Atheist: Has science led us to a beginning that is not truly a beginning?

Question

The "Big Bang" leaves one w/ a few questions.
If an explosion occurs, don't we need to know why --and from what material did it originate, and how did that material come into existance?
I am an atheist; and since the discussion of the origin of life and matter is not the exclusive territory of religion, please don't offer religious answers.

Latino Lifestyle---The question is for those who are not sure about things that might be related to something spiritual,and not for some religious know-it-all who thinks he has a monopoly on truth, and therefore OWNS this site.

If you're not searching for truth, and you think you already own it, then you are the one who should be considered out of place here.

Bastard in Alabama---I have to confess that I am also a little over my head.But I think there are many who have the knowledge and patience to enlighten me.
Read the answers, you may learn along with me.

MOIR AES FATE---If we had more people like you, who could accept questions with no immediate answers, or no answers at all; the world would be a more peaceful place to live.

SOCINIAN F---I can be comfortable with the notion that matter was designed by some ,seemingly, mystical entity; but my mind rebels against bibical explanations. They seem to be primitive, simplistic attempts to explain our existance.

Answer 1

Big J at least you have honesty, I can respect an atheist like you as an atheist and as a person. Other atheists I respect as people but not as atheists or thinkers, and that goes all the way to the top , people like Mr. Dawkins. I cannot have respect for any mans opinion, no matter what his title if he is not honest and tries to use his authority to dismiss legitimate questions and reasonings.Reasoning cannot and ought not be bullied or mocked into silenced based on authority or title. that is the enlightenment motto, which many lay atheists have given up, it can only be overcome by better reasoning.Most atheist up here just cut and paste, or quote, while I reason and think using my own skill , not needing any other person to think for me.Evaluating facts and data according to logic and reasoning available to all men.Praise God.
Anyway, yes I come to the same conclusion, evolution is not an answer to anything, it is only a theoretical mechanism that is meant to take the place of wise ,inteliigent providence, and "apparent" design, to quote Mr. Dawkins. It itslelf needs an explanation. Evolutionists or atheists always assume and start with just enough to get started, theist sand christian thinkers on the other hand, go further, not giving any quarter to reason. I say not giving quarter to reason because, as you put it, stopping before the truly difficult question or mystery is avoiding the obvious. It is avoiding an unanswerable, in the hope of saving face, which is the very thing that reason set out to avoid and dismiss as the province of theists who accept unknowns, while atheist do not, but cannot avoid in this ultimate thing. My opinion after much that thought is that this mystery is unavoidable, and this should become aware to any serious thinker. Once you accept that, evolution becomes much less than what it is purported to be and assumes a place as an equal among other rather quaint theories. No natural mechanism can explain itself.
Resorting to dark matter or infinite big bangs as I have seen suggested here is ridiculous don't you think? You see , I have no problem with people seeking answers, natural answers, for things that are natural , that is to be expected, but c'mon at some point the natural inevitbly leads to what is classically called the super natural but we can call, the whatever it is. I believe it is God , the being of being ,intelligence of intellignece, the life of life, the ground of existence itself, and when everything is a miracle nothing is.

Answer 2

Many of these answers are incredibly well said and logically argued. Something I have to appreciate.

Unfortunately we see, yet again, that Christians attempt to turn it into "scientists don't know so the bible must automatically be right".

It doesn't work that way. You see, scientists don't know but they aren't afraid to stop searching for that answer. Just because we don't know the answer now, doesn't mean we won't know the answer later.

Everything in existance didn't exist at one point in time but some wild intelligent mind thought it up and eventually turned it into reality because they discovered things not know before.

As to the origin of matter, its true that its not known. But that doesn't make the bible immediately right. It just means its not currently known.

I believe the Big Bang Theory (though there are more theories than just that one, it's only the most well known) and I'm not ashamed of "I don't know". It only means that theres still more work to do to find the answer. Once you stop even making the attempt to learn and discover more, you stop living.

As to the origin of life, again I support Evolution. Christians attempt so often to ignore things because they don't understand it.

I very nearly devoted my life to the study of evolution. Though, more specifically, my field would have been Paleontology. Life got in the way. Perhaps someday I will continue that study.

The answer to the question is that there is no currently known answer to the origin of the universe.

Answer 3

This is hard, because what you are asking is from a religion (evolution). As it is just a theory, an idea and so far not a proof, it is not the "Fact of Evolution" but remains "The Theory of Evolution".

I'll try in my own way here to try and stick to the idea of the "Big Bang" theory (again a theory which I believe is going up in smoke). I refer to it as the "Big Bung".

In order for an explosion to occur, there has to be matter and energy. Where did both come from? All known explosions result in chaos and disorder. Even explosions in out of space, ends in nothing more than chaos and disorder and disintergration. Yet, this supposed explosion results in order and in an ordered and integrated universe. Moreover, after this supposed explosion, the result should be a scattering and dying down of the very same matter and energy.

But, scientists admit and are baffled by the fact, that we have an accelerating universe driven by a mysterious force called "dark energy", which/whom creationists are quite happy to call God.

The world's top evolutionist, after a lifetime expounding this theory, now admits that this ordered universe must have an intelligent designer and sustainer.

His name eludes me, but I hope someone reading these notes will give the name. So until then, you do not have to take my word for it!

Basically, it takes more faith to believe in the Big Bang Theory, than it does in the possibility of Intelligent Design. Though, both are considered, one requires the idea that life can come from dead matter and is pretty much taught as a scientific possibility, whilst the other is ridiculed.

My view is, leave both faiths to the religious studies classes and keep science as science, and allow people to come to their own conclusions with the facts they are given and have been proven.

Answer 4

I agree that the Big Bang as I understand it leaves many questions, including "all right... then where did the *gases* come from?" It's hard to look back so far in time--no one was around to take pictures, for one thing--so maybe we'll never know exactly what happened? I just don't know.

But, as a fellow atheist, I think it might be fair to wonder: do atheists *need* to have a precise answer as to where the Universe came from, just so we feel confident in saying that it wasn't an old man with a long white beard, or a big turtle or anything?

I mean, I know you didn't mention Christianity, say, specifically... but it's a neat trick they sometimes pull: "What? You mean you don't know exactly how the universe was formed!? Well then, the Bible must be 100% accurate."

Not so, you know. It's possible that: 1) God doesn't exist and 2) we will never quite know what "caused" the Universe if, in fact, anything did.

I think that, as an atheist, it's permissible to say "I don't know" when asked where the Universe came from. In fact, I think it's the *inability* to say "I don't know" to questions like that which has led us to so many hundreds of poor religions over the millennia.

Answer 5

In physical cosmology, the Big Bang is the scientific theory that the universe emerged from a tremendously dense and hot state about 13.7 billion years ago. The theory is based on the observations indicating the expansion of space (in accord with the Robertson-Walker model of general relativity) as indicated by the Hubble redshift of distant galaxies taken together with the cosmological principle.

Extrapolated into the past, these observations show that the universe has expanded from a state in which all the matter and energy in the universe was at an immense temperature and density. Physicists do not widely agree on what happened before this, although general relativity predicts a gravitational singularity (for reporting on some of the more notable speculation on this issue, see cosmogony).

The term Big Bang is used both in a narrow sense to refer to a point in time when the observed expansion of the universe (Hubble's law) began — calculated to be 13.7 billion (1.37 × 1010) years ago (±2%) — and in a more general sense to refer to the prevailing cosmological paradigm explaining the origin and expansion of the universe, as well as the composition of primordial matter through nucleosynthesis as predicted by the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory.[1]

From this model, George Gamow in 1948 was able to predict, at least qualitatively, the existence of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).[2] The CMB was discovered in 1964[3] and further corroborated the Big Bang theory, giving it an additional advantage over its chief rival, the steady state theory.[4]


Something like this :)

Answer 6

There are always questions.

We are working towards understanding them. However, we might not get every single answer. There is no window that we can look into to see the pre-Bang universe, so our best guesses might be all we have.

It's important to realize that just because there is a gap in what science has explained so far does not mean that it is lacking or insufficient. It only means our work isn't done.

Part of being an atheist, for me, is being comfortable not knowing. I'm comfortable NOT knowing the origins of the universe-- I don't need to make up an explanation just to have it. I don't say "God made it that way" just because I don't have an answer myself.

Answer 7

Of course its not really the begining. Look at the big picture, imagine the universe as one of many that was spawned with some variables that made the universe we experience. Because OUR universe started at the big bang its not saying that before was nothing, just nothing that we directly experience.

For what ever reason (being random, act of god or act of sentient being OTHER than god) our universe came about with properties that allow for the construction of energy into mass in the way we observe, to create the elements we are made of and surrounded by.

The knowledge of what was the "Stuff" of the big bang is far far beyond us now as we not only need to know the materials but we need to know the rulebook that we used to CHOOSE those elements (again by one of three methods).

Will we know? Perhaps this becomes apparent when we die, perhaps it is all just random or perhaps some child in some far advanced existance made our universe on a whim.

Answer 8

The "Big Bang" itself is scientifically part of a bigger scenario referred as Multi-verse.

Our instance may well be a snapshot within a pulsating Multi-verse. While we are expanding as the result of a big bang, there are remote instances of other big bangs in different stages, as well as instances of collapsing matter into new pots for further big bangs.

To make matters worse, we might be within a dozen more dimensions than the conventional 3D plus linear time lapse !

All these wonderful perspectives discovered only expose us to even more puzzles and questions.

There seems to be no visible boundary to knowledge and science. In fact, anyone claiming to have known or discovered everything is simply a charlatan.

Matter and dark matter have always existed. We only observe snapshots of the changes they go through.

Setting territories or beginnings for science, religion, atheism, or any belief only limits the observer.

Answer 9

Science takes one step at a time. You are correct in that there are many questions beyond the "beginning of everything." It makes sense to ask "Have there been more than one Bang" and "When will there be another Bang." But until we can figure out BB, anything beyond is pure conjecture.

Answer 10

I do believe in evolution. The big bang theory is only a front runner to Adam & Eve in my book, neither really explain to me in a rational way- when did LIFE start.

Maybe Steven B Hawkin's gets it- not me.

So in my personal belief, it soothes my mind to think that some divine entity was at work in the "mixing" of the world brew that evolved us.