Does the big bang prove that the universe is eternal?

Question

According to astrophysicists the universe is expanding. It has also been stated that the universe can collapse within itself causing a reversal of the big bang. Then another big bang will ensue once the matter has condensed. So if we are in a constant state of expanding and collapsing then doesn’t this give substance to the argument that the universe is eternal? Furthermore, if the universe is eternal then how can time exist? Does this seem preposterous or is it possible we are living in falsehood bounded by a framework that does not exist? Please be serious, as if this were true the entire human race would have to reevaluate how they perceive reality.

Answer 1

Time is only a relative concept - and one that MANKIND has created.

There are already enough things in this Universe that defy our current understanding of things - thus the entire field of Quantum Mechanics!

These theories have already proven that basic concepts that we base our entire way of thinking around - such as Gravity - are flawed theories...

We simply haven't reached the proper level of understanding to properly define concepts such as "time". Thus as it currently stands, the Universe IS eternal - insofar as we CANNOT determine when it was INITIALLY created (or even HOW).

It's quite possible that the Big Bang was really the FIRST Big Bang - but it could also be the SECOND, FIFTH, or 9,548,873rd time that it has happened ;);););)

Answer 2

We know about the big bang--well, sort of, I mean there's evidence to support it.

There are several other theories attached to it. The universe seems to be expanding, but does that mean it will expand forever? Or does that mean that it will expand to a certain size and then begin to shrink, and eventually go back down to an infinitesimal point? If so, will that be it, or will all the matter in the universe being in one little point cause another big bang? Who knows? Stick around for a few billion years and find out!

This is one of those questions where science provides no answer but religion has answers that are absolutely certain! The Abrahamic religions believe that God created the universe for a purpose, and just as it began it will end someday. The Dharmic religions believe that the universe is eternal, and so are all of us who live in it, and everything is cyclical. You live, you die, you come back again, repeat until forever.

The fact is, to me it doesn't make much difference. I am not planning for the next life or the afterlife. I have enough to keep me busy for now, thank you very much.

Answer 3

this universe was produced by this big bang. if the universe collapses and produces another bigbang then it will be a different universe. that new universe can have the same laws of science as this universe or it can be different. scientist are not sure if the universe will expand forever but it seems that way since the separation of galaxies is getting faster. it is actually more complicated than that, there is the multiverse hyphothesis, and the brane hyphothesis. time is just a measurement of change and it is in fact very relative. some scientist even hypothesies that time does not really exist. your reality might be different from some other peoples perception of reality :) neither is wrong but both can be correct :)

Answer 4

Basically, no. Most people here don't seem to know that our universe is not going to collapse back onto itself, there just isn't nearly enough mass in all the cosmos to create that great a gravitational pull.

Likewise, the recent discovery of Dark Energy says that our universe is accelerating! This energy is pushing all the galaxies away from each other at an increasing rate, such that our universe will "die" as a cool, desolate place, and won't end as a "Big Crunch".

Time is another dimension in our universe. Basically, when someone says there are 3 dimensions, there are actually 4: height, width, depth, and time. That is why we live in "space/time", which is always expanding.

Answer 5

When the Hubble telescope presented evidence that most of the galaxies in the universe were rushing away from each other, science pondered this startling information. A physicist named Fred Holye had a theory called 'The Steady State Universe," he proposed that matter dissapeared from the universe and was replaced by an equal amount of new matter, to put it simply; the evidence of the moving away from each other galaxies was enough to convince him that his theory was wrong and it was he who coined 'Big Bang' to describe the new theory that science came up with. They tracked the galaxies back in time to 10-43 second, here all of the laws of physics broke down, even the famous E=MC2 was useless because what existed for that short time was only pure energy concentrated into a point called a singularity, from this point the universe began it's expansion. Science has been unable to explain where this energy came from but everyone agrees that all of the matter that exists today came from that energy. It has been calculated that there is not enough mass in the universe to slow down it's expansion, in order to equalize this scients proposed that 90% of the matter in the univese must be undetecable, they dubbed it, 'Dark matter." They reasoned that the galaxies should begin to slow down, they did not slow down, a new substace called 'Dark Energy' was proposed to account for the outward push that was behind the moving galaxies, but this is pure speculation and they readily admit if it does exist they have no idea of where it came from. Eternity is not used in science, the big bang has no relationship to such an expression. Two courses are open for debate, a closed universe in which at some time in the distant future the galaxies will slow down and begin to move back into the original position of the singularity, this model is called 'A Closed Univese.' The second is, the universe will continue to expand until it reaces a point where matter is so thinly spread out nothing will be observable, this model is called. 'An Open Universe.' That is where we stand today. The closed universe model could be argued to provide substance for your eternal universe, even if this is so, you can't disconnect time from space, it would simply mean that Time, too is eternal. In my opinion, science must come up with an answer to where the singularity came from, this leads to a quandary, if it came from a void, a term that science denies exists, then they are tillting at windmills. I hope I have not confused you.

Answer 6

wow that's a deep question. the big bang has pretty much been proven... in fact, a berkeley professor got a nobel prize for it last year...

however... the pulsating theory is still questionable... its just hypothesis for the most part. Yes, entropy should level things out, but will the universe start contracting again? It's just conjecture at this point. And there's a possibility that this is just a harmonic cycle... so theoretically time may be as inherent to the universe as a spring constant to a spring, or density to a floating object... just a period...

but to ponder over more such questions... read the Hitchhiker's guide... especially the book where Arthur meets the bird (I think its Mostly Harmless)

Answer 7

the big bang proves that the universe began. and the speed of the increasing size will determine whether or not the universe is eternal.

if the speed at which the universe expands remains the speed of light then it will never collapse.

the speed at which the universe may also slow but may remain at a speed so that the universe will never collapse. because the speed will slow down exponetially.

or the universe's expansion will stop completely and end in a big crunch.

so to answer your question the fact that there was a big bang does not ensure that the universe will never end. it simply means that the universe exists....

Answer 8

Anything that has a beginning can't be infinite.
A string with an end is a finite entity,if some way it could be infinite there would be no end
The universe is an incident that began some time after time zero it will run it's course and eventually go out of existence.
The big bang says so.

Answer 9

The Big Bang does not allude to an eternal Universe. In theory it says that ist rapidly expanding. Logically it means that there is more volume increasing than mass. So its predicting that the Universe is spreading itself so thin that it would eventually have the density of less that that of gas.The idea is not so far fectched because this is what is hapening with entropy.
We basically have a decaying Universe.

Answer 10

In order to prove the universe is or is not eternal you would have to observe either the universe going on forever or the universe collapsing in on itself. This will not happen in our lifetimes, and it won't happen for billions of years. Matter itself is inherently unstable and in about 20 billion years will collapse on itself.

As for time, that has nothing to do with the eternity or lack of eternity of the universe - that is a different concept which is related to motion and things only going a certain "direction" in time... "forward", if you will.

We do not have to reevaluate how we perceive reality based on this information - we perceive reality through our senses, and our (hopefully) intellect.