Creation of the universe?

Question

Being mostly atheist/agnostic, I've always wondered why most religions believe that an Almighty God and superpowerful being always existed.. but deny the possibility that the universe in itself has always existed.

I know the very, very slim likelyhood of something just exploding and making something like the earth, but it could have happened, with or without a creator.

Any thoughts?

And by being Atheist/Agnostic, I mean that I DOUBT there's a god, but believe in the possibility.

Esther: Just because I am an atheist/agnostic, doesn't mean I don't like to hear other people's opinions. :)

Whirlwind: I've accepted my own personal truth. Maybe your's is different than mine. And note I wasn't asking for an answer, so much as I was an opinion. ;)

Answer 1

I'm with you on this...sort of. The concept of God is a paradox. People say that the universe could not have spontaneously existed. There is something that had to put it there. This is where the God figure comes in. But I question where God came from. If nothing can exist without God's influence, where did she/he/it come from? The question is really the same thing. Where did the universe come from? Where did God come from? You can't really answer that question with anything other than, "I don't know." Maybe someday we'll figure it out, but until then...I'm content with all of the evidence pointing towards what I believe in.

By the way, some people will say that God exists out of time and space because he created time and space or something equally ridiculous. They say that God has always been there, and they don't need to defend that argument because it just seems to be fact. So using that logic, you could say that the universe doesn't need a creator because it's always just been there. It exists outside of time and space (which is equally as ridiculous as the previous statment). It really is the same thing. We just don't understand what happened yet or where everything came from. Some people can cope with that, and other people believe in God and an afterlife.

Answer 2

Many people jump into this argument way down the road from the start. Many assume that the foundation for their belief (either side) has been well laid. Here is what I see:

1. We have a Bible that some believe and some do not. It gives a story of creation by God and gives a rough time frame of 6 literal 24 hour days about 6180 years ago. A world wide flood about 4400 years ago, and here we are today. There is some evidence to support some of the stories in the Bible. The creation story we have today is the one recorded about 3500 years ago, and remains unchanged.

2. We have a geologic column put together around 1830 by Charles Lyell and some others that places the age of the earth at about 150,000 years old based on different ages being assigned (assumed) to each layer of the earths crust. As time goes by, more layers are found and the age of the earth grows to today about 4.5 billion years. There have been many changes.

We can test some of the stories in the Bible by diging up artifacts that are found where they are supposed to be. Often we can date these through secular history. It is not much, but at least we can verify some of the Bible.

Not so with a dinosaur bone, or a rock. We have no written record of their existance. We know they existed-the bones are here, but, the bones do not come with dates. There is no history to compare them to-no nothing. All we have is a geologicic column with an assigned index fossil that represents an age based on an assumption done long ago. There is no way to verify the assumed ages of the geologic column. It is a guess-very complex, constructed, elaborate guess. But it remains a guess. Some may say the radio-metric methods confirm these dates. But that is not true. The date is established by the geologic column and any radio-metric method used must conform to the geologic column or it is discarded as faulty data. There is no evidence for these old dates.

Could the universe have always existed? Maybe so. Could there be a God? Maybe so.

Answer 3

If you truly are atheist/agnostic then what would be the point in asking this question! "Wondering what religions believe?" First off I am not about religion... however I am about the Word of God! (I go to a non denominational church)
I know many people bag on God!
But I always thought wise men bought medical insurance just in case of a medical need, Dental insurance in case of dental needs, Home owners Insurance, Life Insurance, Auto, etc.
All because of the unknown! So then why is it that people don't take on Life Everlasting insurance... JUST IN CASE!
The answer to your question is that while we live in the days of research and explanation.... Not everything can be explained! Faith, Hope and Assurance/Insurance is the bases is why I believe in God!

People want to celebrate Christmas because of family! I love my family and we are extremely close, but my family is not the reason for Christmas... Christ is! People can try to say differently... but that is what it is! It is a chosen day of acknowledgment to celebrate the birth of Christ!

God Bless Everyone of you! I really do mean that, I want all of you to be blessed!
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

Answer 4

I was an atheist so I know where you're coming from. I decided that a God and Goddess made love (don't make fun of me now!) and the universe cameinto being exactly the way the Big Bang explains it. They then shaped the universe and the ife within. This, to me, goes along with evolution. So I am like a scientific Wiccan.

-Wiccan Tee )O(

Answer 5

The universe has always existed, it goes through very long cycles of expanding and contracting. When it contracts all the matter in the universe is compressed into the size of a single atom, and that's when the big bang happens causing the expansion to start over. I too am an atheist, for many reasons, this being one of them, Christians also believe that man just popped up out of nowhere, which is scientifically impossible.

Answer 6

No offense, but being atheist or agnostic often clouds your ideas and presents a bias that cannot be overruled. Some religions themselves are also as ignorant but not necessarily "deny the possibility that the universe in itself has always existed..."

The reason for religion as always been to fill in the blanks. When there is a mysterious death, a million theories come up. Look at JFK for example. So, science itself has not proved entirely either. We all though Pluto was planet, turned out it wasn't, and we still dont know what it is.

So continue thinking what you shall, Im not claiming anything or accusing you of anything but good luck and happy holidays (whether or not you celebrate).

Answer 7

The problem with any beginning is - what happened before the beginning? We just don't, I think, have the brains to handle the concept of infinity. Or the concept of something from nothing.

Either "theory" - big bang or creator - immediately begs the question, "but where did it come from?"

"It has always existed" is not an answer.

Answer 8

The reality is that God IS, and that God created the universe. He could have easily done so along the lines of "The Big Bang" or whatever other theory we come up with to try to explain what we never witnessed.

Answer 9

I've always thought God's unexplained existence is a lot more unlikely than the universe's unexplained existence. If a watch requires a watchmaker, God is the ultimate watch.

Answer 10

God always existed. Then he created Jesus. Through Jesus, he created all others things. The angels, then the universe, then life on earth, then man.

Here is the angels applauded the creation of the universe.
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?