What do you think Created the Universe?

Question

How did it begin? Why and how did it come to be? Why is there anything at all?

Answer 1

Saying it was god does not solve your problem, as you still have to answer 'where did god come from?'  You still have 'something coming from nothing' only now that something is god instead of the universe.

If you want to say god has always been, then you can just as easily say the universe has always been.  God is not an answer, it's a cop out where people say it and pretend they've given an answer, but they still haven't explained anything.

I welcome the god answer if you can find a way for it to actually explain something.  But just saying it was god does not explain anything, and you're still riddled with the same problem of where did god come from.  Occams razor tells us not to introduce unnecessary complications if they don't explain anything new.

You might be interested to learn about quantum fluctuations, which are real, observed instances of 'something coming from nothing', particles actually spontaneously pop into existence.  So there is no need for you to doubt that possibility because we know it can happen.  However, this is not part of the big bang theory, it's a hypothesis for what started the big bang and currently untestable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_flu...

And yes, the bible claims the world is flat.  For one example, Isaiah 11:12 states that god will gather up the people of Judea "from the four corners of the earth."  The bible is stating that the earth is a flat square with corners.  

In Daniel 4:10-11: Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.

The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:

The only way it's possible for a tree to be seen from everywhere on earth is if the earth was flat.

And there's the passage where Jesus was led on a mountain where he could see all the nations of the earth, and tempted.  This again is only possible if the earth is flat.

There are even christian societies to this day that claim the world is flat because it says so in the bible, such as the Flat Earth Society - http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonsk...

Answer 2

God

Or are we playing the

"Say Anything But God" game again?

Answer 3

Look up "Casimir plates" on Google. It's an experiment that confirmed that constantly in the world around us, particles come into existance spontaneously. A particle and anti-particle, borrow energy out of the vacuum, travel a short distance, then merge together and vanish, repaying the energy debt. This is proven science fact - something coming literally out of nothing.

If that goes on all the time, it's a small step to imagine it happening at the beginning.

Edit: My point is that the idea that "something cannot come from nothing" is entirely Earth-based, rooted in our daily lives. The Universe is not constrained to do what we expect. Relativity and Quantum Mechanics go against our everyday experience, but they describe a truth that's bigger than what we see around us. The Casimir plate experiment proves that it's indeed possible to create particles out of nothing. A particle arising out of nothing whatsoever, with nothing 'before' it, becomes a very plausible phenomenon.

Answer 4

God- I know for sure

Answer 5

God and that's a fact.

Answer 6

GOD

Answer 7

We're not sure yet.  Since that happened before the universe existed, and we can't see outside our universe, if it never happens again we might never know for sure.  

Answer 8

The scientific explanation for the creation of the universe would be the big bang. The religious explanation would be God.

Answer 9

Brooke, I believe the universe was created by the entity I choose 2 call God. And I believe this creative force is still with us 2day!

Timothy

:o)

Answer 10

You have no basis to claim that the Big Bang "is still something that was formed from something else." The BB does not discuss times earlier than about 10^-35 seconds.

Furthermore, the person to whom you responded gave you two possibilities: the Big Bang and God. You only criticized the BB as "being formed from something else" and requiring deeper inquiry, when in fact "God" has exactly the same problem, and many more. You have just demonstrated how the "God" non-explanation is used by religionists to cut off scientific inquiry, because to them, "God did it" is the final answer that requires no inquiry. If it were up to them, we would never have inquired into whether the world was round and the center of the universe. This is special pleading for your god and fails the test of logic.

Answer 11

A beginning is not necessary.  Perhaps it always existed.

Though the appeal of a beginning to creatures that have definite beginnings and endings is understandable.

Answer 12

If I give you an answer "X", you can then ask "where did X come from?"

So in our present state of knowledge, I don't see how we can get any further.

Answer 13

Let's be clear here.  The Big Bang theory does NOT state that all matter was created in an instant, although many people misrepresent it that way.  All it says is that all matter, energy, and space were condensed into an unimaginably dense, unimaginably hot point some 13 or so billion years ago, and that space, matter, and energy expanded rapidly from that point into the Universe we have today.  Yes, yes, I'm vastly oversimplifying.

The Big Bang theory does NOT provide an explanation for where the matter itself comes from.  There are hypotheses regarding the origin of stuff, but no evidence.  In fact, since the Big Bang would have obliterated any evidence of the cause that started it, we probably won't EVER find direct evidence.

So when you call for somebody to explain what caused the Big Bang, you're asking one of the deepest and most challenging questions currently facing mankind.  The short answer is: we don't know.  We may never know.  I won't even address the problems associated with throwing up our hands and saying "God must have done it!" because others have already done so.

>"The only conclusion I can come up with is Genesis"

This is not a valid argument.  It is an argument from personal incredulity, also known as an argument from ignorance.  Just because Genesis is the only explanation that makes sense to YOU doesn't mean it is the right answer.  Remember that the early universe was a VERY different place from the one we have today, so whatever created it isn't likely to fit neatly into anything we can easily imagine.

I hope that helps.  Good luck!

Answer 14

The simple answer is "we don't know.", and the complex answer is "science can never know, because science cannot answer any questions about events or phenomena occurring "before" or "outside" our universe."

The argument you are using is called the "Cosmological Argument" for the existence of God - also known as the "Uncaused Cause" argument. It states that everything has a cause, therefore something must have caused the universe. That something was God; he is the *first* thing, that was not created. He is the "uncaused cause".

It sounds impressive, but is it bunk, sadly. There are several reasons why this is the case:

[1] if you say "God was first", then you are actually just drawing an arbitrary line in the sand. You could just as easily stop with His creator, or His creator's creator, or ... and so on. And since we're being arbitrary, you can just as easily start with our universe, and say *it* was the first thing.

And since we have direct evidence for the universe, and none for God, the principle of parsimony (the Occam's Razor mentioned by another answerer) requires that we *must* assume the answer we have direct evidence for. No need for a Creator.

[2] the law that states "everything requires a cause" (the Law of Causality) is a law of our universe, and therefore need not apply "before" or "outside" our universe. So there is absolutely no reason to suppose that our universe *needs* a creator.

[3] as other answerers have pointed out - the law of Causality doesn't even really apply in our universe: on a subatomic level, things *do* just happen without a cause. Since the singularity that was the "seed" of the Big Bang was a subatomic phenomenon (a point of zero volume), it could still have "just happened", even if the laws of our universe do apply outside/before it.