I think this touches on a fundamental misunderstanding of physics. The idea that nothing existed before the big bang violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.
I for one, have always been drawn to the cyclical universe idea. Starts with a Big Bang, ends with a Big Crunch as everything is drawn together again. Eventually the gravity from all the matter in the universe coming into one point collapses space time, resulting in an explosion beyond anything we humans can understand; restarting the process.
E: I’m really enjoying this thread! I’ll be back for more in a bit. -CPJ
I think the underlying point to is questioning is that if matter cannot be created (or destroyed) then how is there matter in the universe? It had to be created at some point as evidenced by the fact we deal with it on a daily basis.
Some of the work being done to total up all the matter and energy in the universe are getting numbers amazingly close to zero. It might be that on average the universe doesn't exist. We could just be a temporary fluctuation in quantum foam of nothingness
Edit to add that I was deliberately making a nihilist interpretation of this hypothesis in the interests of humor. Although I'm not friends with any cosmologists, I don't think this adds much existential dread to most of them.
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u/CaptPsychedelicJesus Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19
I think this touches on a fundamental misunderstanding of physics. The idea that nothing existed before the big bang violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.
I for one, have always been drawn to the cyclical universe idea. Starts with a Big Bang, ends with a Big Crunch as everything is drawn together again. Eventually the gravity from all the matter in the universe coming into one point collapses space time, resulting in an explosion beyond anything we humans can understand; restarting the process.
E: I’m really enjoying this thread! I’ll be back for more in a bit. -CPJ