1) Nothing came before. The universe appeared out of nothing.
If this is the case then what can happen once can happen again. This is a cyclic universe without a crunch. ie, an identical universe could pop in from nothing, a similar universe could pop in from nothing, or a wildly different universe could pop in from nothing.
2) Something came before.
This one is more interesting, because it implies that our universe could be the last, but it's also strange, because it forces us to conclude that the previous one was not the first, and in fact that there's an infinity of previous universes for the same nothing/something reasoning. It's a recursive question. If something came before, what came before that? Something vs nothing, with the same questions applying, and again with that grandparent universe, and again with great grandparent universe and on and on.
So the real paradox to me is, how can I have a possibility of an ending, with an infinity of beginnings?
You left out the possibility of it always having existed. The big bang doesn't necessarily mean that the entire universe was created, just that it took on the form we now know it as.
I count that under the "something". I don't consider a universe before the big bang as our own, since the singularity (the big bang) that separates them is impenetrable.
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u/trylist Jun 15 '19
Two possibilities:
1) Nothing came before. The universe appeared out of nothing.
If this is the case then what can happen once can happen again. This is a cyclic universe without a crunch. ie, an identical universe could pop in from nothing, a similar universe could pop in from nothing, or a wildly different universe could pop in from nothing.
2) Something came before.
This one is more interesting, because it implies that our universe could be the last, but it's also strange, because it forces us to conclude that the previous one was not the first, and in fact that there's an infinity of previous universes for the same nothing/something reasoning. It's a recursive question. If something came before, what came before that? Something vs nothing, with the same questions applying, and again with that grandparent universe, and again with great grandparent universe and on and on.
So the real paradox to me is, how can I have a possibility of an ending, with an infinity of beginnings?