Question about religion.

[r3vbr]

Why is it so easy for people to believe in a god that has always existed, was never "created" by anything, and yet so hard for people to believe in a universe that always existed and was never "created".

Why do people say the universe HAS to have been created by something, but god doesnt need to be created.

I think it's almost a given that our universe/reality has always existed on some form or another and there wasn't ever a beginning or will never be an end.

"start" and "finish" are human concepts that don't apply to the laws of physics.

If you believe the big bang theory, our universe did not always exist. A law in physics is the conservation of matter and energy. Where did the matter and energy come from to ignite the big bang?
Also, you stated that a "start" isn't a concept of physics. I'll grant that all time began at the big bang and therefore, it is meaningless to describe what happened before, but this is simply not satisfying. I WANT to know, by golly, what happened before the big bang.

"'start' and 'finish' are human concepts that don't apply to the laws of physics."

Do the laws of physics apply to those concepts? I see no relation so I don't know what relevance that statement has.

However, I see what you are saying. Many people believe what they want to believe without a rational basis for it. It's frustrating.

[hmkpoker]

I believe very, very loosely that time had a "start" at the big bang, that there was no "before" because space-time is infinite, and all the other stuff that modern physics has figured out.

I don't comprehend it very well, I'm not certain of it, and I'm not terribly attached to the belief. One day I hope to look into it further because it is pretty interesting, but not right now.

However, it is incredibly naive to look at the world, say "hey, it had to come from somewhere...so god must exist!", which leads us to the OP's post.

The idea that the universe existed infinitely into the past is a big part of eastern religion, and in fact something I believed for a long while. Whether it's true or not is hard to comprehend without a boatload of science, but no reasonable person can jump to the conclusion that an incomprehensible omnipotent, omniscient deity must exist to explain creation. That's a cop-out.

Good post.

[David Steele]

A law in physics is the conservation of matter and energy. Where did the matter and energy come from to ignite the big bang?

There can be various anti-this with positive that.
Conservation of Energy is more consistant with something like the big bang, at least it all adds up to zero at some point.


I WANT to know, by golly, what happened before the big bang.

Are you also curious where on earth is north of the north poll?

Dave

[r3vbr]

I don't believe specificlly in the big bang theorem.. maybe the universe expands and contracts in cycles, therefore in a billion years things are going to start attracting itself one another until it all compresses itself into a particle of infinite mass witch at some point explodes and therefore an infinite number of big bangs over our existence.

Or, another plausible explanation is that there was no big bang.

All I know is, whatever the explanation is, it didnt have a beginning. universe always existed in some form or another.

matter has no beginning and no end.. it's just transforming itself