http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/march/physics-cosmic-inflation-031714.html [video=youtube;ZlfIVEy_YOA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZlfIVEy_YOA[/video]
Here's a link to the NASA article: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/news/birth-of-the-universe20140317/index.html#.UyjcE6hdXW8
I read about this the other day. But the article I read said that scientists were about to announce they detected the gravity waves. It was speculation, but they knew an announcement was coming.
I want to see if I have this right: Because of cosmic inflation, sub-atomic swirls of gravitons are now writ large on the surface of the cosmos, so large they would look larger than the moon if they were visible. ...that is the coolest damn thing.
So about the godless origins issue: How can something that is eternal and infinite change at a finite point in "time" without there being a transcendent force beyond it? Specially referring to the universe "beginning" 13.7 billion years ago? I simply can't wrap my mind around the absurdity of this. The properties of the universe are operating on a finite timescale therefore it logically concludes that something must transcend it.
And a superhero that is telepathic, can raise the dead, and create and destroy anything is less absurd? Oh and some people wrote about this superhero in their giant Fanfict 2000 years ago, but he has yet to make another appearance, unless you believe the Mormons. Because you know, what good is data that is 99.999% accurate?
To me, any scientific theory is more plausible than a Divine Being creating the universe and focusing on humanity. Did you expect to know all about the creation of the universe by reading the bible, a 3500-year old book that was created when we had extremely limited technology and ability to see beyond our sky?
The concept that time began with the big bang so there wasn't any "before" (because there was no time at all) is a tough one to grasp.
If you're referring to my question, I don't think you understood my point. How can something that is eternal (timeless and changeless) undergo a change at a finite point without there being a personal transcendent force beyond it? 13.7 billion years is a very specific number. The universe is operating as if it hasn't always existed and won't always exist. Stars will burn out, supernova, etc.
How can something that is impersonal and eternal undergo a change? (And no, I don't believe God changes, but I do believe He is a personal being with a will to create, such as bringing the universe into existence)
"Eternal" implies "time" which did not exist until the big bang. There is not an "eternal" universe but one that is roughly 13.8B years old. There was no 13.8000000001B years ago, because time did not exist.
"Eternal time" is an oxymoron. Something must have always existed in some form or another, or do you want to argue that as well?
You can't have "time" before "time" existed. So there was nothing that existed in some form or another somehow "before" since "before" is an impossibility.
So basically you are just making a play on words here: Did everything come from nothing, or did something always exist? Period.
Also I never used the term "before". I understand what you're trying to do, but it's not answering the question.
