Why do you believe in the Big Bang?

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
but rather, much different standards for evidence.

You could never have stated this more perfectly.

It's almost as if God inspired you! Do you have an hebraic version of your post lying on a parchment?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Ask yourself these two questions. First, what forms of evidence are rendered admissible in the realm of science? Secondly, what forms of evidence are rendered admissible in the realm of theology? The answers to these questions are very very different. This

Thus sayeth someone who urgently needs to watch the 'South Park' episode dealing with the revealed 'truth' of Mormonism.

'Twas very funny indeed.

Oh, I know the Big Bang is the truth because Stephen Hawking inscribed it on tablets of porphyry and sent it to me in a dream.

Also, Einstein came down in a blazing Citroen Dyane three days' later and confirmed it, and he had with him a host of well known people in white coats with test tubes and clipboards, so it must be true.

I will reveal all after spending twenty days in the Simpson Desert.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh


These could all very well be explained by an oscillating universe. Most of these in fact are not consequences of the Big Bang at all - they are consequences of an expanding, cooling universe.

Of course there is the `big problem' that recent observations now show that distant galaxies are accelerating away from us

Yep I read that as well. Makes previous theories pretty much stand on their head.

[Kuciwalker]

Ask yourself these two questions. First, what forms of evidence are rendered admissible in the realm of science? Secondly, what forms of evidence are rendered admissible in the realm of theology? The answers to these questions are very very different. This is why most religious folks are less 'open' not because of closed mindedness, but rather, much different standards for evidence.

Science requires empirical evidence, whereas theology requires NO evidence, only "faith".

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
Star Trek even had him playing chess with Einstein -- pleeeease!

I dunno, he did come up with some interesting bits, such as the Quantum Evapouration of Black Holes.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
This is why most religious folks are less 'open' not because of closed mindedness, but rather, much different standards for evidence.

Indeed. The standard becomes whether the evidence is supportive of dogma, not whether it can be verified.

[Dis]

I don't. read the Januarary Discvoer magazine article. It discusses a collision with a parallel universe as the cause of the "big bang". And this cycle can repeat itself.

[Urban Ranger]

Are you talking about the collision of two higher dimensional "membranes," also known as M theory IIRC?

[Dis]

yes I've heard them referred to as membranes as well.

[Solly]

Vesayen: "but everything we know about the universe points to cause = effect"

The Andy-Man: "I see, maybe there was no cause, and consequently no effect and we just percieve things wrong"

This comes to the crux of it. Although we think cause and effect is the way this universe runs, it's quite possible it's more complex. Science tends to ignore that which it can't fathom, and behaviour which appears not to have a cause has previously been ignored. Perhaps..

I personally don't believe in absolute causality. I think we live in a highly causal universe, but not a deterministic one.

[Gibsie]

Originally posted by Stuie
I don't "believe" in it (that is, I do not blindly accept that it is the truth), but I do accept it as the most plausible theory available for a start point for our universe as we know it.

this

[Dauphin]

Re: Why do you believe in the Big Bang?

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
It seems to me that a huge proportion of our society and indeed people who post here have an unswerving belief in the Big Bang.

I am no creationist (in the fundie sense), but I certainly don't see the evidence for the Big Bang that a lot of you seem to see, so could you please explain to me why you believe in it?

I am genuinely curious because the same people also seem to put a lot of store in scepticism of religion and discredit the idea of faith. So they presumably don't just 'have faith' that it happened, or indeed just have faith in the discovery channel, but havesolid scientific grounds for their stance.

Have you solved all the problems associated with Big Bang models too? Do you even know what they are?

I don't know about the questioning the Big Bang I think there is more than enough 'hard' evidence that it is the source of all observable effects in existance. i.e Whether the universe is oscillating or not is irrelevent as the two scenarios are indistinguishable as all information is lost from one cycle to the next.
I'd rather question specifics about the Big Bang, I don't like the bit about rampant inflation explaining isotropy for example. It just doesn't feel right to me. And I want a better excuse for Omega equalling exactly 1, we don't know that it does but I think it will turn out to be so - to be flat is aesthetic in my mind, but I want an equally aesthetic pre-cursor to explain it.

[Solly]

What is Omega?

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Park Avenue ie, how it treats consciousness as an irrelevant phenomenon

OH NO IT DOESN'T!

(come on, it's like panto!)

[Solly]