The Beginning Paradox
Where did the universe come from? If the answer is God, where did God come from? Did he create himself with his omniscience? Was he always there? The fact that God exists is sometimes justified by saying that if he didn’t exist, then there would be no plausible reason for the world to have appeared out of nothing. Nothing comes out of nothing, and the only thing that could subvert that rule would be a magnificent omniscient being, right?
One problem to note with all these questions, which is very rarely posed, is the following: Why is it assumed that the universe did not exist before? I think that this may have something to do with the fact that ever since the beginning of language and civilisation, humans have assumed that things were created. This creation myth, once doubted by secularism, may influence the thought pattern of the doubters, making them ask themselves “Well, if there was no God, what caused the world to start existing?”, not realising that they are making the assumption that the world did “start” existing at some point, instead of having existed forever in some form of another.
It makes more sense to believe that something existed all along, whether that be God or matter in some form, and if matter already existed, it does not need to be created by a god, it just needs to follow its unknown natural course and evolve into different natures, one of which we see today.
There is something called the Laws of Thermodynamics that state that matter cannot be created. This would support the assumption that everything has always existed, and that it has only transformed into its current state. Maybe the laws were wrong at some point in time and as soon as matter appeared, the Matter Creation feature was automatically turned off for the time being. But now that’s a theory worth taking to a crazy-people permanent-hotel.
Ok, so at this point in my writing, I realised that someone smarter than me has probably written about this topic before. And voilà, I found an article written by Mr. Hawking himself. It’s called “The Origin of the Universe” and mentions literally everything I already mentioned and much more. Here’s a link to the text
Do you think the universe started or that it has always been there in some form or another, eternally mutating?
Strictly speaking, the amount of matter is not fixed. It can annihilate and give back radiation for instance. However, our standard knowledge breaks down when we approach the initial moment. In short, we don't understand what is going on. What we understand is that most implications of the model seem to be well explained by data.
By the way, there are alternative cosmologies. In some of them, in contrast to the standard model (the big bang model), there is no beginning and end. You may one to check Penrose's conformal cyclic cosmological model for instance.
This is an interesting question but probably can never be answered by humans. We'll probably extinguish first or it's simply unfalsifiable. For that reason some people think it's pointless to worry about it. Nice post!
This is an interesting question but probably can never be answered by humans. We'll probably extinguish first or it's simply unfalsifiable. For that reason some people think it's pointless to worry about it. Nice post!
That was a very informative text. Made for a great read. And also Time is already weird. When the universe is small is the time scale already so ridiculous that it's hard to compare? What does it mean "begin?" Hum.
Actually, this is the entire problem: at the beginning, space time starts to exist. Therefore, there is no way to define time at t=0 (and before).
:) I'm glad it can be considered informative haha, I thought it could also be seen as a little pointless depending on whether you had already thought about the topic or not.
Since the Theory of Relativity was described by Einstein, time hasn't been considered something separate from the universe but another plane, like you can move forward, backward, upward and somewhere along the timeline (like W X Y and Z axes instead of just three). I saw a virtual representation of it some time ago and it was pretty cool. They also said that there are probably other dimensions but we just can't perceive them right now, only theorise about them.
But yeah, the "universe" as we know it is probably just a speck, a tiny state which we analyse as if it were the totality of what exists.
Beginning hmm, I would say that it's just a perception of movement from one point to another? It's a very human concept. For example, where does the Earth begin? Where does a circle, a square, a triangle or even a line begin? It all depends on contextual details when we ask the question.
The universe is there just in my mind. You are, too. Which makes me a solipsist :D
But I can't see your mind, only mine, so I think I'm the real solipsist. You're just an idea~~ floating about in my imagination.
If you can't see my mind, you need to float deeper, we are all one in a big floaty mindspace ;-)
Flooooat. I want to float myself into eternal bliss, like cotton candy (in Spanish we call it "algodón de azucar", so it would be sugar cotton, also similar to a cloud made of sugar).
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I think the universe always have existed almost as absurd as it being created. However, I lean towards the former, heavily. I think many people believe the universe, world etc was created, because they are told so. It is the dominant belief across cultures and faiths. Why? Well I think it is because early humanity saw many things born and perish in ones lifetime. Plants, animals are born then die, rivers emerge, then can dry up, storms come and go. So when they looked at seemingly unchanging things around them, mountains, canyons, the stars, they made the assumption that those things and the rest they could see must have had a beginning. But really, much evidence leans toward it being a, cycle of matter energy exchange that has no beginning and no end.
I should probably read Hawkings book. My thoughts are not original either I am sure.