I Could it be that the Big Bang had no cause?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the idea that we have no concrete understanding of the universe before the Big Bang, leading to speculation about the nature of existence beyond it. It raises the possibility that cause and effect may not apply outside the universe, suggesting a state of "nothingness." However, participants emphasize that discussing events beyond observable phenomena veers into metaphysics and philosophy, which are not permitted in the forum. Consequently, the thread was closed due to these considerations. The conversation highlights the limitations of our knowledge regarding the origins of the universe.
donglepuss
Messages
17
Reaction score
4
TL;DR Summary
Could it be that everything in the universe is described by cause and effect, but we have no reason to believe that cause and effect remains valid outside of the universe?
Everything that I’ve researched into this seems to suggest that we know absolutely nothing about the universe at the beginning of the Big Bang event. Could it be that just nothing is there? Could everything in the universe be described by cause and effect, yet cause and effect does not apply outside of the universe itself?

Thanks :)
 
Space news on Phys.org
donglepuss said:
TL;DR Summary: Could it be that everything in the universe is described by cause and effect, but we have no reason to believe that cause and effect remains valid outside of the universe?

Everything that I’ve researched into this seems to suggest that we know absolutely nothing about the universe at the beginning of the Big Bang event. Could it be that just nothing is there? Could everything in the universe be described by cause and effect, yet cause and effect does not apply outside of the universe itself?

Thanks :)
We have no knowledge of “outside of the universe.” Therefore you are asking for baseless speculation.
 
  • Like
Likes Astronuc, russ_watters and PeterDonis
And more rigorously inline with PF rules, the question of what may or may not have happened at an event we cannot observe is really more about metaphysics and philosophy, which are expressly forbidden topics for this very reason. Sorry, donglepuss.
 
  • Like
Likes russ_watters and pinball1970
Frabjous said:
We have no knowledge of “outside of the universe.” Therefore you are asking for baseless speculation.
DaveC426913 said:
the question of what may or may not have happened at an event we cannot observe is really more about metaphysics and philosophy, which are expressly forbidden topics for this very reason.
In the light of these valid comments, this thread is closed.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombination_(cosmology) Was a matter density right after the decoupling low enough to consider the vacuum as the actual vacuum, and not the medium through which the light propagates with the speed lower than ##({\epsilon_0\mu_0})^{-1/2}##? I'm asking this in context of the calculation of the observable universe radius, where the time integral of the inverse of the scale factor is multiplied by the constant speed of light ##c##.
The formal paper is here. The Rutgers University news has published a story about an image being closely examined at their New Brunswick campus. Here is an excerpt: Computer modeling of the gravitational lens by Keeton and Eid showed that the four visible foreground galaxies causing the gravitational bending couldn’t explain the details of the five-image pattern. Only with the addition of a large, invisible mass, in this case, a dark matter halo, could the model match the observations...
Hi, I’m pretty new to cosmology and I’m trying to get my head around the Big Bang and the potential infinite extent of the universe as a whole. There’s lots of misleading info out there but this forum and a few others have helped me and I just wanted to check I have the right idea. The Big Bang was the creation of space and time. At this instant t=0 space was infinite in size but the scale factor was zero. I’m picturing it (hopefully correctly) like an excel spreadsheet with infinite...

Similar threads

Replies
11
Views
3K
Replies
17
Views
3K
Replies
13
Views
5K
Replies
20
Views
1K
Replies
25
Views
3K
Replies
25
Views
3K
Back
Top