CHAPTER 3 - On the Origin of the Universe
CHAPTER 3
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
This question seems to have bedeviled and challenged people since they began to think. The answer is really simple, even though its magnitude is mind boggling. Science and Reason provide the answer.
One of the constants of the universe we are part of is change. Everything in the universe is in a constant state of change, interacting with everything else to result in the universe as it is at this precise moment. There is no past, it's gone and exists only in memory and consequence. Everything in the universe exists as it is, as a result of everything which went before to result in things as they are now. The future doesn't exist either, only whatever occurs as the result of whatever is happening now and everything that happens from then on. And since the entire universe changes from moment to moment, everywhere, the entire future changes from moment to moment as well. It is possible to foresee the probable future if we are aware of everything in the present that will affect it. The more accurate and complete our knowledge of the present, the more probable will be our vision of the future. That is why the concept of physical time travel is a non-starter, you can't go backwards to what has already disappeared, and you can't go forward to what has not yet appeared.
There are no beginnings and no ends! Change is the universal constant. One cannot produce or imagine anything and claim that that is the beginning of it, or the end of it. There is always something before and something after. Also, there is no example anywhere of something being produced or created from nothing. The actual idea of spontaneous creation is absurd. Everything comes from something, as the result of change. The reason we cannot grasp the mental concept of a universe spontaneously appearing (poof!) is because the idea is just simply contrary to every scientific or rational concept; and to plain common sense. The idea of some mythical being creating the universe is equally unrealistic, one just moves the question back one step to “where did the mythical being come from?”
The only other option is that the universe has always been here. It is just in a constant state of change. The law of conservation of energy backs up the idea that nothing is ever lost or created, it just changes its form. The Big Bang is a reasonable and scientifically supported theory of how our particular iteration of the universe came about, but I submit that the Big Bang was just the result of a prior state of energy and matter undergoing a transformation, possibly from a previous collapsing universe. There probably have been an unbroken succession of Big Bangs forever, each different, each resulting in a differently structured universe. Mind boggling for sure, but less so than the idea of something from nothing. Nothing in the universe supports that idea at all. Everything we are aware of in the universe results from what went before, no beginnings and no ends, just continuous change, and absolutely nothing is ever, or has ever been, created from nothing! Ergo, only the premise that the universe has always existed, in a constantly changing state, has any scientific or rational basis.
Nothing can produce something from nothing, so the only alternative is that all this energy rampaging around, changing and reforming, has always been here. There was no beginning of the universe, just a new version springing from the previous one. The concept boggles the mind for sure, but then, so does the idea of spontaneous creation from nothing. We will never know for sure, but the concept of an always existing, ever changing universe provides a much more rational and useful vehicle to build on than the "poof" idea.
There are no beginnings and no ends, just change.
Therefore, the universe has always been here, just constantly changing.
Spontaneous creation is rationally and scientifically impossible.