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GuitarClef t1_j79jujr wrote

The big bang doesn't say anything about the origin of everything. It says at one point in the past (14ish billion years ago) the universe was gathered together in one ultra dense singularity. Then--for some reason--there was an expansion, which continues on today.

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nyg8 t1_j79mzfy wrote

It doesn't even postulate that the expansion started at that point. Only what we would describe as "time" started. It's entirely plausible that the universe is unbound in space, thus expanding for all eternity.

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mech_man_86 t1_j79n95e wrote

I don't find the question about what happened "before" (not a great word but I'll use it) space-time existed to be very interesting. We live in a universe where space time appears to be a thing so what's it matter what happens outside of it? The religious definitely think everything came from nothing, they just add the extra step of "god" in the middle.

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DaddyCatALSO t1_j79tubo wrote

One explanation i read long ago is thta an empty universe is perfectly predictable so the Big Bang resulted from the Uncertainty Principle.

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Jarlentium t1_j79tt93 wrote

This is the same mindset agnostics have about the supernatural

"eh, by definition can't be understood, no point in worrying about it"

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YesWeHaveNoTomatoes t1_j79vo77 wrote

At least as far as physics, cosmology, other space sciences, etc, are concerned, if the answer to "can we do science about it?" is No, then ... yeah. By definition the question cannot be answered by science so science isn't going to worry about it.

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HiEnd88 t1_j79pyqq wrote

I was waiting for the ) but it just kept going.

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St33lbutcher t1_j79wg4m wrote

>We live in a universe where space time appears to be a thing so what's it matter what happens outside of it?

Why do we do science at all?

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mech_man_86 t1_j7asng1 wrote

We do science on this universe. Science doesn't really work for things "before" spacetime existed because its whole method requires cause and effect which is a product of spacetime. Just get it man...

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St33lbutcher t1_j7b9qtv wrote

Trust me, we will do science on other universes as soon as we are able. We're just missing the tech right now.

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[deleted] t1_j79quyf wrote

[deleted]

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mech_man_86 t1_j79rjpp wrote

"What time was before time?" Is a nonsensical question. What happened before the big bang is the same question said in another way. It's equally nonsensical.

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hardcore_hero t1_j79txzg wrote

Yep, it’s an interesting paradox, it’s like putting the line of code that starts a program, inside the program itself. The line will never be read because the program has to run in order to execute the line that starts the program. You would think it would be a completely useless program, but here we are.

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mech_man_86 t1_j79rcfq wrote

You are applying the rules of space time to something that by definition does not follow the rules of spacetime.

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pithecium t1_j79trxx wrote

The theory doesn't say that the universe was gathered together and then started to expand at some point. The theory only goes back to a time when the universe was very dense and hot and already expanding rapidly. Before that, we simply don't know, because we don't have a theory of quantum gravity.

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