What was there before?

What was there before?

Hi

I have always thought that the universe was created by a "big bang" and have taken this for granted. I have read many many books on the subject and other related topics but lying in the bath the other day i suddenly thought did it rearly happen like that or have i just been brainwashed because of the times i am getting brought up in (im 22), Just like people have been brainwashed with different theories since we became inteligent.

I know there is a lot of evidence to say there was a big bang but what was there before. I dont believe there could be nothing like most of the books say. I think if there was a big bang then there must have been universes before ours, which have collapsed and then "big banged" again.

So there would have been multiple consecutive universes all using the same matter from the previous ones.

This also means that the universe that we are living in today will one day collapse back down to the tiniest of atoms and then (in my opinion anyway) imediately start expanding again to form a new universe.

Does anybody agree with me and if not could you please give your explanations about what was there before and what you think happened.

For all we know this universe could have been here forever. No universes before and no universes to come, just this one. Maybe we are so hung up on trying to fathom out our existence we create these theories and experiments and then make the results fit just so we think we know whats going on. Again, like people have done for years with religion and everything else (no offence, just an example)

Id love to hear your views on any of this as there is only me and my brother who talk about this, we spend hours talking about things like this and id like to hear other peoples views. No other friends or family have got the brain cells to even contemplate it lol

Anyway thanks for reading

 

with the distinction between creation and evolution. Creation was a one time event, the first effect of the uncaused cause, which some call God. Evolution, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that could begin only after creation was finished. Before something can evolve, there must already be something….

 

Thanks for your reply but i rearly dont want to make this into a religion thing.

I just want to talk about the scientific points of view.

You do have some good points though

 

I'm agnostic. We are all made up of the smallest atoms called "stardust". It is plausible that we were created by a big bang, but there again what created that big bang in the first place. And what made up the objects that created the big bang.

Talking about the beginning of live is like talking about god. It is simply a dogma.

 

Thats it. We will probably never know but it doesnt stop me thinking about it all, a lot.

Even if humans are still here in another million years we probably wont no any better but maybe have a few new thories with no proof.

 

Well, we basicly don't know a lot. We live in an age where we believe in modern science. If you look back in history, you will see that the "conventional wisdoms" usually becomes obsolete when time passes. For all I know our age might be ridiculed for our dependancy on modern science, in a few era's time.

We all live in our own subjective world. My beliefs of the most simplest of things, like "water", might not correspond with yours. We tend to think that we are all seeing the same world, same things, as all other human beings but in fact we are just living in our own beliefs. For example: a bee can see ultraviolet light.

Take these two pictures to see the difference:
Our world:
"Their" world:

 

I'm with you delrivo, I believe that has happened and will happen again. My theory is as the universe ages the existing black holes will become stronger and stronger as they pull in more mass (like our galaxy spiraling into a big black hole right now). Once all the close material gets sucked into black holes, the super gravity of the black holes will start to suck in other black holes, until there is only one black hole left. The material will continue to contract under it's own gravity until it can't take it anymore and the big bang happens again. Over and over and perhaps it's happened zillions of times already.

 

Lewny - Totaly see what you mean. I have asked myself this question a number of times.

If i look at an banana its yellow. Its yellow to me, to you, to everyone around. But whos to say we are all not seeing different colours but we all recognise it in our own little way as being yellow. Good post.

mdvaldosta - Another great post. I made almost exactly the same post to another reply in another forum. Maybe theres one colosal black hole that is sucking in everything, including other blackholes and getting stronger and stronger until it contains the whole mass of the universe where it will just "explode" again releasing "fresh" matter

Keep them coming guys

 

Maybe the huge hole is actually the left ventrical in the heart of some creature that has space running through it's veins. And we are just particles floating through the stream. I wonder if red blood cells wonder where they came from...

 

Well that is just plain silly, my creature theory will soon be proven.

 

These are the very questions that kept me from sleeping at night through most of school (age: 12-18).

I have never thought the ideas of god and organized religions were very plausible or believable - which turned me to science and evolution. The big bang sounds fine and peachy - except how it all started.

Our brain simply cannot fathom things like how it actually started or if it will ever end. I mean just try to think for a second if "time" had a beginning and an ending?

I would lay awake at night puzzled by the universe, wishing I could believe in the simplicity of a god and forget it all - but I just couldn't. To this day it still bothers me but at least now I get more than 4-5 hours of sleep

 

I feel the same way. The concept of God is very difficult for me to grasp because for one thing, I distrust things more powerful than myself and the concept of god is not scientific, because it can't be disproven.

I also have a problem with the benevolence many people associate with God. If God is indeed benevolent, why create a universe that appears to have a dual nature of light and darkness, good and evil?

If evil and good are supposed to always coexist, then there will always be suffering, and I can't call someone benevolent who creates a universe like that.

I think it is impossible for time to have a beginning or end. It is too complicated to be linear.

I take that to mean you believe the universe has gone through a cycle where it expands and then contracts?

I believe this is possible, but then one has to wonder how many times has that process taken place, and how many other civilizations have existed whose record we can never find?

Another question is would it be possible for even a civilization say, that is millions of years old to escape a contracting universe to travel to another one via a wormhole?

 

delrivo you may find this short article by the theoretical physicist and science writer Paul Davies answers your question.

On the other hand you may find that doesn't

Anyway I hope you enjoy it...

- Michael

 

Good Reads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe

I hate to look like a link spammer but they're all very insteresting!

 

(theory of course)

The world, he claimed, was made "not in time, but simultaneously with time." In other words, the origin of the universe-what we now call the big bang-was not simply the sudden appearance of matter in an eternally preexisting void, but the coming into being of time itself. Time began with the cosmic origin. There was no "before," no endless ocean of time for a god, or a physical process, to wear itself out in infinite preparation.

 

Alternative theories and alternatives points of view. Having the intellectual ability to have them and ponder on the great questions of life are what make us human. Once upon a time the world was flat. Those who said otherwise were beheaded or burned at the stake.

When I was 22 the most burning thought in my mind was whether Joe Bananas closed at 5 or 6 in the morning. Good on you for exploring these ideas now, though I doubt you will find an answer thet satisfies you on DP.

Read everything you can lay your hands on from the bible,to Fingerprints of the Gods, to scientific theses and Bill Bryson's´potted summary of the origins of the universe.

It is kind of like Google - lots of theories but no concrete explanations. May the wind speed you on your on your search for the truth.

 

LOL

You hit the nail on the head there e10.

Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything

That is the book that has fully messed my head up. I have always been interested in this but after reading that i read a lot more until i was that confused i didnt know what to think.

After talking about it with say, my brother, i get real wound up and agitated cos i cant understand. how could i understand.

A big part of me wishes i never read that book as i would be getting on with my life happily but other parts of me are glad i did and opened my eyes.

Matrix hey, once your in there theres no going back.

I spend far too much time thinking about it and trying to fathom it out in my own little way.

Truth is no matter how much i read, talk or think about it i will never be any more clear in my head.

BILL BRYSON -You have got a lot to answer for