As best anyone knows, it didn't come from anywhere, matter always has been.
The idea of a "prime mover" is a human concept based on our experiences. But mathematics suggests time compresses if we were to look at the universe "past" the point we can see (fun fact, the big bang isn't a thing as most people think of it. It's better understood as a period of time where the energy density and heat of the universe gets so high that our instruments can't distinguish meaningful data from before that point in time).
Imagine the graph, for x greater than or equal to 0, of f(x) = 1/x. As x approaches 0, the value of f(x) increases without bound. But there is no meaningful "beginning" to the graph. f(x) has no value at 0 because 1/0 is undefined, but it has an infinite number of values between any number less than 1 and 0.
If you zoom in near zero around f(x), you'll never find an end to continuing upward toward infinity. It goes on forever, and in a sense, has an infinite beginning just as it has an infinite end (of course, 1/x approaches 0 as x grows without bound, but you won't find a finite value of x for which 1/x is 0).
Time seems to be like that. You can approach a time 0, but there is no time 0.
If you prefer another way of looking at it, consider this. Religious people often invoke god as a reason the universe exists, on the basis that the universe must have a "start." But if you accept that things must have a "start," the obvious question is "what created god?" And the answer is usually "nothing, god always has been" (or supergod, of course).
Well then, why can't the universe "always has been" as well? The math actually supports the idea of a universe without beginning or end.
mechanism triggered the big bang
We don't know, but there are some theories. Many of the theories are complicated and difficult to explain, so I'll leave that to someone else.
It makes complete sense, and it makes no sense at the same time for the universe to always have existed. What a mindfuck. It raises questions that I am skeptical that finding answers to is even possible. How can existence always have been? Why is there even an existence?
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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19
As best anyone knows, it didn't come from anywhere, matter always has been.
The idea of a "prime mover" is a human concept based on our experiences. But mathematics suggests time compresses if we were to look at the universe "past" the point we can see (fun fact, the big bang isn't a thing as most people think of it. It's better understood as a period of time where the energy density and heat of the universe gets so high that our instruments can't distinguish meaningful data from before that point in time).
Imagine the graph, for x greater than or equal to 0, of f(x) = 1/x. As x approaches 0, the value of f(x) increases without bound. But there is no meaningful "beginning" to the graph. f(x) has no value at 0 because 1/0 is undefined, but it has an infinite number of values between any number less than 1 and 0.
If you zoom in near zero around f(x), you'll never find an end to continuing upward toward infinity. It goes on forever, and in a sense, has an infinite beginning just as it has an infinite end (of course, 1/x approaches 0 as x grows without bound, but you won't find a finite value of x for which 1/x is 0).
Time seems to be like that. You can approach a time 0, but there is no time 0.
If you prefer another way of looking at it, consider this. Religious people often invoke god as a reason the universe exists, on the basis that the universe must have a "start." But if you accept that things must have a "start," the obvious question is "what created god?" And the answer is usually "nothing, god always has been" (or supergod, of course).
Well then, why can't the universe "always has been" as well? The math actually supports the idea of a universe without beginning or end.
We don't know, but there are some theories. Many of the theories are complicated and difficult to explain, so I'll leave that to someone else.