Atheist can you please explain what you believe ?

Question

As far as time ( and how we reached this point from infinity)
As far as what pre-existed
As far as what is created and what came about through science

If its too much to answer don't bother.

time meaning a measurment usually measured in seconds, hrs, days, years

The first question implies since there is no beginning of time, then how could we ever reach this point in time

Salient2 this is what is says about the author of that last book
About the Author
Professor of Astronomy at the University of Sussex, John D. Barrow's principal research interest is the early history of the universe. He is well known for his bestselling popular science books including Theories of Everything, Pi in the Sky, and The Artful Universe (OUP, 1995). Frank J. Tipler Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University, New Orleans. He is the author of The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead, Macmillan, 1995, L20, in which he presents a scientific proof of the existence of God.

Answer 1

Time implies beginning. Beginning implies creation. Creation implies Creator.

Answer 2

As you well know these are some questions that nobody can really answer right now. But just because they are unanswerable right now we shouldn't suddenly invoke a supernatural being, because that answers absolutely nothing.

I believe, from looking at evidence, that time came into existance with a big bang. Now you may say "Well what do you mean, time started there? Well, what was it like before that?" Well you could ask yourself what is north of the North Pole? But I am open minded and if new scientific evidence comes in, and this universe turns out to be but one of many, then I will change my mind, because atheists are not committed to ultimate truths like religion is. That we do not know the answers to such questions and the little that we do know, if you can prove us wrong, we will give you our highest reward. That is part of the scientific methodology. We have an error correcting mechanism that religion doesn't have.

In Steven Pinker's book "How the Mind Works" he stresses that the human mind is is very limited organ in a certain sense. I mean it shouldn't surprise us that it can't answer a lot of cosmic questions, it was designed to solve a finite set of tasks on a particular planet. It says "our minds evolve by natural selection to solve problems that were life and death matters to our ancestors not to commune with correctness or to answer any question we're capable of asking. We cannot hold 10,000 words in short term memory. We cannot see in ultra-violet light. We cannot mentally rotate an object in the 4th dimension and perhaps we cannot solve conundrums like free will and sentience..."

Answer 3

I can only answer your final question, because the first two don't make sense.

As I am convinced that there is no such thing as god, I do not believe anything was created. I don't know how the universe came into being but I know that science has come up with some good ideas (the Big Bang is just one of them) and I expect that this and other questions will be answered in time.

Happy to help.

Answer 4

If I were to answer this in detail it would take way too many pages, and its unlikely people without a very sophisticated physics or mathematics background would understand anyway So I will just give a few references. But before I do I will mention a few highlights.

My beliefs based on years of study including advanced graduate level physics including general relativity and cosmology and mathematics.

Reality is plentitudnal and based on Mathematics. Mathematics simply being that which is necessarily true.

Time is not fundamental. Neither is space. If you think of reality as space changing with time you are way off. Thinking of it as eternal space-time as Einstein did is closer. Eternal mathematics which gives the appearence of an eternal space-time is closer yet.

I don't believe anything is created or designed or even changes. man has never ever observed anything to be really created. All man observes are things changing form. And really I don't think things change form, we just observe slightly different things.

How can reality be based on mathematics - read http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/toe.pdf

How can time not be fundmental read: http://www.platonia.com/ as well as the physicist Julian Barbour's Book "The End of Time" to see how can we get the appearence of a dynamic world from a static reality. Even better read the research papers the book is based on.

You need to understand that your understanding of reality is layered. Your perceptual understanding is based on a framework which is not the way the world really is. Until you realize this, and realize that there are more fundamental layers that you are perhaps unaware of you can't progress in understanding.

Why does reality give the appearence of design if it is not designed? read: http://www.amazon.com/Anthropic-Cosmological-Principle-Oxford-Paperbacks/dp/0192821474

Here it is important to understand how the appearence of complexity derives from selection effects. The complexity we see around us derives from the biggest selection effect of all, our own existence.

Response To Jonathon: I read Tipler's book "Physics of Immortality:" and he states on page 305 I think, I forget the exact page number , that he doesn't believe in his own theory, and that he is an atheist. I suggest reading both Anthropic "The Cosmological Principle" as well as "The End of Time" They are both really great books. After reading Tipler's book "Physics of Immortality:" the only conclusion I could draw was he wrote the book to make money. The basic premise of Tipler's is that alien robots survive to the "big crunch" ( which by the way current physics indicates will not happen) and the aliens create our universe in order to save themselves. When Tipler says near the end of the book that he doesn't believe in his own theory you kind of wonder what was the point if not to make money. Nor would Tipler's crazy Alien Robots qualify under conventional definitions of gods anyway.

Answer 5

Time is a concept created by man. Science is created by man. Man has discovered certain natural universal laws such as the law of gravity and put them under the label "science". Those universal laws are what pre-existed, assuming that pre-existed means what existed before life on earth.

Answer 6

Time started when our universe started.
We'll probably never know if there was anything before that; we can't observe outside of our universe.
Nothing needs to have been created - it can all have come about through basic physical laws. If you look into it a bit, and learn some basic physics, chemistry, and logic, you'll see it all works out very nicely.

Answer 7

All existing can be called "universe".
Universe was, is and will be. The universe we know has a beginning, the big-bang, and, maybe will have a death but there probably was an universe (same or different) before and another one after.
It was not created, as you believe about God.

Answer 8

I'm an atheist. I believe that long long ago there was nothing. Then, out of absolutely nothing, there was energy. Then the energy ended up the way it is today. It doesn't really bother me that I don't believe everything was created. It was random. It happened for no reason. Just...whatever.

Answer 9

Time? I don't understand. Isn't time just a feeling
Pre-existed.... I don't understand nothing "pre-existed." I've never even heard of that word.
What do you mean "created?" Nothing is created only changed.

Answer 10

I agree with sickblade