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I am not talking about numbers 123... because they theoretically COULD stretch forever, but they only go as far as they need to go, or as far as you can count them. How can space, time, etcetera, be infinite.

Let's pretend the idea of God is real, and that he had always been here. Ok, so what did he do for the INFINITE amount of time before he created the earth "6000" years ago?

What do you think about things being infinite?

2007-05-29 23:38:59 · 7 answers · asked by Jadochop 6 in Science & Mathematics Other - Science

7 answers

Nothing real is infinte, it's just a mathematical idea. The idea of space and time being infinite is that you could head of in that direction (*points*) and keep going forever without bumping into the end of the universe. (You may go all the way around and end up where you started, but that's another story.)
Same with time, some people will tell you that time started with the beginning of the universe, and will end with the end of the universe. They're probably right, and that's about as infinite as you could get. (You could take the view that the time scale we currently use can be extended infinitely in either direction [before the universe began and after the universe ends] it all depends on how you look at it.)

Saying things like "Let's pretend the idea of God is real" might offend some people: people who aren't me.
For the infinite time before he(she?) created the universe God was an avid crossword-puzzle-do-er.

2007-05-29 23:54:26 · answer #1 · answered by tgypoi 5 · 1 0

Don't mix science and religion. Space cannot stretch infinitely in both directions, i.e positive and negative. There is no negative space. Similarly, time can stretch into future infinitely but cannot go into past infinitely. When the universe was created about 15 billion years ago, time also was born. What was there before that, none of us will ever know. Space and time were born along with the universe.
Mathematical distributions are theoretical and can extend from - infinity to + infinity.

2007-05-30 06:48:41 · answer #2 · answered by Swamy 7 · 0 0

I'll take this on. I like philosophy AND science!
The universe is assumed to have its limits so cannot stretch to infinity.
Beyond that, you get into philosophy.
I assume there are four categories of components that are basic to our universe.
Matter
Energy
Space
Time
Everything fits into one of those categories and a physical universe, as we know it, cannot exist without ALL four components.
If you choose to believe that God created the universe, as I do, then the answer becomes simple (but difficult to understand due to our normal perceptions and training being limited by the physical universe).
Since time is a component of a physical universe, without a physical universe time does not exist.
Until the universe was created there was no time so the question of: "What did God do with all the time before he created the universe?" is simple to answer. There wasn't any time to do anything!
If God is the the source of life, then it follows that life exists outside of the physical universe. Life created the physical universe. The universe did not create life.
I can get into a long discussion of how this works and even propose steps to visualize how this works, but it would take almost a book to fully explain the concept.
Infinity in a physical universe is only a mathematical concept that doesn't exist in material fact. We humans can conceive of things well beyond the limits of this universe.
One thing is certain, if we view time as part of this universe, it was created well before 6000 years ago.

2007-05-30 12:18:21 · answer #3 · answered by Philip H 7 · 0 0

Well I see a new definition of infinite and it goes like. In the creation of a black hole what happens in the collapsing of a very large star .As it starts collapsing the gravity increasees and the acceleration increases and when its velocity reaches the speed of light that mass will increas to infinity.After the black hole is complete it can generate a gravity well that may be 100 light years across. So nature has given us a real idea of infinite.

2007-05-30 10:03:58 · answer #4 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0 0

Loops or donuts are infinite in a sense: you can keep travelling through loop/donut (sorry, "torus") shaped space forever, continually going back on yourself. or if you like, a Mobius strip is perhaps a better example: a strip of paper, twisted once and with the ends joined to make a loop: unlike a normal loop of paper, a Mobius strip has only one surface. What if space/time was shaped like this?

2007-05-30 06:48:58 · answer #5 · answered by Scot-Rob 4 · 0 0

ever seen men in black? I think of in just like the alien playng with the marbles at the end of the movie....Everything is so huge, no matter how big or superior you think something is, there is always something bigger. Doesn't that just blow your mind?

2007-05-30 06:54:32 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

for all we know space could end and where just in a giant box ;)

2007-05-30 06:50:31 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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