I find it fascinating to begin to engage with the fundamental mysteries of the universe – such as how something came from nothing.
There are three basic possibilities:
a. All matter and energy came from nothing in the Big Bang – creating a universe of matter and antimatter in an instant.
b. God (a supernatural being) made the universe from nothing.
c. Matter and energy was always there.
It seems to me that all three propositions are almost equally impossible to comprehend.
Proposition A
Now proposition A is impossible. We have nothing and suddenly matter is formed spontaneously. There is a Big Bang and all the matter, energy, antimatter and antienergy(?) is formed in an instant and we have our universe.
Doesn’t make sense to me.
Proposition B
Proposition B is even more absurd. In order to explain the impossibility of proposition A we invent a supernatural being who makes the universe out of nothing. This solves nothing for me. All it is doing is kicking the can down the road.
- Firstly you are still left with all the matter and energy in the universe being created from nothing
- Secondly we have invented an even more complex being who has immense powers to do such a thing so is more complex than the universe itself
- Thirdly there is no attempt to explain where this being was before the universe was created so we have to invent a further, even more complex, universe in which the being resides (heaven, paradise, valhalla, whatever).
- Fourthly there is no explanation of how this supernatural being came into being in the first place – which is even more problematical and fantastical than a universe spontaneously springing into life out of nothing.
- Fifthly – it smacks of human thinking when faced with proposition A. We have a need to solve problems. God is our creation.
Proposition C
The universe was always here. It keeps expanding and contracting. Possibly there have been an infinite number of singularities and an infinite number of Big Bangs. It never began and it will never end.
Well that doesn’t make sense to human minds either. How can things have always been here? How can they never end?
It is looking as if the expansion of the universe will continue and it will eventually break down to hydrogen and heat through its own entropy and die. So the cycles of expansion and contraction are not a possibility.
Well, that’s it as far as I can see. You pays your money and you takes your choice. I think all three are beyond imagination. What do you think?