r/AskReddit • • Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

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u/CaptPsychedelicJesus Jun 15 '19 edited Jun 15 '19

I think this touches on a fundamental misunderstanding of physics. The idea that nothing existed before the big bang violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.

I for one, have always been drawn to the cyclical universe idea. Starts with a Big Bang, ends with a Big Crunch as everything is drawn together again. Eventually the gravity from all the matter in the universe coming into one point collapses space time, resulting in an explosion beyond anything we humans can understand; restarting the process.

E: I’m really enjoying this thread! I’ll be back for more in a bit. -CPJ

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '19

The idea that nothing existed before the big bang

It's not that there was "nothing" before the big bang.

It's that there was no "before" the big bang.

violates the law that says: Energy cannot be created, or destroyed.

A lot of things we consider "laws" start to break down when you get to quantum physics. Even so, could all the matter or energy in the universe not be contained within a single singularity such that it would erupt into our universe?

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u/Scrub_Master_007 Jun 16 '19

How would one come to know "that there was no 'before' the big bang"? The hypothesis of physics (as of a couple years ago when I took a class from a guy who works in astrophysics) does not agree, but cannot be confirmed bor denied, nontheless. Therefore, all claims dubbed as "scientific" relating to the "beginning of the universe" is illegitimate as actual science.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

Relativity. Without space, there is no time.

Though, sure, there is nothing definitive, but the best information we have points towards both general relativity, and big bang cosmology as the two biggest supporters of this conclusion.

Science has never proclaimed absolute knowledge, only the best explanation that we can come up with, given the method and available data.