what do christians think of the m-theory?

Question

in short, to my understanding it states that the big bang was caused by the collision of two other universes. so in a sense, it answers the question what happened before the big bang. it accounts for where all the matter in our universe came from. and it does all of this without invoking god or an intelligent agent into the discussion. will christians be satisfied with this theory and stop asking what caused the big bang? if so, should we expect a new line of question to arise concerning where the two colliding universes came from?

Answer 1

I'm not a Christian, but I would say M-theory is "just a theory." It's not yet testable, unless I've missed some recent advancement in physics. (And it's entirely possible that I have missed a recent advancement... I'm not a physicist)

If it does turn out to make accurate predictions and gains widespread scientific acceptance, I think Christians will stop asking what caused the Big Bang, but will start asking "Who created the branes." (So we should expect a new line of question to arise concerning where the two colliding universes came from).

Answer 2

That is not quite what I understand M theory to say.

My understanding is that the idea is that our universe came about from the collision of two 'membranes' in an 11 dimensional multiverse. This spawned a 11 dimensional universe where 7 dimensions collapsed very quickly leaving the 4 we can perceive today.

When you can move freely in 11 dimensions, one of which is time, thinking about causality and events happening in sequence gets kind of meaningless.

M-theory is a misnomer because it does not have enough scientific evidence to justify the name 'theory' in the scientific sense. I believe that the math all hangs together fairly well and it mostly jives with how the universe is, but none of the predictions that M-theory makes have yet been tested.


Which brings up to GeeksRUs. Who has no idea what a scientific theory is and would do well to learn before making a complete idiot of himself.

To rate the moniker 'theory' in the scientific world not only must a idea support the known facts but it must make predictions about the universe and those predictions have to be experimentally tested and shown correct. And do it again and again and . . .

So a scientific theory is not just a belief in some airy-fairy concept but a rationally based explanation of the known facts.

Someone did indeed come up with a hypothesis about how the universe works that no one had before. However to get to be a scientific theory it had to prove that it is accurate multiple times over both in explaining existing facts and in making predictions which can then be tested. Something that the theists' fall back phrase "God Did It" has never had to do and I suspect never will be able to do.

Answer 3

That scenario is a bit of a slippery slope, as you point out. However, M theory does not say exactly what you do; rather, it postulates the energy of the Big Bang, and thus all the matter and energy in our Universe, was released upon the collision of two hyperdimensional superstring 'branes', not 'two other universes'.

There is also a huge imlicit difficulty in discussing causality vis à vis the creation of the Universe. That's because spacetime is a PROPERTY OF THE UNIVERSE, so it's logically inconsistent to speak of "what is outside the universe" or "what came before the universe" because neither space nor time EXISTS in those 'times' or 'places'.

I suspect fundamentalists will dispute the theory until the cows come home, but the Vatican will accept it. The Catholics learned their lesson from their treatment of Galileo Galilei! Fundamentalists, of whatever denomination, are extremely good at ignoring physical reality when it conflicts with their Holy Scripture. This is the real danger of any form of fundamentalism.

Finally, it's not even clear that there ever was a "big bang" flowing out from a single point. It is clear that 13.7 billion years ago the universe was tiny, smaller than an atom, and it expanded ferociously fast and continues to do so. But it's possible the matter and energy of the universe passed very close without actually focusing to a point, and that means the universe had at least one ancestor. However, we cannot guess as to the nature of this prior universe since the rules of physics were crushed in between.

Answer 4

It sounds like a big theory. After all, where did the other two universes come from? How many others are there? Why did they collide? It doesn't hold much water yet, so it's really hard to say. Even with the new theory I believe that natural things occur only with God's hand. So I'll ask God for the details when I get to heaven.

Answer 5

Hi,
I'm a Christian, but I have a heavy science background due to my career at IBM. I see no advantage with this Theory that can be torn apart by science. I believe that some people in academic circles have a deep aversion toward God, and they'll keep coming up with many Theories as long as they don't involve a being that created everything. That's too bad because they are missing the fact that all this was created by an Intelligence that deserves our undivided attention. Just think of what we can learn by paying attention to the greatest Teaching mind we will ever have the pleasure learning under. I'll trust my God before I'll ever place human thinking above his.

Answer 6

Well, there you go you answered your own question. You still haven't established how the first something, whether it's the Big Bang or the colliding universe or whatever it was, came from nothing.

Answer 7

They'll no doubt answer along the lines of "God created the world and anyone who believes otherwise are sinners and shall burn in hell"....

Then they'll get the odd thumbs up from fellow Christians but the majority will be thumbs down because Christians are out numbered by non Christians....unless they're in a particularly stubborn mood in which case they'll all rally together and thumbs up their own answers and have more thumbs ups than downs because non Christians don't care what they think so wont bother thumbing.

It's interesting though that the non Christian answers rarely have any thumb downs because deep down Christians know the non Christians are right so don't thumb them down.

Answer 8

Well, yes, as a matter of fact, where did the two colliding universes come from?

I'm not a fervent Christian or a physicist, but I haven't seen proof of either story yet and don't expect to. Why do we really need to know anyway?????

Answer 9

Where did the two colliding universes come from?

Answer 10

The big bang was the method god used to create the universe