creation of the universe

[Ricter]

All statements about the universe are, more meaningfully imho, statements by the universe.

 

[kjkent1]

Quote from Ricter:

Nice thought, Kent.

I agree with Watts when he said that if a thing has happened once, it can probably happen again. In line with that I tend to believe that our Big Bang is not the only Big Bang there has ever been, and of course it won't be the last.

I agree. I'd wager that when a star winks out of this universe by falling into a gravity well and creating a black hole, that this simultaneously is the "big bang" of a new universe.

Imagine a water balloon made of extremely plyable material. Then shake the balloon and watch all the places where turbulance causes the balloon to distend by expansion and then contraction. This is three dimensional imagery. Now try to imagine it in four dimensions of space-time.

In local space there is friction and entropy which causes the balloon to eventually settle down in to a state of complete inertia. But, in the cosmic space there is no friction to slow the process of expansion and contraction of matter and energy escaping one universe to create another.

Point being that there could be this one cosmic sized space balloon that just keeps on oscillating in all manner of directions, with each universe separated by the inability of light/information to escape the singularity.

The final question, as always, is: What's outside the balloon?

The answer is the supernatural universe -- or perhaps nothing at all.

The notion of there being nothing at all out there and that the universe simply existed forever seems impossible to our dinky minds. But, once again, if the possibilities are limitless, then so are the answers, and what we view as impossible, may in fact, be true.

Or, maybe there's an old man with a beard out there somewhere who likes to make universes in his spare time.

I recommend a book by Robert Heinlein, "The Numbers of the Beast." He pretty much covers this territory by suggesting that any thought in one universe becomes reality in another. The thought creates the reality. In the novel, the hero invents a machine that can traverse these universes, and the results get "curiouser and curiouser."

Life is too short. I would like to explore this universe at some length, but I won't have time -- at least, not in this lifetime -- but, maybe in the next -- if one exists for me.

 

[kjkent1]

Quote from archimedes:

What if the inherently unknowable origins of the universe are a powerful (and useful) statement about the nature of reality and purpose? Any of y'all wild guessers think of that?

If you mean that since the universe is unknowable, then ultimately so is everything else, I agree.

What we know is relative to where we are in space-time. The further from our current frame of referece we travel, the less meaningful become our measurements taken from a different observation point.

Scientific knowlege is very likely extremely location specific. But, since we can't really travel to any place far away in a shortened time span to test the hypothesis, we can never know.

We need a means of exceeding the speed of light. Unless and until we find one, our knowledge of the universe will remain extremely attenuated.

 

[jzlucas]

Quote from Ricter:


I tend to believe that our Big Bang is not the only Big Bang there has ever been, and of course it won't be the last.

Do you believe in numerous universe's, or one continuous oscillating universe, as some have suggested?

 

[TSGannGalt]

... hrmmm.... "CREATED?"

Does a chicken create another chicken?

Was I created by my Mom and Dad?

Did I create my computer program????

This George Washington create the USA????

"CREATE" may not be the correct expression... though, I don't know what is...

 

[archimedes]

Quote from kjkent1:

If you mean that since the universe is unknowable, then ultimately so is everything else, I agree.

But the universe is knowable to a significant degree--just not the ultimate degree.

There are certain things that are unknowable, but other things that are emininently knowable, to as great a degree as we have meaning for the term.

What if reality is like a cosmic Rubik's Cube, and it is our job, separately as individuals and collectively as civilization, to figure out the puzzle without peeking? What if certain particulars of the knowable / unknowable dilemma are actually clues to the solution?

Take an eastern mystic atom and a logical positivist atom, smash them together in a particle accelerator, and see what you get...

 

[pattersb]

someone pass the bong, so I can properly contribute to this discussion.