Posted on 11/03/2005 3:50:05 AM PST by Mike Fieschko
A quick clarification. There is no "before". Not only space and matter, but time itself sprang forth from the hand of God at the creation. There can be no concept of time where there is no dimension or substance.
And at the ending of creation there will - again - be no more time. There will be ... something else.
Overtime?
So, if the universe is expanding, then time might be doing the same, and seven days 13.7 billion years ago was not the same as seven days now. It actually compressed more events into less observable time. Factor in the relativistic changes of time as a commodity traveling at near the speed of light as it spreads through the void, along with the universe, and you've got some serious, mind-bending computations going on.
Indeed, something came from nothing - that is what the fact of a beginning has shown. As Jastrow observed, the fact of a beginning of space/time (geometry) is the most theological statement to ever come out of science.
Every cosmological model of an infinite past has failed. All cosmologies (big bang, multi-verse, multi-world, Level IV, ekpyrotic, cyclic, hesitating, chaotic inflation, imaginary time, etc.) - all of them - require a beginning because they all rely on geometry and causality.
In the void in which there was a beginning there is no space, no time, no energy, no matter, no physical laws, no physical constants, no mathematical structures, no geometry, no physical causality.
Again, I assert there is no physical causality in the void.
Thus a beginning requires an uncaused cause, a prime mover, a "great Geometer" - the only possible candidate for such being God Himself.
Time is geometric - a fact that many people cannot seem to fathom as they insist that physical reality consists of three spatial dimensions evolving over time.
But in special relativity, we see space/time as a hypercube of 4 dimensions (x, y, z and t for time). General relativity is similar except that space/time itself is warped.
Massive objects with high positive gravity form indentations of space/time from which an object can only escape by achieving a certain velocity. Even light bends under the influence of the indentations and in black holes, light cannot escape.
The Equivalence Principle shows that inertial mass equals gravitational mass (roughly, all objects fall with the same acceleration). Thus, if one were in the vicinity of a black hole for a week, 40 years might elapse on earth. Likewise, if you traveled through space at the speed of one earth’s gravity, in 25.3 years of your voyage, 5x1010 years would elapse on earth.
For more on the subject:
Actually, gravity is more of a constant acceleration than a speed (32 feet per second per second), so at that acceleration you'd eventually reach relativistic speeds. I don't have the chops to figure that one out quickly, though.
I'm really not picking nits here but...
G-d Spoke the universe into existance. He uttered the Word, and the universe sprang forth.
I've always thought the idea was rather beautiful. There is power in words. Someday, I hope to be able to ask what the Word was.
The second link which is an animated explanation of special relativity from the postulates forward, steps through the specific calculation at the page titled: "the spacetime wheel"
Thank you so much for your encouragement!
Simply, amen.
This is my point. There has to be something.
Thank you so much for your amen!!!
Photoshop is an excellent tool for astronomical imaging and processing of low light, deep space objects, and can remove unwanted imaging artifacts, while enhancing other objects in the images.
Hawkings actually goes much deeper than that, although his thoughts begin with the mass-energy equivilence and quantum "changes" between different indeterminate states of mass.
Basically, he theorizes that, at the center of a black hole, mass - being equal to energy, can "leave" the black hole.
Interesting how in a dream a simple "plot" can take all night to proceed.. and a complex "plot"(in a dream) can proceed during a brief nap.. its like time is not very important in a human dream.. like in a human dream... time is relative..
Ever notice that in you're dreams.?... I have in mine.. maybe human dreams are getting "us" ready for something.. so it will not seem strange to us when that something happens.. Since "we" experienced "relative time" all our lives..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.