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To: yonif
I've always wondered where the material came from to make the bang. Every time I ask someone with a scientific background I get a less than complete answer.

Actually no one seems to know. How could they? No one saw it.

So, what we have is a Big Bang Religion among the very big-brained people who pooh pooh religion.

I find that ironic.
11 posted on 06/23/2003 11:53:37 AM PDT by Noachian
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To: Noachian
where the material came from to make the bang

The discontinuity at the origin is necessary for the presence of material in the universe. Without the discontinuity, the universe would be absolutely empty, although it might be otherwise identical to our present universe.

13 posted on 06/23/2003 11:59:31 AM PDT by RightWhale (gazing at shadows)
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To: Noachian
I've always wondered where the material came from to make the bang. Every time I ask someone with a scientific background I get a less than complete answer.

Actually no one seems to know.

Either you've never actually asked anybody who was in a position to know, or you struggle mightily to evade the answer (like many on FR). The correct answer seems to be that it didn't have to "come from" anywhere. The total energy of the universe is zero (or something excruciatingly close to it). If the energy weren't zero, the universe wouldn't be flat.

I know that the universe doesn't look like it has zero energy: after all you certainly exist and have nonzero energy, to say nothing of galaxies. What you're neglecting is that gravitational fields have negative energy, and space--giganitic as it is--is filled with them over cosmically large volumes. There is a gigantic cancellation when you add all the huge energies together. The fact that the universe is flat, even at the largest visible scales, means that the cancellation is more exact than we could ever measure.

How could they? No one saw it.

Do you believe the moon is in orbit about the Earth, even when you're not looking? Why?

30 posted on 06/23/2003 12:37:17 PM PDT by Physicist
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To: Noachian
Every time I ask someone with a scientific background I get a less than complete answer.

I have an answer. I don't claim that it's complete, and it's hardly satisfying, but I find it to be very, very honest. My answer is "I do not know". Given that I do not know, assuming anything -- including that the matter was 'always there' or that some divine agent zap-poofed it into existence -- is a leap of faith that I'm not willing to take. I just know that the matter is here NOW. I don't claim to have any clue as to where it ultimately originated.

So, what we have is a Big Bang Religion among the very big-brained people who pooh pooh religion.

Wow. So everyone who accepts the big bang hypothesis as a valid possiblity 'pooh-poohs' religion? Do you honestly believe that there are no theists who accept that hypothesis? Further, how exactly is the big bang a "religion"?
36 posted on 06/23/2003 1:13:48 PM PDT by Dimensio (Sometimes I doubt your committment to Sparkle Motion!)
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To: Noachian
Dear Abby,
Once upon a nothing
Something blew apart?
I'm just a big bang nothing?
But wow, what interesting parts!
Confused
53 posted on 06/23/2003 1:54:19 PM PDT by kkindt (knightforhire.com)
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