Does God exist?

[IdleBoast]

Those who believe in a god often present the Big Bang as "something from nothing".

It wasn't. The energy that comprises the Universe did not come into existence at the BB. It already existed before* BB in the form of the primordial Singularity, but during BB the infinitely-dense and infinitely-energetic Singularity expanded and cooled, so that the pre-existing energy cooled and condensed to form matter.

So, BB was not actually a beginning, it was just a phase-change.  It is perfectly accurate, within the limits of human language, to state that the Universe has always existed, just not always in the form we currently experience.


^{*Before is a clumsy term when the dimension we experience as Time did not actually exist until the Singularity had expended enough for dimensions to exist at all. It is hard to discuss something happening during a period when the words "before" and "during" could have no meaning.}

The 986 *Billion* Year Old "Big Bang" Is Merely The Most Recent Of Many

Interesting, but I take issue with a couple of things;

They shouldn't be using the term "theory" - it's a hypothesis.

Big Bang wasn't an explosion, it was an expansion (important distinction)

The anthropic principle is generally dismissed by physicists, but Vilenkin's version of the idea is even less valid.

Turok & Steinhardt (the paper's authors) have a track record of proposing ideas to do away with the generally-accepted model of the origin of the Universe, mainly different versions of cyclic collisions with universe in different sets of dimensions, falling in and out of love with inflation theory and the multiverse concept.  They've been publishing these ideas for 10-15 years that I'm aware of, but not really garnering as much acceptance as the media coverage may imply.

[_priapism]

No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning

"The Big Bang singularity is the most serious problem of general relativity because the laws of physics appear to break down there," Ahmed Farag Ali at Benha University and the Zewail City of Science and Technology, both in Egypt, told Phys.org.

Ali and coauthor Saurya Das at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, have shown in a paper published in Physics Letters B that the Big Bang singularity can be resolved by their new model in which the universe has no beginning and no end.

[IdleBoast]

Oh, that's new to me.  Interesting, but I can't see where they reconcile an eternal Universe with the observed accelerating expansion.

I had a look at the original paper ( https://arxiv.org/pdf/1404.3093v3.pdf ) but it completely plaited my brain...

[_priapism]

Oh, that's new to me.  Interesting, but I can't see where they reconcile an eternal Universe with the observed accelerating expansion.

I had a look at the original paper ( https://arxiv.org/pdf/1404.3093v3.pdf ) but it completely plaited my brain...

986 billion years is an incomprehensible amount of time, to begin with.  Second, there is no way in hell that some goatherder's imaginary god set out universal truths 6,000 years ago, that apply to the time space continuum, which includes millions and billions of planets capable of supporting life.  Finally, if there is a god, who observes a universe at least 46.6 billion light years across, she doesn't care if you get tickets to Hamilton or not.  Quit acting like an ass.

[Katiebee]

We are a bit grouchy today, aren't we?

[Lois]

They may have gotten it right for all the wrong reasons. Just because something is incomprehensible to our tiny brains does not mean a god is behind it.

[_priapism]

We are a bit grouchy today, aren't we?

Actually, not grouchy at all.  Sarcastic maybe.  It's been a great day actually.  Except for the run on the gas pumps...

[xotram]

True enough, though I figure that if there is an omnipotent being (god?) he really does not care about us, otherwise things might be a little bit different on earth.
Now religion is another thing all together, its a manmade concept to wield power over others...
my 2 cents on the topic 

We are a bit grouchy today, aren't we?

Actually, not grouchy at all.  Sarcastic maybe.  It's been a great day actually.  Except for the run on the gas pumps...

[Katiebee]

A proof that people are gullible and stupid, the run on gas.

[_priapism]

A proof that people are gullible and stupid, the run on gas.

We have a 230 million barrel gasoline reserve.  Enough to supply the entire country for 75 days.  Pisses me off, because I'm low, and I really wanted to go see the Longhorns play on Saturday.

[_priapism]

We "pray for the victims" and "send our thoughts and prayers" on a constant repetitive cycle.  Which begs the question Why not pray for no more hurricanes? If your loving god is so all powerful, why not pray that hurricanes, tornadoes, school shootings, cancer, and genital herpes just cease to exist?  Seems a lot cleaner that providing temporary shelter for 100,000 people, or flying in McDonald's for 400 volunteers.

The reason is science.  And the fact that God's actions pretty much mimick random chaos.  Even Jesus noted that rain falls equally on good and evil men.

So when Joel Osteen points to his 70,000 sq. ft. mansion as proof that God approves of him, I point to the stone that Jesus used as a pillow as proof it merely means he is one lucky bastard.

End of Sunday rant.

[Athos_131]

#Resist

[Elizabeth]

On 9-11-2001 He Didn't.........

 

Love,
Liz

[_priapism]

On 9-11-2001 He Didn't.........

 

Love,
Liz

9/11, kids with cancer, plane crashes, tornadoes.  Let's face it, the empiricle evidence of an all loving and protective god isn't there.  Folks tend to attribute good fortune to divine providence, and bad fortune to "mysterious ways."  Isn't that the same thing as saying "Shit happens?"

[Frank Taillefer]

"Does God exist?"

Who cares?

I am an Apatheist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism

An apatheist may not have any interest in the god debate just purely because of their lack of interest on the topic.

An apatheist would argue that if a deity or deities truly wanted people to believe in them, then said deity or deities could demonstrate their existence with miracles, and explain their plan(s) for humanity or the lack thereof.

This apatheistic argument states that morals do not come from god and that if a god exists there would be no changes with regards to morality, therefore a god's existence or non-existence is irrelevant.

I was born and raised as a Catholic,
until I was about 10 years old and completely stopped believing in anything (no religion and that includes evolution theory).

I simply don't care.

If we would find real proof that a God exist, would that change me?
No it wouldn't.

I live my life as I see fit.
Regardless what the outcome might be.

In some ways I do live "religious".
I try to do good, I try to be honest, I try to respect others, but not because some book tells me too, but because I feel that this is a normal thing to do.

I don't reject religion at all.
If you want to believe... fine... knock yourself out.

But leave me out of it.
That includes people who force their religion upon us, by making stupid laws.

Take religion out of law.

Let people decide for themselves if they want to be gay/lesbian/bi,
Let people decide for themselves if they want an abortion,
and let them decide for themselves if they want to end their lives because they are terminal ill.

It might come as a shock to the fanatics,
but you know what... we are people...
we can deal with this... we can make our own decisions.

[_priapism]

Some people are just hard wired to believe in a higher power.  It's not a mental weakness, I suppose.  It only becomes a problem when they try to impose their fantasies on the rest of us.

Interestingly, a majority of so-called holy books do not impose such a course of action on its adherents ("Judge not, lest you be judged."), but that is just a manifestation of another ugly human trait.

[Lois]

No matter what you think of Al Sharpton, he makes the best argument for a higher power I've ever heard.

[wayne3218]

He spoke to me last night and said go forth and multiply

[psiberzerker]

I'm not in any hurry to find out.

;

[Lois]

I'm a unitarian/universalist atheist.  I think heaven and hell are what me make of our lives here on earth.  A humanist if you will.