Why do people say the universe could not be eternal?

Question

There is no edge to space, if not correct me.
If so why must there be a beginning (edge) of time as it is essentially no different from spatial dimensions. If not correct me.
So why does there have to be a duration of the universe (magnitude in the fourth dimension)? If there is not a size of the universe (magnitude in the other three dimensions).
If you feel that the physical laws of the universe do not permit this why is it then that physical laws can not change or that there are not exceptions at certain quantities?
People often argue about this in the debate between big bang and creation but why can people not comprehend an eternity as they comprehend an unending strip of space known as a circle. Quite confused, please help.

Answer 1

yes.it is eternal

Answer 2

First, regarding the boundedness of the universe, here are the main options:
1. Nothing. Just define 'universe' so it includes everything.

2. Space containing no matter and perhaps even no energy.

3. There is no such thing. Space exists only as relationships between matter, so if there is no matter, there is no space. I'm not joking. Some scientists seriously consider this.

4. There is no such thing. Space is expanding along with the material universe.

5. There is no such thing. The universe is a closed topology. I don't think there is any particular evidence to support this.

6. Conjecture whatever you like. We'll never know. It's beyond our event horizon. Imagine parallel universes if that tickles your fancy.

So, we can't even say whether space is finite or bounded or growing, much less whether it had a temporal beginning. For similar reasons, we can't say whether time had a beginning.

The whole idea of the big bang is extrapolating the observed motion of the universe back in time to a single point. Any extrapolation quickly becomes unreliable the farther you extrapolate. But even if the big bang is correct all the way back to the first nanosecond, we have absolutely no basis for extrapolating beyond that.

Scientists have no trouble contemplating eternity or unbounded space (which a circle isn't). The issue of whether God created the heavens and the earth, or whether they came about by some other, unknown means, is quite independent of whether space and time are eternal or bounded. Science is working on the details of how the universe developed, but the fundamental question is where it all came from in the first place. Aside from Creation, there is no explanation, and there currently is no way of proving how it happened, Creation or something else.

Answer 3

Time is a dimension like the spatial ones, but it differs from space because it *does* have and initial (boundary) condition. That is the ultimate source of its directionality (why we remember the past, but not the future). With the discovery of "dark energy", scientists have, more or less, stopped expressing strong opinions as to whether or not the universe will eventually crunch (ending time) or expand forever. If the latter, one could say it was eternal, but it would be a rather boring eternity after some point, say, 1 trillion years from now. Everything will eventually run out of energy available to perform work and basically either freeze solid or evaporate into the cosmos. Our descendants, though, could live an isolated existence by scrounging energy here and there for a long time (depending on how clever they are), but eventually, all things must come to pass. Read Asimov's short story "The Last Question" to see what I mean.

Answer 4

'If there is no matter there is no space!' I agree with this, there can also be no time without matter. As far as there being some scientists who believe this? I have found none. In the beginning there was a pin point of pure energy and it's life span was the nanosecond before thermodynamics kicked in and heat began to flow from the pin point into the void that it came from. This energy quickly condensed into the first subatomic particles, creating matter and time. Even the famous equation, E =MC squared meant nothing during that nanosecond because the only element of it that existed was the, E, and there was no way to measure it's quantity, so the amount of matter it would convert into could not be predicted. Show me where I am wrong about this.

Answer 5

Do you mean eternal (never dying) or infinite ( having no boundaries)?
If you mean eternal as in never dying, the universe will one day die, as all the energy in it is dissipated, reaching "maximum entropy" when the stars cool and die.
As for infinite..well the universe is constantly expanding and pushing its boundaries forever outward in all directions...like an expanding balloon.
It has been suggested that the universe may ultimately slow its expansion and gravity will take over and gradually pull the universe back together in a big crunch. However some scientists feel that there is not enough matter in the universe to allow this gravitational effect to occur, and they are on the lookout for what they call "dark matter" invisible matter which will provide the required mass to generate this gravitational attraction.
As far as I know they are still looking.

Answer 6

There's no reason why it *couldn't* be eternal, but the evidence is clear that the present universe had a beginning 15 billion years ago in what's known as the Big Bang.

The evidence includes:
* background radiation, the leftovers from the BB;
* all galaxies are moving further apart from each other, and if you extrapolate backwards you get to a point where everything in the universe was concentrated in one place, known as a singularity.

This isn't to say that there wasn't anything prior to the BB; just that it's in principle inaccessible to anything in the universe.

Answer 7

there is no known edge of space...by assuming the big bang theory you accept that the universe is still growing, it always has been and it always will. if you go by creation youre going with its always been the same size...indefinite. people say the universe isnt eternal because they come up with these "laws" of phsics that are supposedly universal and can be applied to the actual universe. although they really only apply to what theyve studied on earth. im not quite sure if the universe is eternal or not, but i do know for a fact that the reason why people cant comprehend eternity is because they believe that there is no such thing as eternity. they prove a circle is not eternal by measuring the circumfrence of one, as well as putting it in a limited amount of space

Answer 8

Science is not about what "should" be, but what actually is. It makes no difference that you or I would prefer the universe to be eternal; the evidence is overwhelming that there was a beginning 13.7 Ga ago. All you have to do is look 13.7 Gly away, and you directly observe the CMB, which is the Big Bang. End of discussion.

Answer 9

I've often thought about this. Like if the universe is expanding.. then what is it expanding into? If the word 'universe' implies everything that is.. then isn't the 'something' which the universe is expanding into also part of the universe?

Answer 10

The way I see it, there are two possibilities for the existence of the universe. Either a deity created it, and that deity is eternal; or the universe itself is eternal. Something has to be eternal to avoid a repeated "So how did that get there?" process. I would rather believe that the universe itself is eternal, since we know for absolute certain that it exists.

Answer 11

Nobody knows for sure because nobody has been beyond the Moon to be able to find out.
It's all theoretical, and probably always will be!
Interesting though!