Big Bang - just admit we have no freaking idea

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: Zensal
It makes your brain hurt to think about these things.

What was before the big bang? Was it another universe like ours? What is beyond the reaches of where our universe has expanded/exploded out too? Are their other "big bangs" happening out there? Where did it all come from? Why were those men with blue hands chasing River?

*head explodes*

The words "before the big bang" don't make any sense.

Neither does the big bang theory, so it works, you know.

What else should we conclude from the observation of converging historical world lines?

 

[StageLeft]

So it sounds like you have to go beyond science to actually start describing the Big Bang's origin if you cannot use its tenets to describe it or at the very least heavily caveat them.

This guy talks about Quantum physics, which sounds supra-scientific.

Even with these further details thrown in, many people feel cheated. They want to ask why these weird things happened, why there is a universe, and why this universe. Perhaps science cannot answer such questions. Science is good at telling us how, but not so good on the why. Maybe there isn't a why. To wonder why is very human, but perhaps there is no answer in human terms to such deep questions of existence. Or perhaps there is, but we are looking at the problem in the wrong way.

I rather like his last two sentences.

Here I only skimmed but it opens with

What happened before the Big Bang? The conventional answer to that question is usually, "There is no such thing as 'before the Big Bang.'" That's the event that started it all. But the right answer, says physicist Sean Carroll, is, "We just don't know." Carroll, as well as many other physicists and cosmologists have begun to consider the possibility of time before the Big Bang, as well as alternative theories of how our universe came to be.

.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Kadarin

Topic Title: Big Bang - just admit we have no freaking idea

"We don't know yet" is a perfectly valid answer, you know. It's much better than "we don't know, so God must have done it" or "there are some things that science can't answer" because both of those answers make assumptions that aren't necessarily true.

You guys are the one who turned it into a religion thread. I love physics and am always fascinated. Sure we could know at some point, but IMHO we're a long way. They've been talking about a GUT for what...25 years now? Then again we only split the atom 70+ years ago, predicted by math. But we've reached the end of Einstein IMHO. I don't think there is any experiment we can do to not have the 4 forces affect it.

The animation was hilarious - strings that looked like DNA floating around immediately after the BB, then particles bouncing around like fusion/nuclear reaction.

Skoorb - the point is not to know what happened before, but what happened at at the instant and shortly after...that's what we have no real clue about. I forget how long it was after the event that we actually understand, but it isn't long (sub second, in our view of what a second is).

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
So it sounds like you have to go beyond science to actually start describing the Big Bang's origin if you cannot use its tenets to describe it or at the very least heavily caveat them.

Not really "beyond science" - beyond our current models, and beyond what we understand about the bubble of spacetime we currently inhabit. It's no more "beyond science" than the ability to fly into space. Leaving the atmosphere was at one time such an impossible thing that the concept was pure fiction, and the idea that humans could one day do it and survive would be considered madness.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
So it sounds like you have to go beyond science to actually start describing the Big Bang's origin if you cannot use its tenets to describe it or at the very least heavily caveat them.

This guy talks about Quantum physics, which sounds supra-scientific.

Even with these further details thrown in, many people feel cheated. They want to ask why these weird things happened, why there is a universe, and why this universe. Perhaps science cannot answer such questions. Science is good at telling us how, but not so good on the why. Maybe there isn't a why. To wonder why is very human, but perhaps there is no answer in human terms to such deep questions of existence. Or perhaps there is, but we are looking at the problem in the wrong way.

I rather like his last two sentences.

Here I only skimmed but it opens with

What happened before the Big Bang? The conventional answer to that question is usually, "There is no such thing as 'before the Big Bang.'" That's the event that started it all. But the right answer, says physicist Sean Carroll, is, "We just don't know." Carroll, as well as many other physicists and cosmologists have begun to consider the possibility of time before the Big Bang, as well as alternative theories of how our universe came to be.

.

No one has ever claimed that our understanding is complete. In fact several people (myself included) have mentioned in this very thread that our understanding if incomplete. But I'm not sure what you're getting at here? Do you think the entire theory should be scrapped because we don't yet understand every detail? Do you have a better theory that explains phenomena that are PERFECTLY explained by BB theory, such as the cosmic microwave background and the divergence of virtually every galaxy in the universe? The fact is that BB theory is the best explanation we have to fit our data, no scientist is claiming to have perfect knowledge.

 

[StageLeft]

Do you think the entire theory should be scrapped because we don't yet understand every detail?

No...