Creation & EvolutionForum for the discussion of this important topic. This forum is open to non-believers. There is a Christians-only forum in the Christians-only section too.
The question "Why is there a universe?" is also known as First Cause. It also comes from tracing back the chain of cause and effect. Eventually there HAS to be an Uncaused Cause that started the chain.
Right now there are at least 5 possible candidates for First Cause to get the universe. They are, in no particular order:
1. Logical and mathematical necessity. The equations and laws of the universe are so compelling that they forced the formation of a universe for them to describe.
2. Deity. A God or Gods created the universe.
3. Quantum fluctuation. Events at the quantum level are uncaused. The universe is a huge quantum event.
4. No Boundary. This is a proposal by Stephen Hawking and updated with Turok. If all the dimensions of the universe were the same shortly after the Big Bang, you get a universe that doesn't have a beginning and therefore was never "created". It just IS.
5. Ekpyrotic. This is a variation of #3. The universe is the result of a random collision between two quantum membranes in 11 dimensions.
It is a classic case of multiple competing hypotheses with insufficient data to choose between them. None have been falsified, so all are still on the table as far as science is concerned.
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I don't know if this thread was thought as a re-hash or enticement to discussion... so I'll just boldly assume the latter and throw in my 2c...
I strongly tend towards the view that our universe is just one in an infinite number of others and simply had to happen as a result of the simple premise, that in an infinite number, anything is possible (and therefore *must* happen somewhere). This is just a belief - I do not possess the mathematical knowledge to even back this up with a single equation.
I guess that in such border cases, mathematics and philosophy become nearly indistinguishable to the layman anyway...
I don't know if this thread was thought as a re-hash or enticement to discussion... so I'll just boldly assume the latter and throw in my 2c...
I strongly tend towards the view that our universe is just one in an infinite number of others and simply had to happen as a result of the simple premise, that in an infinite number, anything is possible (and therefore *must* happen somewhere). This is just a belief - I do not possess the mathematical knowledge to even back this up with a single equation.
I guess that in such border cases, mathematics and philosophy become nearly indistinguishable to the layman anyway...
As you say, it's your belief. What you are discussing is not First Cause but a way around the Strong Anthropic Principle. If you have an infinite number of universes and they vary in their parameters, then yes, ONE of them will have the parameters in this one so that we can exist to observe them.
However, First Cause doesn't tell you how you get that infinite # of universes. Are they "bubbles" of one universe, quantum splitting of one universe, multiple repititions of ekpyrotic?
1. Logical and mathematical necessity. The equations and laws of the universe are so compelling that they forced the formation of a universe for them to describe.
I have never liked this one. It seems to put the cart infront of the horse.
2. Deity. A God or Gods created the universe.
My choice, in conjunction with one of these others.
3. Quantum fluctuation. Events at the quantum level are uncaused. The universe is a huge quantum event.
A possiblility.
4. No Boundary. This is a proposal by Stephen Hawking and updated with Turok. If all the dimensions of the universe were the same shortly after the Big Bang, you get a universe that doesn't have a beginning and therefore was never "created". It just IS.
This one is interesting. I'll have to look further into it.
5. Ekpyrotic. This is a variation of #3. The universe is the result of a random collision between two quantum membranes in 11 dimensions.
This does a nice job of explaining some observations, but it seems to open new questions: From where did the membranes and dimensions come?
It is a classic case of multiple competing hypotheses with insufficient data to choose between them. None have been falsified, so all are still on the table as far as science is concerned.
So is the possibility that the whole thing is a figment of my imagination.
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It may not be one or another, but a combination of several.
Maybe, God defined the mathematical and logical necessity, thereby giving rise to 2 quantum membranes that we Christians know as the Father and Holy Spirit, which produce, through first level quantum fluctuations, a third quantum membrane, known to Christians as the Son, that produces, through second level quantum fluctuations, the quantum fluctuations necessary for the creation of multiple dimensions, the result of which is the Big Bang, an expansion from within, at all levels and dimensions simultaneously, that, through third level quantum fluctuations produce the matter of the universe.
Of course, I did hit my head pretty hard as a child, so I could always be in a coma and this could all be figments of my imagination. Hard to tell sometimes where reality leaves off and imagination begins. Or is it where the imagination leaves off and reality begins?
But then, nothing has been invented or learned except through the imagination, beginning with the most comprehensive imagination, that of God.
We are all figments of God's imagination, given substance;-)
The Trinity is Quantum branes? Then youve reduced God to a funamental Constant, which would make no sense in the context of his interaction with humans. but I dont know , maybe your right. who knows
Maybe the uiverse is a Gigantic fractal pattern , at least thats what the psilocybin told me once, then it told me I could fly if I flapped my arms hard enough. I wish I could understand superstring math.
Don't we see the fractal nature of the universe in things like plants? And Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us, and that also could be implying a fractal nature.
"The Trinity is Quantum branes? Then youve reduced God to a funamental Constant, which would make no sense in the context of his interaction with humans. but I dont know , maybe your right. who knows"
I have not reduced God to a constant, but maybe God did so to produce Life. And it is said that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that implies a fundamentaly constant God, doesn't it?
And do not forget James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
"no variableness", as in constant, unwavering, predictable.
This is how the Lord has shown it to me. And I have been trying for some time to explain it in different ways. So, if the Lord actually has shown it to me, then I am correct, and if it came from my own imagination, I may be wrong. Lord knows...
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