Question for Atheists - and please don't get offended..i'm just asking?

Question

How do you account for the existence of the universe, aside from humans and souls and whatnot. How did it come to be? I'm not a big science person, but aren't there galaxies/solar systems that we've never seen but know exist? How do you account for those?

Forgive me if I didn't phrase this properly, but you do know what i'm getting at.

Thanks. : )

Answer 1

Soleil Noir is absolutely correct. Athiests can't explain where the universe came from any better than Christians can explain where God came from. Both usually have an answer along the lines of, "It always was." I don't know what that means in Christian speak but in the realm of science there appears to be a general consensus that the universe just expands and contracts. In other words, there wasn't one Big Bang, there has been an infinite number of them.


Also, although I'm not a Christian, I apologize on behalf of all the other people that are acting like jerks to you. You didn't ask a nasty question at all, certainly not one that merited such insulting comments as you are getting from some.

Answer 2

First off, let me say that I'm not an atheist, but I do think I can answer this question. Most atheists believe in the "big-bang" theory or one of the many variations upon it. namely "random chance." The universe is an "accident," an almost impossible occurence. Some ascribe its genesis to a "split" in the fabric of the universe that generated "matter" and "antimatter." Others believe that the material that makes up our universe was always there, it simply IS, which is one of the basic tenets of the big-bang theory. Others believe in a "wormhole paradox" universe, where matter is transferred thoughout the "multiverse" by wormholes and such that join different universes and transfer matter across. One of the less popular and more "relativistic" theories is that of implied creation: time is itself not like a river, but is like a pool, and can be crossed in any direction, and cause and effect may occur in reverse order (i.e. the existence of our universe created the original material of the first universe that existed, which led to ours over a period of time... there is no beginning and there is no end, only existence). The major problem with these, and any other non-creationism theories, is that they either fail to explain where the original material came from, or they fail to explain why the material was created in the first place.

I hope this helps you understand some of the current "atheistic" theories about the creation of the universe.

And, yes, I study the Bible, too.

And for those of you who think that science and religion cannot coexist, take a look at many famous scientists from the last thousand years. Many of the most famous were Christians, and many were even Catholics (no, I'm not Catholic).

Answer 3

1st of all, atheists hardly ever get offended by these kinds of things, we don't have an ideology that our soul is being protected by.
We honestly don't know where the universe came from. We have hypotheses and ideas but no firm theories. The physics that we know breaks down at that point so we can't speak intelligently about it. Yes there are billions of galaxies that prob haven't been seen yet, but we can assume that there are galaxies in certain areas of the universe. In fact, the very fact that space is so incredibly huge is one reason to wonder why god made a universe 14 billion light years across just to give a home to little old earth (our solar system is about 1 light day across to give you an idea).

That said, it would be a shame to stop pursuing this knowledge at this point. Try to imagine what life would be like today if humans had stopped trying to understand the germ theory or how electricity works just b/c it was difficult. Think about how long it took doctors to discover bacteria! It wasn't until Louis Pasteur! For thousands of years, doctors had no idea WHY patients got sick. It would have been a shame if they just gave up b/c the bible says god causes sickness.

Answer 4

If I could explain that one, I most assuredly would NOT be here, responding to your well-put and respectful question. Rather, I would be accepting a plethora of prizes from the scientific community for great achievements in the field of astrophysics!

Simply, we do not know. But, as others have stated, this is not evidence that it must have been created by a deity. For example, we can see, thanks to radio waves, x-rays, radiation emissions and the likes of the Hubble telescope, that stars, planets and even whole galaxies are being formed, even as we sit here now, millions of light years away. Science tells us that this is how this Earth was formed, as we can readily see this happening elsewhere in space. In the days when religion gave us our answers via their sanctioned sciences, we did not have the ability to see these things we now do.
Like for example, the "Earth created in six days" idea. Before science could PROVE this as false, it was viciously upheld as truth. Now we can show the absurdity of such an idea, theists change their concepts by saying that one day lasted a thousand years, and so on and so forth.
Science can and does, disprove the notion of a deity being responsible for all, yet as is human nature, there will always be some who cannot accept a view of life that differs from their own, therefore they will continually adapt by changing their beliefs as much as they can, to counter those whom they see as their "enemies". There too, will always be those in need of an explaination, ANY explaination to help them understand a little of the complexities this life has to offer. The emotionally needy and the gulliable also play a role in the popularity of religion.

Answer 5

Sceince has not yet answered these questions. Are there solar systems in existence that we havent seen? I would supposed so, seeing as the universe is a constantly expanding place (this has been proven since teh mid 70's - read up on red and blue shifts, the type of light emitted from something moving closer or further away from its observer.)

However, because there is no answer YET, does not mean that an unseen deity was at work.... Because there is no rational explanation does not automatically preclude an irrational, non-existent-entity explanation.

Answer 6

You're engaging in the logical fallacy known as "special pleading" -- insisting that the universe needs a creator, but that the biblegod does not. If your god can exist "eternally" and not need a creator, then why not save a step and simply say it's the UNIVERSE has always existed, and that things couldn't have been any other way? Adding a god into the equation provides no benefit -- it doesn't explain anything we don't already know, and there's no objective evidence suggesting he exists.

Now I could spend all day explaining the laws of physics and how they govern just HOW galaxies and stars are planets are formed; but if you're looking for a WHY things exist, I can't answer that except to say: who says the universe HAS to have a reason for being?

Answer 7

Let me see if I take this right. Are you asking the origin of the universe and everything? Well, there is the "big-bang" theory. What was before the big-bang? Nobody knows for sure. Is something like ask "Who created God?".

Let me suggest reading a very good book: "A brief story of time" by Stephen Hawkins. He explain everything better than me.

Answer 8

I'm not quite sure what you are getting at actually. But i will hazard an answer anyway. All of the stuff comes from the same place. It's all made of the same elements that we find here on earth. Was it created? Doubtfully. Could it have always existed in one form or another? quite possibly.

Answer 9

The universe exists. It always existed. There is no evidence that something can emerge out of nothing.
If you say God created everything, then who created God? Same answer; God always existed. We are on the same page after all!

Answer 10

Err there are several theories, one is an endless cycle of big bangs and big crunches, another talks about collisions of higher dimensional p-branes (extended from string theory i think). Theres lots of information available on the anthropic principle aswell, of which probably the one I find most intriguing is the "participatory anthropic principle"