Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Unanswered Questions of the Big Bang

 


With the exception of the first four videos - two for fun and two re Time and General Relativity the remaining videos are not arranged in any order except how you, the viewer, chose to view them.

As always, my interest in the process-underpinnings of our cosmology necessitates first knowing about the universe we live in so that it may better inform the processes which live everywhere around us. For newbies, I'm referring to Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy and theology.

R.E. Slater
October 19, 2021
REFERENCES






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BBC - How Big is Our Universe
November 11, 2021

How big is the universe ... compared with a grain of sand? 'You'll never get your head around how big the universe is,' warns astronomer Pete Edwards of the University of Durham in this film about measuring astronomical distances. 'There are as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on the Earth.' So how far is a light year? And supposing our galaxy were the size of a grain of sand, how big would the universe be?





What Triggered the Big Bang? | How the Universe Works
Mar 7, 2020

Science Channel

The Big Bang is one of science's most famous theories, but we now know it wasn't big and it wasn't a bang.

Stream Full Episodes of How the Universe Works:




Brian Greene Hosts: Reality Since Einstein
Jul 23, 2015

World Science Festival

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein's general theory of relativity, leaders from multiple fields of physics discuss its essential insights, its lingering questions, the latest work it has sparked, and the allied fields of research that have resulted.




Time Since Einstein
496,737 viewsSep 11, 2014

World Science Festival

Albert Einstein shattered previous ideas about time, but left many pivotal questions unanswered: Does time have a beginning? An end? Why does it move in only one direction? Is it real, or something our minds impose on reality? Journalist John Hockenberry leads a distinguished panel, including renowned physicist Sir Roger Penrose and prominent philosopher David Albert, as they explore the nature of time.

Quantum Fields:
The Real Building Blocks of the Universe - with David Tong
Feb 15, 2017

The Royal Institution

According to our best theories of physics, the fundamental building blocks of matter are not particles, but continuous fluid-like substances known as 'quantum fields'. David Tong explains what we know about these fields, and how they fit into our understanding of the Universe.

The Matter Of Antimatter:
Answering The Cosmic Riddle Of Existence
Jun 6, 2018

World Science Festival

You exist. You shouldn’t. Stars and galaxies and planets exist. They shouldn’t. The nascent universe contained equal parts matter and antimatter that should have instantly obliterated each other, turning the Big Bang into the Big Fizzle. And yet, here we are: flesh, blood, stars, moons, sky. Why? Come join us as we dive deep down the rabbit hole of solving the mystery of the missing antimatter.

A Thin Sheet of Reality: The Universe as a Hologram
Dec 29, 2014

World Science Festival

What we touch. What we smell. What we feel. They’re all part of our reality. But what if life as we know it reflects only one side of the full story? Some of the world’s leading physicists think that this may be the case. They believe that our reality is a projection—sort of like a hologram—of laws and processes that exist on a thin surface surrounding us at the edge of the universe. Although the notion seems outlandish, it’s a long-standing theory that initially emerged years ago from scientists studying black holes; recently, a breakthrough in string theory propelled the idea into the mainstream of physics. What took place was an intriguing discussion on the cutting-edge results that may just change the way we view reality.




The Limits of Understanding
Dec 14, 2014

World Science Festival

This statement is false. Think about it, and it makes your head hurt. If it’s true, it’s false. If it’s false, it’s true. In 1931, Austrian logician Kurt Gödel shocked the worlds of mathematics and philosophy by establishing that such statements are far more than a quirky turn of language: he showed that there are mathematical truths which simply can’t be proven. In the decades since, thinkers have taken the brilliant Gödel’s result in a variety of directions–linking it to limits of human comprehension and the quest to recreate human thinking on a computer. This program explores Gödel’s discovery and examines the wider implications of his revolutionary finding. Participants include mathematician Gregory Chaitin, author Rebecca Goldstein, astrophysicist Mario Livio and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky.


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PHILOSOPHY / PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE / THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Whitehead’s Anti-Substantivilism, or
Process & Reality as a Cosmology to-be.
Thought-of-the-Day 39.0

JUNE 13, 2017 ALT-EXPLOIT


Treating “stuff” as some kind of metaphysical primitive is mere substantivilism – and fundamentally question-begging. One has replaced an extra-theoretic referent of the wave-function (unless one defers to some quasi-literalist reading of the nature of the stochastic amplitude function ζ[X(t)] as somehow characterizing something akin to being a “density of stuff”, and moreover the logic and probability (Born Rules) must ultimately be obtained from experimentally obtained scattering amplitudes) with something at least as equally mystifying, as the argument against decoherence goes on to show:

In other words, you have a state vector which gives rise to an outcome of a measurement and you cannot understand why this is so according to your theory.

As a response to Platonism, one can likewise read Process and Reality as essentially anti-substantivilist.

Consider, for instance:

Those elements of our experience which stand out clearly and distinctly [giving rise to our substantial intuitions] in our consciousness are not its basic facts, [but] they are . . . late derivatives in the concrescence of an experiencing subject. . . .Neglect of this law [implies that] . . . [e]xperience has been explained in a thoroughly topsy-turvy fashion, the wrong end first (161).
To function as an object is to be a determinant of the definiteness of an actual occurrence [occasion] (243).

The phenomenological ontology offered in Process and Reality is richly nuanced (including metaphysical primitives such as prehensions, occasions, and their respectively derivative notions such as causal efficacy, presentational immediacy, nexus, etc.). None of these suggest metaphysical notions of substance (i.e., independently existing subjects) as a primitive. The case can perhaps be made concerning the discussion of eternal objects, but such notions as discussed vis-à-vis the process of concrescence are obviously not metaphysically primitive notions. Certainly these metaphysical primitives conform in a more nuanced and articulated manner to aspects of process ontology. “Embedding” – as the notion of emergence is a crucial constituent in the information-theoretic, quantum-topological, and geometric accounts. Moreover, concerning the issue of relativistic covariance, it is to be regarded that Process and Reality is really a sketch of a cosmology-to-be . . . [in the spirit of ] Kant [who] built on the obsolete ideas of space, time, and matter of Euclid and Newton. Whitehead set out to suggest what a philosophical cosmology might be that builds beyond Newton [ala quantum physics].



Amazon Link

One of the major philosophical texts of the 20th century, Process and Reality is based on Alfred North Whitehead’s influential lectures that he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in the 1920s on process philosophy.

Whitehead’s master work in philsophy, Process and Reality propounds a system of speculative philosophy, known as process philosophy, in which the various elements of reality [are interwoven] into a consistent relation to each other. It is also an exploration of some of the preeminent thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Descartes, Newton, Locke, and Kant.

The ultimate edition of Whitehead’s magnum opus, Process and Reality is a standard reference for scholars of all backgrounds.


Monday, October 18, 2021

Timeline of the Universe AFTER the Big Bang




Hi,

I have put these videos in an order where each will build on the next. However, the most vital video is this first one which speaks to the quantum beginnings of the universe. I consider its content the most important so that when viewing the remaining videos the viewer may understand why something is occurring and/or what is missing in the other presentations. It's short, but filled with important information. Once grasped, it will give the viewer a "grand quantum perspective" of the universe's origins.

Secondly, I'm interested in looking at the cosmos through the lens of Process Philosophy and Theology, ala Alfred North Whitehead. This approach to the postmodern sciences undergirds everything we currently know - and will know - in the foreseeable future. Yes, a bold claim, but the more I get to know about our Process-based cosmos the more I am amazed at its practicality and helpfulness.

Process forms and theory can be found everywhere - from process-evolution, process-based quantum physics, quantum computing, quantum biology, socio-economic constructions, history, literature, religion, even language, psychology, sociology, and ecodynamics. This is why process philosophy is considered a meta- or mega- Integral Theory by which I mean, all else may easily reside as incomplete parts and pieces to the metaphysical and cosmological whole. As such, it has effectively replaced the long lived Platonism of the ages. To know more about process philosophy search the topic index for the several process-related indices on the right side of this website, Relevancy22.

In sum, it cannot do to speak process without understanding how creation operates in a process fashion. The mathematician cum philosopher, Whitehead, a contemporary and fellow academy member with theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, would not have it any other way.

R.E. Slater
October 18, 2021





Origins of the Universe 101 | National Geographic
Mar 1, 2018


National Geographic
How old is the universe, and how did it begin? Throughout history, countless myths and scientific theories have tried to explain the universe's origins. The most widely accepted explanation is the big bang theory. Learn about the explosion that started it all and how the universe grew from the size of an atom to encompass everything in existence today.






TIMELAPSE OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE
Mar 9, 2018


melodysheep
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/melodysheep On a cosmic time scale, human history is as brief as the blink of an eye. By compressing all 13.8 billion years of time into a 10 minute scale, this video shows just how young we truly are, and just how ancient and vast our universe is. Starting with the big bang and culminating in the appearance of homo sapiens, this experience follows the unfolding of time at 22 million years per second, adhering closely to current scientific understanding.

Narration by Brian Cox, Carl Sagan, and David Attenborough.





The Beginning of Everything -- The Big Bang
Mar 3, 2014


Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
How did everything get started?
Has the universe a beginning or was it here since forever? Well, evidence suggests that there was indeed a starting point to this universe we are part of right now. But how can this be? How can something come from nothing? And what about time? We don't have all the answers yet so let's talk about what we know.





Explaining The Big Bang One TRILLIONTH Of A Second At A Time
Episode 4 of 5
Apr 21, 2016


The universe is everything we can see and as far as we can see. For years we've been trying to figure out how it all began, but have we finally figured out how everything came to be?





Timeline of Universe (Big Bang to Today)
[a recap of the above... get your notebooks out to take down the dates times]
Oct 2, 2017


Astrogeekz
The Big Bang Theory is one of the most accepted theories that can explain the formation of the Universe. 

You, me, our planet and this entire Universe have evolved from a singularity.

Watch this video to get a brief idea about the past and the beginning of our expanding Universe.





The Early Universe Explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Jun 26, 2021


Science Time
Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the early state of our Universe. At the beginning of the universe, ordinary space and time developed out of a primeval state, where all matter and energy of the entire visible universe was contained in a hot, dense point called a gravitational singularity. A billionth the size of a nuclear particle. 

While we can not imagine the entirety of the visible universe being a billion times smaller than a nuclear particle, that shouldn't deter us from wondering about the early state of our universe. However, dealing with such extreme scales is immensely counter-intuitive and our evolved brains and senses have no capacity to grasp the depths of reality in the beginning of cosmic time. Therefore, scientists develop mathematical frameworks to describe the early universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson also mentions that our senses are not necessarily the best tools to use in science when uncovering the mysteries of the Universe.

It is interesting to note that in the early Universe, high densities and heterogeneous conditions could have led sufficiently dense regions to undergo gravitational collapse, forming black holes. These types of Primordial black holes are hypothesized to have formed soon after the Big Bang. Going from one mystery to the next, some evidence suggests a possible Link Between Primordial Black Holes and Dark Matter.

In modern physics, antimatter is made up of elementary particles, each of which has the same mass as their corresponding matter counterparts -- protons, neutrons and electrons -- but the opposite charges and magnetic properties.

A collision between any particle and its anti-particle partner leads to their mutual annihilation, giving rise to various proportions of intense photons, gamma rays and neutrinos. The majority of the total energy of annihilation emerges in the form of ionizing radiation. If surrounding matter is present, the energy content of this radiation will be absorbed and converted into other forms of energy, such as heat or light. The amount of energy released is usually proportional to the total mass of the collided matter and antimatter, in accordance with Einstein's mass–energy equivalence equation.

Antimatter particles bind with each other to form antimatter, just as ordinary particles bind to form normal matter. For example, a positron (the antiparticle of the electron) and an antiproton (the antiparticle of the proton) can form an anti-hydrogen atom.

While these cosmic quandaries keep astrophysicists up at night, we are more than grateful to be alive in a time where we can even begin to contemplate the mysteries of the universe and our place in it.



click here to enlarge



The Entire History of the Universe in 8 Minutes
[How stars, galaxies, and the solar system began]
Oct 26, 2020

How did the Universe begin? When the Big Bang occurred, for some time, there was nothing but very hot matter flying in all directions at the speed of light. Very shortly, though, the first star appeared. Its name was Methuselah, and for a long time, it confused astronomers who believed it might be older than the Universe itself.

Soon after, on a cosmic scale, of course, the first black holes started forming. Scientists believe they’re what’s left of exploded stars, but that’s not for sure even today. At the same time, cosmic dust and matter began ionizing, helping to form new stars. In the end, it led to thousands and then millions of stars appearing in space. The Universe, left cold after the initial enormous explosion, started heating up again. But how did galaxies form? How were stars born? And why is the Universe still expanding?



click here to enlarge



TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K)
Mar 20, 2019


Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/melodysheep  |  Get the soundtrack: https://bit.ly/2HKl9fi  |   How's it all gonna end?  This experience takes us on a journey to the end of time, trillions of years into the future, to discover what the fate of our planet and our universe may ultimately be. 

We start in 2019 and travel exponentially through time, witnessing the future of Earth, the death of the sun, the end of all stars, proton decay, zombie galaxies, possible future civilizations, exploding black holes, the effects of dark energy, alternate universes, the final fate of the cosmos - to name a few.

This is a picture of the future as painted by modern science - a picture that will surely evolve over time as we dig for more clues to how our story will unfold. Much of the science is very recent - and new puzzle pieces are still waiting to be found.

To me, this overhead view of time gives a profound perspective - that we are living inside the hot flash of the Big Bang, the perfect moment to soak in the sights and sounds of a universe in its glory days, before it all fades away.  Although the end will eventually come, we have a practical infinity of time to play with if we play our cards right. The future may look bleak, but we have enormous potential as a species. 

Featuring the voices of David Attenborough, Craig Childs, Brian Cox, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michelle Thaller, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Mike Rowe, Phil Plait, Janna Levin, Stephen Hawking, Sean Carroll, Alex Filippenko, and Martin Rees.






What Was The Universe Like IMMEDIATELY After The Big Bang?
[The Science behind the Big Bang]
Apr 30, 2021




click here to enlarge



Friday, October 15, 2021

Timeline of the Universe BEFORE the Big Bang - OF PRIMORDIAL UNIVERSES (Creatio Continua)





Let's establish a few basic ideas and move from the time AFTER the Big Bang to the "non-time"  BEFORE the Big Bang. And if I have time (pun intended) I'll tie this post in with a second post at some later date discussing "The Science of Time" from both a quantum & process-based understanding.
- re slater


SOME BASICS
SOME BASICS
SOME BASICS

What Came Before the Big Bang?
Feb 16, 2018
Since Relevancy22 is a "God" site, the vid begins with a dig at religious belief showing God as a cow. Now perhaps that's where the phrase, "HOLY COW!" came from. Or, perhaps not. But thank God for cows, milk, beef, and the blessing to farm and ranch God's green earth as humanity hopefully someday turns to the seeding and growing of cosmoecological civilizations. - res






THE PLANCK EPOCH
THE PLANCK EPOCH
THE PLANCK EPOCH

Brian Greene - What Was There Before The Big Bang?
Jun 12, 2021

Science Time - The Planck Epoch

The American theoretical physicist, Brian Greene explains various hypotheses about the causation of the big bang. Brian Greene is an excellent science communicator and he makes complex cosmological concepts more easy to understand. 

The Big Bang explains the evolution of the universe from a starting density and temperature that is currently well beyond humanity's capability to replicate. Thus the most extreme conditions and earliest times of the universe are speculative and any explanation for what caused the big bang should be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless that shouldn't stop us to ask questions like what was there before the big bang.

Brian Greene mentions the possibility that time itself may have originated with the birth of the cosmos about 13.8 billion years ago.

To understand how the Universe came to be, scientists combine mathematical models with observations and develop workable theories which explain the evolution of the cosmos. The Big Bang theory, which is built upon the equations of classical general relativity, indicates a singularity at the origin of cosmic time. 

However, the physical theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics as currently realized are not applicable before the Planck epoch, which is the earliest period of time in the history of the universe, and correcting this will require the development of a correct treatment of quantum gravity.

Certain quantum gravity treatments imply that time itself could be an emergent property. Which leads some physicists to conclude that time did not exist before the Big Bang. While others are open to the possibility of time preceding the big bang.

One of the common misconceptions about the Big Bang model is that it fully explains the origin of the universe. However, the Big Bang model does not describe how energy, time, and space were caused, but rather it describes the emergence of the present universe from an ultra-dense and high-temperature initial state. It is misleading to visualize the Big Bang by comparing its size to everyday objects. When the size of the universe at Big Bang is described, it refers to the size of the observable universe, and not the entire universe.

 





SOME BASICS
SOME BASICS
SOME BASICS

What Was Happening Before the Big Bang?
w/Brian Greene | Joe Rogan
Feb 19, 2020


//////// space + time are not constants ////////

//////// space + time are fluid or relative to relationships ////////

//////// the speed of light is a constant ////////

//////// gravity both attracts by pulling inwards + repulses outwards ////////

//////// the energy of the inflaton scalar field repulses everything outwards ////////
(inflaton scalar fields explained in pbs video below)

//////// dark energy pushes outwards --> thus, an inflationary universe: Big Rip ////////
//////// dark matter pulls inwards --> thus, a compacting universe: Big Crunch ////////



Theological / Scientific Terms
Theological / Scientific Terms
Theological / Scientific Terms

creatio ex nihilo - creation of something from nothing.
creatio continua - the reordering or process creation of something which always was, is and will continue to be in whatever manner or forms of energy it is or will become.
In the vacuum of space there is no void. The vacuum of space has continuous exotic activity in the form of anti-mater particles+forces instantaneously annihilating with non-anti-matter particles+forces with the tiniest of fractions of matter particles+forces surviving to give to the universe it's quantum densities and structure which it has today.

Conclusion. The Hebraic idea of void though correctly imagined and unseen is actually the vaduumous activity of space which is filled with unseen force energies. The God who created, did not create from nothing. There was always something there... even before the "voids" of space. This there which was there is the primodial energy forces which existed before the Big Bang before time and before matter.
What was there? Energy in it is purest potential states inhabiting a 1 dimensional space of "liquid" plasma in the severest heats of radiation with no irregularities to give it its start. Moreover, God and these states of potentiality always existed. Neither is older than the other with the philosophical difference that God is the first and primary process before all other process forces. Sic, Process Philosophy, Theology, and Theorectical Physics.
Thus and thus, the process relational system of panentheism (not pantheism, not classic theism). God sang the universes into existence. God breathed upon the "there" there and it became - and will always be becoming.   - re slater

 


What came before the Big Bang? Quantum creation.
How to get a Universe from nothing
Apr 19, 2019

Arvin Ash

Quantum Creation – what came before the big bang - the mechanism of a universe out of NO-thing - no matter, no space, and no time. Ancient Greek cosmologist Parmenides said “Nothing comes from nothing.”  He was likely referring to the law of conservation of energy, that no new energy can be created.  This is true and is a scientific fact even today. So how could the Universe come from nothing?
 
Since the discovery of quantum physics and relativity, we have discovered a flaw in this argument that allows the creation of something from truly nothing. The Universe indeed had a beginning about 13.8 billion years ago, with the Big Bang.  But what was there before the Big Bang?  How did the universe come about from nothing. The flaw that we have uncovered in Parmenides original argument of “nothing comes from nothing” is that gravity has negative energy.  And matter has positive energy.  

In a closed universe, a spontaneous splitting of 0 energy into an equal amount of positive energy and negative energy would not violate any conservation laws, because no new energy would have been created.  And in quantum mechanics, anything that is not forbidden by conservation laws has a non-zero probability of occurring.  

But then we did not start with nothing. We started with the vacuum of physics, which has virtual particles that come in and out of existence, over very short periods of time. it has a weight and can be scientifically measured. So this is not nothing.

So a more fundamental question is can a universe really be created with truly nothing – that means no-thing – no space, no matter, no time, no nothing?  To answer this question, let’s work our way back from where we are now.  

If you solve Einstein’s equations for a universe like ours, you discover that it describes a universe that is either contracting or expanding. At the beginning of the big bang, it has a finite size, below which you cannot go any smaller. How does an explosion like the big bang occur from this finite size universe? In late 1979, a Stanford physics postdoc named Alan Guth offered an explanation for this bang or explosion. He showed that using the theories in particle physics, at extremely high energies — much higher than we could ever create in a lab — a special state of matter turns gravity upside down, causing it to be repulsive rather than an attractive force.

A patch of space that contains even a tiny bit of this unusual matter, much smaller than the size of an atom, could repel itself so violently that it would blow up.  And expand to a huge size.  This would have happened for a very short time, a tiny fraction of a second, because this repulsive force quickly decays into the attractive force of gravity we see today.  But this short period of time is enough to cause the “bang” in the big bang.  
   
So now we are at the Big Bang.  We have a finite size universe with extremely high energy density that exploded in a brief inflationary period, and caused the big bang. Now, let’s go back further…the question now is how did a zero-size universe (a nothing) become Guth’s finite size universe.    

Physicist Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University published a paper in 1984 that showed how this was possible using currently known laws of quantum mechanics. And he originated the idea of something called Quantum Creation. He showed that there is some energy barrier that the zero-size universe had to overcome in order to become finite size.  This is where a phenomenon called quantum tunneling comes into play. It turns out that there is a probability, not very large, but a non-zero probability.

Quantum tunneling is a real phenomenon that can be measured and is known to exist. Quantum mechanics shows that particles are waves of probabilities – and these waves have a non-zero probability of showing up spontaneously outside a barrier. This is how for example, an electron, or even atom, behind a barrier has a small probability of showing up on the other side of the barrier.  Our "zero-size" universe can, through the process of quantum tunneling, become a finite size universe.  

And once it does that, then Guth’s cosmic inflation occurs, triggering the Big Bang. Then Einstein’s laws take over, and the universe’s expanding journey begins. And 13.8 billion years later, we observe the universe as we do today. So quantum mechanics gets you from zero size to a finite size, and then to the Big Bang. And then general relativity can get you from there to where we are today.  

And what triggered all this? In quantum physics, events do not necessarily have a cause, just some probability. So there is some probability for the universe to pop out of “nothing. If it is true, our existence had the humblest beginning of all - from nothingness itself. But you are still not starting with nothing, because you have to start with the laws of quantum mechanics.  Where did these laws come from? [Hint: "Not from nothing."] - Arvin Ash



THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE
THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE
THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE

INFLATON MULTIVERSES
INFLATON MULTIVERSES
INFLATON MULTIVERSES

What Happened Before the Big Bang?
Aug 19, 2019

 ~ ends around 10 minutes; plus,
graphical Q&A after commercials (skip 5 secs)  are worth watching ~

PBS Space Time

We actually have a pretty good idea of what might have happened before the Big Bang. That is, as long as we define the Big Bang as the extremely hot, dense, rapidly expanding universe that is described by Einstein’s equations. That picture of the universe is very solid down to about a trillionth of a second after the supposed beginning of time. We can make good guesses down to about 10^-30th of a second. But before that?

 


MORE PBS VIDEOS HERE
MORE PBS VIDEOS HERE
MORE PBS VIDEOS HERE

https://www.pbsspacetime.com/