Nobody says the Big Bang Theory is "the" answer, it's just the best answer that we have come up with to date. Scientific knowledge is obviously confined to what we can observe, which places fundamental limits on how much we can ever possibly know. If you want to think that God created the universe (but then who created God, and who created God's creator?) then I guess I can't say for sure that you're wrong. But I'm pretty sure that the Earth didn't snap into existence six thousand years ago.
Who says the Big Bang Theory is the best answer? Oh yeah, the people who created the Big Bang Theory out of nothing...
We are talking of elementary particles. Virtual particles are real. They are in the realm of classical physics. They come into existence from nothing. They exist then they don't. They have no mass, their electrostatic force potential has infinite range. Perhaps that it where you are confusing potentiality with actuality. Quantum theory makes predictions about virtual particles and on that, evidence for them is very well understood and is thoroughly tested. Because of the science in quantum mechanics /virtual particles /quantum fluctuations, things can be done which would otherwise be impossible were quantum mechanics wrong in any small part. That's about as conclusive as anything can get. Schrodinger's Cat is an allegory / thought experiment / philosophical argument. It's not the physics where as you say measurable facts reign supreme. This all started because someone else said everything must have a source or cause. That is an assumption which I am saying is ill founded in light of quantum mechanics and virtual particles. I guess some people donât like any information that shows something can actually do what only God is supposed to.
Who said anything about popping in and out of nowhere apart from yourself and an occasional troll ? It has actually been discovered that virtual particles appear spontaneously in empty space. They pop into existence from nothing . That is what I said -from nothing, not from nowhere. It has been discovered how they do that. It is part of Quantum mechanics which if it were wrong, you would not even be able to repeat your denial through the computer you use. If you can't get your head around it then it's hardly my fault. Do you want to try and discover where nowhere is now? Like a creationist would?
I note Stu's statement that the singularity is time equal to zero, might not be accurate. Time started after the big bang. (at least according to what I read. I think Hawking and others have said this.) the singularity may have been equal to no time. Therefore whatever caused or perhaps created the big bang might not need a cause or a creator.
At Singularity time = 0. Does that mean something else than singularity equals no time to you? Hmm... you might be on to something there. Like the Big Bang didn't need a cause for instance.
You're Star Trek informed descriptions of reality and need to just win are making me embarassed for you. Nothing/ nowhere is about how deep your analysis gets. Just curious, do you own a parrot?
So you can believe small particles can jump into existence from nothing, but you cant believe God can make the earth spontaneously jump into existence from nothing? You sound like a hypocrite to me. Only difference in our beliefs is that in yours, nothing creates something, and in mine God creates something.
Nobody created God. God exists outside of time in eternity. And the bible doesnt exactly say the earth is 6000 years old. People just figured that by tracing the genology of man back to Adam. Adam was created on the last day, but a day to God may not be the same as a 24 hour day like we know today. A day may be the rotation of the entire Galaxy to God (which is about 250 million-300 million years for each "day") We really dont know. The first line in the bible is "in the beginning God created the heavens & the earth" Thats basically the title for story of Genesis. But the hebrew word for "in the beginning" is berasheet. Rasheet is actually a word that means "an undetermined expanse of time. So if you read it like that it reads " In an undetermined expanse of time, God created the heavens & the earth"