least in the same chapter.
God is beyond our comprehension as humans, "he" is not a he nor sits in a big chair.
rejecting religon but believing in god is akin to refusing to believe that walt disney ever lived while at the same time being a huge fan of mickey mouse
It is possible that the big bang did not have a cause. It may seem hard for us to grasp such a concept. But this is the understanding that modern physics appears to be pointing to. Space, time, matter, energy and natural laws arose spontaneously from nothing.
In the late 1990s, it was discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Physicists have theorized that a form of energy called dark energy accounts for this acceleration. No one knows what dark energy really is. Just that it makes up most of the mass-energy of the universe.
A Nobel Prize is likely awaiting anyone who can solve the mystery of dark energy.
Hmmmm Spontaneous from nothing? Space time matter and energy? I have a hard time seeing how that comes about. Nothing in the most absolute sense is pretty much nothing. And while all four? Couldn't it just have been one or two? Seems as far fetched as any religious "myth".
OP, you have actually confused the issue. People who reject religion and churches have typically had a bad experience with religion and churches.
Faith and understanding of God is NOT rooted in people or churches, but in the bible. Faith is based on the gospels.
People and buildings will always fail you. But true believers can have faith on the solid rock on which they stand, a knowledge of God, the faith in his Son, and the inerrantcy of scripture.
In my journey out of Christiandom, for some reason I wanted to hang on desperately to a belief in a loving God who cared for us and had a plan for us. One that would reward us with an eternal afterlife etc etc..... It wasn't long until I abandoned that belief for simply a non-descript creator God and then no belief in a God at all.
So I have a question for those of you have have rejected religion but still maintain a belief in a loving, benevolent God. What do you base your conclusion that this God is loving and benevolent on? With all due sincerety and respect, aren't you essentialy just making things up?
If you have no dogma to learn anything about this God, and you have rejected religion, how do you know anything about this God? Again, what do you base this on?
I can understand you hanging on to the concept of a non-descript God, I have no problem with that at all actually.... but it's when you start giving this God attributes for which you have no reason to do so that puzzles me.
Okay, here's how I see it.
If you reject religion but you do believe that there is a higher power or god, you're a deist.
We know for sure that all religions, as they are described in holy scriptures, are wrong and there is tons of evidence for that. However if you're a deist and you believe there's something there, that something( a god) has created the universe but doesn't necessarily intervene in this world or isn't even here anymore, you've got a perfectly good scientific hypothesis. This kind of god is so irrelevant because it tells you nothing. No (ridiculous)teachings, no (silly)commandments no (strange and immoral)rules. This god might also be an alien or another consciousness. You might as well be an atheist. We still don't know what there was before the big bang or how life began but the evidence points towards a natural cause and not a supernatural one.
Basically, if someone claims to have an answer for something science can't (yet) explain, it's certainly made up.
All gods are made up.
All religions are made up.
OP, you have actually confused the issue. People who reject religion and churches have typically had a bad experience with religion and churches.
Faith and understanding of God is NOT rooted in people or churches, but in the bible. Faith is based on the gospels.
People and buildings will always fail you. But true believers can have faith on the solid rock on which they stand, a knowledge of God, the faith in his Son, and the inerrantcy of scripture.
OP, you have actually confused the issue. People who reject religion and churches have typically had a bad experience with religion and churches.
Faith and understanding of God is NOT rooted in people or churches, but in the bible. Faith is based on the gospels.
People and buildings will always fail you. But true believers can have faith on the solid rock on which they stand, a knowledge of God, the faith in his Son, and the inerrantcy of scripture.
Hi redvelvet,
The bible is religion(christianity).
(Religious) faith is believing without evidence. Faith is undebatable. If one has faith in the bible or god or the gospels, then there is no conversation.
The bible is largely simply made up and there's tons of evidence for that.
It's a long way from being a deist to religion and scriptures, for example christianity, islam, judaism.
Peace...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
