I am atheist, but I can't understand the big bang theory....?

Question

How can 'nothing' cause an explosion? NOthing is not something...it can't fold in upon itself and cause an explosion...plz explain this to me.

what are you talkin bout man...That is the exact same reason I don't believe in god. Something can't come from nothing....It leads me nowhere but a circle so I'm trying to reason through scientific evidence that humans have..not just stop at 'God did it.'

Answer 1

well that would make sense since even if the big bang occured all logic would imply that something must have sent the big bang in to motion or caused it to occur if you don't believe in a divine entity you are sort of left with the chicken and egg scenario - we can accept the big bang occured so the next question you need an answer toi is what made it occur , then you need to know the cause and effect of this concept and so forth it has About as much factual basis as organised religion and in all reality science should not be intersted in how creation occured they would be much better directing there brain power at solving current issues in the world like cancer and heart disease

Answer 2

From what I know it doesn't exactly says that, it rather says that the universe, before the big bang was concentrated in a body with no dimensions and density that tends to the infinite, and with extraordinarily high temperatures. And the explosion was rather an expansion of the 10 dimensions (the three common dimensions of space, the one of time and 6 more that do not longer exist).
Of course this doesn't make any big difference and it is still totally inexplicable for me:
- How existed this body on first place?
- How could happen any change in this body's state, since there was no concept of time before the big bang?
- How could the universe, after the big bang expand, since the "something" was surrounded with "nothing" and the nothing cannot be change in something?
Or I do not get at all the theory, or there is something very wrong with it.

Answer 3

There's a good grain of truth in that first answer. As humans we are stuck with our scale of thinking. As things get too large, too small , too close or too distant, we have to work by infererence, indirect observation and mathematics.

We'd like atoms to be nice little hard snooker/pool balls. We can imagine those. Even those little diagrams with orbiting electrons are just about ok. But things are vastly more complicated than that.

If you don't want to take the big bang on trust, you have to approach it two ways. One is by looking at the appearance of the universe we have and considering what it must have been like when it was younger, in order to look like this, now. Everything points to a hotter, denser universe in the past, for varied reasons.
The second is at the other end of the scale, through realising the implications of a perfect vacuum not being "nothing" at all (the intuitive, natural idea) but a seething mass of transient particles and anti-particles. (URL)

When these ideas are taken aboard (and they themselves did not come from nowhere, but derived from most definite observations), then becomes a real question with a possible answer, not a stopper argument.

Answer 4

Mev gave an excellent answer, mine won't be terribly different. I only believe in the big bang theory more than, for example, Christianity, because I agree with the methods of the folks espousing it -- they are theorizing from a point of observation and inference, not from some mystical revelation. The fact that I don't understand what the heck they are talking about doesn't disprove what they have to say, but it sure as heck makes me question the validity of their course of study. I am sure that there is something in the study of cosmology that is somehow useful to humankind, but it, like the big bang theory itself, seems to elude me. The universe exists, I feel there is pretty reasonable evidence for that, I don't see that the study of where it came from is of a huge value to me, and certainly shouldn't be a reason driving me to believe blindly in something. If I get to that point, I'll start taking from astronomy and physics courses again, and try to REALLY understand it. I don't think you can come to understand it by just reading a book -- maybe 10 or 12 books, along with some decent discussions with some folks who understand it, maybe. We are not talking easy stuff here, and no one can be expected to understand it with a few sound bites and catch-phrases. Yet some folks think we ought to be able to, because, gee, aren't we all equal, dude?

Answer 5

I don't believe in GOD nor do I believe in the big bang theory.This theory is just as unbelievable as GOD.If you can ask yourself to question god/heaven/bible then why would you believe that the universe began instantaneously.To me the Universe developed over many millions of years(countless).On a large scale just floating matter which as through time developed into the universe as we know it.Many people who cannot understand time/finite just want to put some kind of timescale to it and dramatize it therefore came up with the big bang theory.
Please do not listen to the other posts(absolute crap).There is no higher being and that.I can't (nor can anyone else) tell you what happens after death.It is the fear of death that makes people want to believe/repent not that there is actually an heaven.
Please only believe in facts.Theories are only others opinions.The bible is only peoples fairytales.Although I dont believe in GOD,I do agree with some christian beliefs about community.

Answer 6

"Nothing" is a common misconception regarding the Big Bang Theory. Btw, a catholic priest was the first to pose the theory.

Think of the entire United States taking up the space of a basketball. One explanation of the theory states that the entire mass of the Universe compacted to the diameter of a dime.

Some recent ideas state that this is actually the sixth or seventh iteration of the universe, completely different each time.

We know the Universe is expanding and eventually the theory is that it will start collapsing, to the point it will return to the size of a dime. Then it will "bang" back.

Answer 7

First, the Big Bang is a hypothesis not a theory - for it to be a theory it has to be able to be tested. Evidence to something occuring does not make a theory - it makes a hypthetical explanation until it can be proven to have occurred. Secondly, any one espousing to the "theory" and use this term only for reference, would tell you that it was not "nothing" but all the matter in the universe in the size of a basketball and then "whoosh" it expanded with - you got it "a big bang"- the hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis, for it cannot be proven to have happened. - though every "believer" in the "big-bang hypothesis" claims it to have happened with as much forcefulness and resolve and "faith" in those who say God created the Heavens and the Earth in six literal days from "ex-nihlo" out of nothing!

Answer 8

no one can explain that, but think about this, the universe was and always will, in the beginning there was all the matter we see today all reunited at one single spot, imagine billions and zillions of everything (actually it was mainly hydrogen, experts says) in some thing smaller than your eye, maybe an atom we are not sure, all that matter was very unstable because its own mass and hot, hotter than a trio with Angelina and charlize, and the only way to stabilize was to explode and that's the way we are here, but there wasn't nothing it was every thing together at once, put water in a little bag, close it, then get it in your hands an press it, it will explode, then u have been present in a little big bang

Answer 9

It's never seemed like much of an explanation to me. So all this matter and energy and crap just popped into existence, did it? It seems plausible that something like the big bang occurred, but to me it doesn't explain any of the really interesting questions, like how it all got there in the first place. The big bang theory will, in my view, never be an alternative for religion, because it doesn't attempt to explain the things religion does. God or no God, big bang or no big bang--two separate and fairly unrelated questions, in my opinion.

Answer 10

Drop all human conceptions of God as your reason for nonbeleif, in a creator that has to exist, by shear logic because cakes do not bake themselves.
What or who that creator is cannot be descibed by a finite mind and it does not mean it does not exist. It has to. There has to be a chemist.
Go read the Upanishads the Bagdavada Gita. They descibed the big bang a long long time ago.