I have a question about the Big Bang?

Question

The Law of Conservation of Mass says that matter can be neither created nor destroyed. (This is also true for energy) The Big Bang theory suggests that at the beginning of time (and the universe) a single atom appeared from nowhere. My questions are: How did the atom just "appear?" How do we know that this atom wasn't created by some higher power (deity). Note:I'm trying to understand the Big Bang better, so no negative comments, please.

Answer 1

God felt extra creative that day.

Answer 2

Beyond has probably the closest to the right answer; most of the others are only partially correct or dead wrong. The short answer is that at the instant before the big bang, the laws of physics did not exist. Think of it this way: assume that there is a law of physics that maximum speed a car can go is 200 mph. Well, in the year 1500, that law essentially didn't exist, because cars didn't exist. If you told someone "cars can only go 200 mph," it wouldn't mean anything. Similarly, the instant before the big bang, "matter" as we think of it today didn't exist (note: it is wrong to say that everything was hydrogen and helium atoms! Before the big bang, there WERE no atoms). A way to envision it (even though you basically can't) is to imagine the entire universe scrunched up into a tiny, tiny ball -- so tiny that all atoms collapse into an indescribable state.

The big bang itself essentially creates all of the laws of physics. Basically, right after Planck time, atoms get created and the things that we (think we) know about the universe become true.

Answer 3

First of all, you're wrong in stating that the Big Bang Theory suggests that all matter in the universe came from nowhere. The theory itself has nothing to do with what happened BEFORE the existence of matter; all it explains is why things are as they are now--why the universe is in its state of expansion--why the universe as a whole is decreasing in temperature, etc. What happened to have all matter, space, and time exist is beyond human comprehension, and the laws of physics as we know them today.

And, no, we don't know that the atom wasn't created by some higher power. How do you figure that when human beings have yet to explain how it was created WITHOUT explanation of it being from a higher power, i.e., God? Just because you're a nonbeliever doesn't mean things aren't as you DO believe.

Answer 4

"Before creation , there existed a hell for those who raised such questions".
- Saint Augustine
I think nobody knows. I was just reading The Big Bang by Joseph Silk, Head of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. This is an excerpt from the book: "the observed universe originated as a quantum fluctuation out of nothing and came into existence at the Plank instant." "At this time, 10 to minus 43 seconds after the initial singularity the density of matter approaches 10 to 93 grams per cubic centimeter and the temperature is 10 to 32 kelvins".
Nobody knows how or why the singularity came to exist in the first place BUT all astrophysical evidence points to the thermonuclear detonation of the Universe, the Big Bang, as the moment of creation.

Answer 5

We have no idea what was before the big bang, at least I have read nothing that addresses it. It would be so wonderful to know, wouldn't it. It is easy to see how man came to the notion that there is a deity. This is something we may never know unless there is a God and that God tells us.
Nothing just appeared though. If the big bang is true then a big crunch happened before the bang. Was the matter/energy available naturally or was it supplied by the deity?

Questions, questions, questions.

Answer 6

Both astronomers and physicians try do describe and explain what happened very shortly after the big bang. They do not have a theorie about the origin of the big bang itself.
Since no theorie exists your guess is as good as anybodies.

The law of conservation of masses is not always valid. Mass can be created for a short period of time (e.g. the casemir effect that can be measured in vacuum)

Answer 7

The answer is that we don't. Plain and simple. There are some theories that are being postulated on the subject but since science is the result of observable phenomena it is somewhat difficult to ascertain the origin of the original material of the big bang since it existed prior to our universe. That is an important thing to grasp though, the big bang resulted in our universe, our universe is defined as the physical space where our laws of physics apply. That doesn't mean that there aren't alternate space/time entities outside of our universe. It also doesn't mean that absolutely nothing existed before our universe or doesn't exist outside our universe.

The problem with the higher power (deity) theories is that they are not directly observable. The foundation of deist theories is that a sacred book claims it is true and claims to explain the origins of our universe. This is regarded as fact based on faith, not observation so it doesn't play on the same field as science. If faith works for some that's their business.

Answer 8

The big bang is pure conjecture. The laws of physics indicate a near singularity (all the energy in the niverse in nearly zero volume) around 14 billion years ago, expanding rapidly to precipitate matter. By extrapolating backwards in time, scientists see an actual singularity, but this is not backed up by science. The mysterious time is known as the Planck time, after Max P, who decivered it and named it after himself. During this first 0.000...0001 seconds, the universe is too hot for any of today's laws of physics to apply, so no amount of observation, calculation or deduction can iluminate us. Then again, outside of space-time, I see no good reason why a universe should not spontaneously appear.

Answer 9

You are partially incorrect. A split second before the big bang, all of the matter in the universe was compressed into a space the size of a pin head. All of the atoms were there, but they were mostly crammed together. Chances are 99.999999% of the atoms involved were hydrogen and/or helium. The stars make the heavier atoms right before they die in a last ditch effort to keep their mass and avoid explosion.

Answer 10

Mass energy and gravitational energy are of opposite signs, so it's possible that they cancel each other out, leaving the sum total energy content of the Universe as being zero.

Answer 11

well,the atoms(the was more than one atom that appeared) didn't just appear,they were in a condensed state due to the collapse of another universe.Then the all of a sudden reached a point where they expanded rapidly,going from infinitesimally small to almost infinitely big in just a few seconds.