To atheists, Where did we really come from?

Question

If we evolved from a common ancestor, and all the way back to a single bacteria, then what started of this chain of evolution. How did this one atom form to start the process of evolution. Where did it come from?

I'm basically asking what was the very beginning?

Drew what came before amino acids.

What came before molecules?

Dan where did the chemicals come from?

Answer 1

You would think entropy would have destroyed the universe long ago, but nope. I believe in God or gods, but I can't quite wrap my mind around how they began.

Answer 2

150 years ago, we didn't know about bacteria. No clue. It wasn't understood until Louis Pasteur determined that germs caused disease.

You are asking the same questions that scientists ask. What causes each individual element of the universe to come forth from other elements? You have, however, asked this in the Religion & Spirituality section, where we are mostly humanities majors, not biologists or physicists. Would you come to R&S to find out what opus number was Mozart's 40th Symphony? I think not. You're asking us to play to our weakness. Quite frankly, you're being unfair.

So let me suggest two things:

1. If you are serious about wanting to know the current evidence-based understanding on the origins of the universe and on evolutionary theory, there are excellent descriptions found at http://www.talkorigins.org .

2. Consider that you are proposing (subtly) that anything that is not explained is a place for God to be discovered. This is commonly referred to in ontology as "the god of the gaps" theory. It typically assigns God to any blank space that science has not yet reached useful conclusions. Remember what I said about disease? Before bacteria were discovered, it was assumed God was punishing the ill, or that they were demon possessed, or some other supernatural phenomenon caused sickness. This is the same god of the gaps.

Science never assumes, and should never assume, anything is supernatural. The purpose of science is to discover through measured observation, testing, and repetition what natural causes lead to our natural world. If you impose a statement "God caused it," then this stops the search for knowledge, because God is ultimately unknowable. This is the reason that the "god of the gaps" theory is discounted among learned ontological academicians, and is ignored by science.

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Answer 3

Ultimate creation is unknown. That is separate from the fact of evolution. (the sooner Christians realize that "creation" and "evolution" are uncoupled, seperate entities, the better) Athiests can accept that there are things that are unknown, unlike Christians who just put the "God did it" tag on everything they can't explain. Maybe someday, through logic and rational thought, science will discover how creation occured...maybe not. But in the meantime, we'd rather not close our minds and just explain it away as some act of "God". If human beings had never questioned the actual workings of the universe, and just believed it the magic work of the Lord, we would be living in quite a different world....whether this ancient, pre-historic-like (or at best middle-ages-like) world would have been better off is another debate entirely. I'm sure Ted Kaczynski can offer some insights on that.

Answer 4

Peyton seems to think this is difficult to answer. I'll go further and say it's impossible. The single-bacteria theory is but a logical "conclusion", if you will; any fool who accepts it as fact is... a fool.

Now, don't get me wrong, nothing's more laughably convenient than saying God created us. Just because no one has any idea why we are where we are and how we got here doesn't automatically mean a single, white male did the deed. These vexing questions (why are we here?, who are we?, blah blah blah) will probably have much more complex answers (should they ever be found). Saying that one guy created it all is not only convenient, as I stated earlier, it also demonstrates an incredible lack of creativity. I mean, here we are, 2007, and we can't up with something better than Jesus, Yeshua, Allah, or Shiva, concepts put forth by barbarians who had no concept of the power and scope of the human mind.

But, to answer your question, we atheists have no idea where it all started. We've theories, but they're just that. The difference is that some of us (not all, of course, many atheists are still negatively influenced by religiousness's arrogance) are humble enough to admit that we don't know a thing.

Answer 5

Of life, when molecules started to replicate, there are a few theories doing the rounds as to how and when this happened.

And why anyone should think this is somehow difficult (peyton) is beyond me, why not read Nature or Scientific American or any basic biology textbook before you make such ill-informed comments. Whether you have enough scientific knowledge to understand the technical answers given in these peer reviewed journals is of course another matter.

Edit:

Turtles came before molecules, everyone knows that.

Answer 6

For my answer, I give you Exit Mundi. While the theory shows the end, it could tell us how we began.

In about one googol years, everything in the universe will be gone. No more. Even the dust is gone. Now, because it is so empty, we really do have infinity and eternity on our hands. And in eternity, anything is possible.

It is all this "quantum physics" that no one gets. Simply put, anything can happen if you give an eternity. Even atoms coming out of nowhere.

Answer 7

Well I could say the "beginning" was the big bang event but I am sure you really mean why we exist rather than what was the beginning. In my opinion we exist because mathematics is logically necessary and underlying reality is mathematics.

If you are asking why Matter and energy formed it is because of inflation shortly after the big bang. Mass and Energy form in direct balance to the Negative Gravitational Potential energy produced by the rapid inflation.

But ulimately It seems likely that mass energy space and time are simply indistinguishable from the mathematics describing them. In other words there is a mathematical isomorphism between reality and mathematics.

While physicists have explained reality in terms of geometric strings. The question remains: What are strings made of? One possibility is that strings are purely mathematical objects, made of logical axioms. More precisely, proofs in simple logical calculi are represented by graphs that can be interpreted as the Feynman diagrams of certain large-N field theories. Each vertex represents an axiom. Strings arise, because these large-N theories are dual to string theories. These ``logical quantum field theories'' map theorems into the space of functions of two parameters: N and the coupling constant. Undecidable theorems might be related to nonperturbative field theory effects.

Answer 8

well; Carl Sagan once devoted an entire 2hr program on tv to this. I am going to give you the cliff notes version. In the distant past billions of years ago there were chemicals that reacted to a lightning strike to form simple protein chains. more lighting, volcanic heat,and a few chemical reactions later we have simple organisms such as aomebas and such. From there evolution takes over,and you have us typing on computers

Answer 9

Chemicals, then molecules, then atoms, then quarks, and possibly smaller even than that.

As for asking what started the universe (which is what I'm assuming you mean) science has theories but doesn't claim to know.

The difference between science and religion is that science says "I don't know, and I'm not afraid to try to find out the answer".

Answer 10

There is no finite beginning and no end... we Buddhists don't believe in linear time. Atomic matter is made up of sub-atomic particles which are made up of even smaller particles and so on and so forth and atomic matter arises due to causes and conditions. When something dies it's actually becoming something else, but even while that something still exists it's still empty of inherent existence... you are not your cells, nor your organs, you're a conglomeration of a bunch of matter you label as a "me" or "I". In reality you're always changing and part of somethings else.

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Answer 11

Evoltion is ridiculous. You can easily prove God. If you look at the universe, what can you conclude. Well that it had a starting point, because since we live in the dimension of time, it must have a start. ( you can not go back infinlety in the dimension of time.) So that proves that the universe was created. Also since God is outside of time, he has to be eternal. He is the reason time began in the first place.

The guy below me ..the universe has always existed. Other than the fact it is impossible, their is also science that proves the universe had a beginning.