? for those who believe in the big bang theory but don't believe in a God or a creator?

Question

If there was no creator of the universe, (God or whatever you want to call it) and if the big bang is fact where did the original ball of mass that exploded and became the universe come from?

Answer 1

i don't know. there is as yet no evidence relevant to this question. various hypotheses are the subject of current research, including models where the universe is uncaused or self-caused, and also models where some pre-existing material was the cause.

'The term "big bang" is really a misnomer.'

it's worse than that actually, the term was coined by fred hoyle, who was a die hard steady state theorist. he wanted to paint the theory as ridiculous... despite this the name stuck. scientists can be whimsical about names because they know that it's the details of theory and observation that really count. sometimes it makes for bad public relations though.

Answer 2

I think it's best not to think of the big bang as an explosion. The term "big bang" is really a misnomer. I prefer to think of it, instead, as a time when the universe was substantially hotter and denser than it is today.
There are a number of different ideas, such as that the universe undergoes eternal inflation (the universe is infinitely large and is rapidly expanding for all eternity) but every once in a while a pocket in the universe undergoes a spontaneous phase change (this is akin to the spontaneous decay of a particle, we observe that happen all the time and it is fundamentally an uncaused and completely unpredictable event, you can estimate the probability that it will happen but you can't say when it will happen. The fact that this is true may seem to violate common sense which says that everything has to have a cause - but our experience in observing the world has repeatedly taught us that our common sense is often wrong and that it is a bad measure for determining the truth of things). When a region of the universe undergoes this change it ceases to expand so rapidly and what you get is a local big bang. Another theory is that preceding the big bang there was a big crunch of a previous universe. Or perhaps when a star collapses into a black hole it gives rise to a big bang with the constants of nature of the new universe slightly adjusted from the previous one (in this way you get a sort of natural selection of universes that leads to universes that are very good at producing black holes - something our universe does well). Or perhaps the universe simply did spring into existence from nothing (this is not unprecedented, in the vacuum particles and their anti-particles pop into existence from nothing all the time.

Answer 3

First of all, we don't "believe" in the big bang, we simply observe the evidence and have concluded that it is the most plausible explanation of the beginnings of the universe as we know it. Key words, "as we know it." There is a great deal of evidence that tells us what happened back to a few milliseconds after the big bang. It is the effects that we see that led to the theory of the big bang. We do not know, yet, what happened precisely at the time of the big bang nor, and this is important, what happened before the big bang. Also, we have been able to study only the observable universe. We do not know that this is the only universe. The main point is, although we have a great deal of evidence that indicates the effects of the big bang right up to shortly after it occurred, we don't have any way to know yet, what happened when it occurred. We may be working on this one forever. But one thing is certain. We have no evidence to suggest a better, more plausible theory. Including creation.

Answer 4

Actually, I don't "believe" in either - the BB is a credible theory, but it has some issues. The god concept, however, has even bigger holes; if the original ball of mass had to "come from" somewhere, then how in the world did an incredibly complex and powerful being spriung into existence?

Answer 5

Silly person, space and time were created with the Big Bang, so time did not exist before the Big Bang so there was nothing before the Big Bang and now I'm just waving my hands around because I don't know what I'm talking about.

Basically that's what the Big Bang explanation boils down to.

Answer 6

If you understood the Big Bang Theory it would be apparent to you that there was no "ball of mass," nor is there anything in the theory that says so.

Mass does not imply "ball". It doesn't even imply anything you can see.

I believe in God and I believe in the Big Bang Theory. Go figure.

Answer 7

I think if you really are interested in knowing the answer to this question, there are some really great books you could pick up (A Short History of Nearly Everything, for example - a very easy read in layman's terms). If you're just interested in being argumentative, as I think many Christians are, then there's nothing I can say that will make you feel any differently than you do. But trust me - you can say something, a proponent of the BBT can say something back, you say something - and so on and on it goes. Truth only comes to those who really seek it.

Answer 8

I've always thought that, too! It's nice to hear that someone agrees with me!
People always say there's no proof of a god, but i personally think that the existence of the universe proves the existence of some sort of deity, because how could the universe have gotten here by itself??? There are so many people who say it's unscientific to believe in god, but i think it's unscientific not to believe in any sort of deity because one of the fundamental rules of science is that spontaneous creation is impossible.

Answer 9

Actually, matter and energy have always existed in one form or another (hence the law of conservation of energy). So, the Big Bang was really just one event in an eternal sequence of events.

With that having been said, I am not saying that there is no God. I don't know if there is one. Sometimes I feel like there is one, and sometimes I wonder if there isn't one.

Answer 10

One thing is to study the universe and its laws and learn SOME of them to clarify how galaxies are formed, how planets come into existence and how living organisms begin from simple chemical reactions to ever more complex animals and humans with brains.

An entirely different thing is to say: Since we can't explain EVERYTHING, let's give us an answer by inventing a mystical consciousness as the origin of everything and park our brains once and for all!

God is always the easiest answer to everything we can't and do not want to explain and understand.