Big Bang Theory: Is Everything Energy?

[JeremyL]

I have no idea what I'm talking about and I should really probably research more before I post here. Anyways, I have been thinking about the universe/life a lot lately and I was wondering if it is possible that everything we know to exist is simply expanding/evolving energy?

Could our present physical universe be the result of the big bang sending energy out in all directions which was left alone, untouched, over billions of years to only expand/evolve? Could that energy have evolved into matter, which evolved into planets and stars? Could this energy randomly form into life, which has evolved into our present self-aware human forms on Earth? Could everything that exists be explained by the unguided evolution of energy that was all originally found in the big bang?

 

[mathman]

The conversion of energy into matter took place immediately after the big bang. It was not a random process, but the result of extremely high energy photons interacting.

 

[Lost in Space]

Is energy infinite or can the total energy of the universe be calculated in the same way that mass can?

 

[Jack21222]

Is energy infinite or can the total energy of the universe be calculated in the same way that mass can?

I once read that the total energy of the universe, including mass energy and gravitational potential energy, is on the order of zero, but I'm not in a position to find a source for that, so don't quote me on that.