Is The "Big Bang Theory" On Solid Ground?

One of the strongest hypotheses accepted by most scientific experts who study the universe's origin is the Big Bang. However, is this acceptance really warranted? Click on the links below for historical and modern challenges to it:

"Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the leading astrophysicists of 20th century, was born on June 24, 1915. Most popular for rejecting the Big Bang Theory of the universe, Fred died in 2001, at the age of 86, but not without contributing significantly to the field of science." (link)

"Despite its widespread acceptance, the Big Bang theory is presently without any observational support. All of its quantitative predictions are contradicted by observation, and none are supported by the data. Its predictions of light element abundances are inconsistent with the latest data." (link)

"The Big Bang theory, in its current form, predicts that most matter in the universe is dark matter, unlike any that has been found on earth. Increasingly sensitive experiments on earth have failed to turn up any evidence of the dark matter particles that are firmly predicted by the Big Bang theory." (link)

Michio Kaku: "Time Does NOT EXIST! James Webb Telescope PROVED Us Wrong!" (link)

Science Daily reports in a recent publication that findings from the study of objects discovered by James Webb challenge the conventional theory of the universe’s origin. Last July, the James Webb Space Telescope released stunning images of the 'Web Nebula,' indicating its existence approximately 830 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists’ study of these objects suggests that these luminous entities do not easily fit into current theories about the universe’s origin, despite the success of the Big Bang theory in human understanding of cosmic origins. Science Daily quoted one of the researchers in this study as saying, 'Finding ancient stars in a very young universe was completely unexpected.' According to him, standard cosmology and galaxy formation models have been incredibly successful, yet these luminous entities do not easily fit into these theories." (link)

"Something From Nothing" Explained In Two Minutes

Click below for a concise YouTube video that explains what science knows about the controversial hypothesis that the universe came from nothing:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ej4Xj-w03CI

James Webb Telescope = New Knowledge

"Unravel the mysteries of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope! From impossible galaxies to ancient black holes and potential signs of extraterrestrial life, explore five mind-blowing discoveries in this captivating video!"

Click on the link below for an example of how science continues to advance our knowledge:

5 Incredible Things We've Already Discovered thanks to the James Webb Telescope

The Current State Of Cosmology

"Adam Frank is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester. He joins Preet to discuss some of the biggest questions in science. Is there extraterrestrial life and how might we find it? Is Earth the only place in space where humans can survive? And, would the Universe exist without us humans?"

Click on the link below for an in-depth podcast looking at the continuing exponential increase in knowledge primarily due to advancements in computer technology. It includes what experts think about the probability of extra-terrestrial life, whether intelligent life can survive its hubris, and the humbling enormity of the known universe:

Life, the Universe, and Everything 

How OUR Universe Began

" In the beginning, there was....what? Thankfully Physics can now help us answer that question! But during the 20th Century, there was a debate raging between whether the Universe started in a Big Bang or has existed forever. Thankfully that debate was eventually settled by radio astronomy..."

Click on the link below for the definitive answer to this fundamental question. Unfortunately, it doesn't mention what started it, or if our universe is the only one. THIS question may never be answered.

How did the Universe begin?

The Computer Simulation Hypothesis Of Our Reality

"Physicists have long struggled to explain why the Universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets, and ultimately life to develop?" - - -

"This leads to the extraordinary possibility that our entire Universe might in fact be a computer simulation.

"The idea is not that new. - - - "

Click on the link below for an exploration of the thinking behind this eccentric, but plausible, hypothesis. It seems more plausible to me than the God Hypothesis:

Expert Proposes a Method For Telling If We All Live In A Computer Program

We Just Don't Know (Yet?)

"Physicists have many theories for the beginning of our universe: A big bang, a big bounce, a black hole, a network, a collision of membranes, a gas of strings, and the list goes on. What does this mean? It means we don't know how the universe began. And the reason isn't just that we're lacking data, the reason is that science is reaching its limits when we try to understand the initial condition of the entire universe."

Click on the link below for a fascinating presentation on "The Beginning.:

* Did the Big Bang Happen?  (* I have an issue with the terminology used in the video: I think that the everyday use of the term "Big Bang" to mean a single point where our universe began and expanded IS "settled science", but that every speculation "before" then is not. Sabine delves into the "before" issue in more detail here.)

Gravity 101

"The General Theory of Relativity tells us gravity is not a force, gravitational fields don't exist. Objects tend to move on straight paths through curved spacetime."

The above statement is a good example of reality/truth being counter-intuitive. Click on the link below for a video of one of the better explanations of gravity. Unfortunately, there are complicated physics formulae that may initially put you off. However, don't get bogged down with them: the presenter is an excellent communicator with excellent visual tools. 

Why Gravity is NOT a Force

The Multiverse: Another Speculation

"The big bang model has some problems - homogeneity, flatness, and lack of magnetic monopoles.

"Cosmic Inflation occurred when the entire universe shortly after its beginning, expanded exponentially fast for a fraction of a second. One implication of this is that the universe on large scales may not be so homogenous. Inflation could have ended at different times in different places. This would mean that the universe is bigger and more complex than we realize. This concept is called ETERNAL inflation."

Click on the link below for another possibility in support of the multiverse hypothesis:

Why the MULTIVERSE might be REAL: Eternal Inflation

The Multiverse: The Evidence Grows

"The team's model starts the Universe as a multitude of universes. Each universe in this multiverse has a different mass for the Higgs boson – some quite heavy, and some very light.

"Then, the physicists calculated how these universes would evolve over time. They found that universes with heavier Higgs bosons became unstable and collapsed very quickly in a 'big crunch', in a fraction of a second.

"The universes with lighter Higgs bosons survived. Under this scenario, our Universe emerged as perhaps the sole survivor of the catastrophic multiverse crunching, with a very light Higgs boson."

Click on the link below for another hypothesis for the multiverse. Yes, it is not falsifiable at this point, thus, it is not yet accepted science. However, the results of recent experiments point positively to such. Compare this to what theists propose: an unevidenced supernatural being behind it all.

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Scenario Could Explain a Strange Higgs Boson Feature

What Is Time?

 At first thought about the question, most people have quick responses. However, scientists are actually deeply exploring the subject as it is much more complicated than what the average layperson perceives.

Click on the link below for an interesting video presenting one speculation of what time is at its base.

Nobody Knows What Time Really Is. But it might be this - - -

The Multiverse Hypothesis: The Evidence Behind it

The multiverse hypothesis is a common counter-apologetic against religious apologetics. However, the religious do have a point: it is not clearly true. That said, they ignore the facts behind its hypothesis. Click on the link below for a clear and concise presentation of scientific reasons for its possibility and, perhaps, its probability:

Do We Live in a Multiple Universe?

The Case FOR And AGAINST Fine Tuning

"Arguments for fine-tuning: Physics has many constants like the charge of the electron, the gravitational constant, Planck’s constant. If any of their values were different, our universe, as we know it, would not be the same, and life would probably not exist."

Click on the link below for one of the best cases for fine-tuning of our reality. The bad news for theists: it's still not enough to put God in the gap of our knowledge.

Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life?

Don't look to PragerU for an objective answer

God Of The Gaps Explained

Place yourself at home in the morning and there is just you and two others in the house. You prepare your breakfast of toast and coffee and are ready to eat. However, nature calls and you have to answer it. When you return, one of the two slices of toast is gone. You asked the two others, "Where is my toast?" Both of them deny taking it. There is no evidence pointing to either one (a gap in knowledge), however, you make the claim that one of them did it (a leap of faith). THIS is what we are talking about when religious apologists make claims for a God.

The above can be illustrated by debunking the Cosmological Argument (Argument from First Cause, and its variants). The religious claims that there must be the first cause of everything and it is God. The science-based thinker states that such a claim is unsupported by objective evidence and, in fact, given the weirdness of reality at the sub-atomic level and some suggestive evidence for an eternal system of multiverses, the only reasonable stance is to say, "We don't know."

A Clear And Unbiased Look At The Argument From Fine-Tuning

 "In this video, I explain how the argument that the universe is fine-tuned for life works, why it's wrong, how the mistake happens, and what that means for the existence of god and the multiverse."

Was the universe made for us?

Is The Multiverse Scientific?

" - - - prominent physicists are divided about whether any other universes exist outside of our own. Some even go as far as to say that the multiverse is not a legitimate topic of scientific inquiry because it can not be empirically falsified. But Neil deGrasse Tyson among other prominent cosmologists thinks that given our understanding of quantum mechanics and the thoery of General relativity, the possibility of the existence of the multiverse is a legitimate scientific hypothesis."

At least there are tested scientific methods that point to its possibility, what does "Goddidit" have?

Click on the link below for a clarifying presentation on the subject.

The Multiverse

Another Look At "Nothing"

 "This is maybe one of the biggest questions of all because it’s basically asking not only where did everything come from, but how did all of it arise in the first place. Here’s as far as science has gotten us, at least, so far."

If you are a theist and claim that, since so much is unknown about the origin of our reality, that an "Omni" God did it, you are continuing to fill our lack of knowledge with unsupported assertions, the core of ALL religious apologetics.

Click on the link below:

How Did The Entire Universe Come From Nothing?

Founders Of Religions Had NO Idea About Reality

 "The number of known exoplanets seems to grow every day. Most of them are worlds completely unlike our own. But some get pretty close to something resembling home - and may someday become exactly that."

The 5 Most Earth-Like Planets We've Found (So Far)

How Did Our Reality Become Complex?

"Our universe began with a swirling, seething plasma-everything, everywhere, all the same. Today we have galaxies, stars, planets, people. How did such structure come about?" 

The link below is an interesting presentation regarding the process of nature moving from simple to the complex (with no God found):

Complexity from Simplicity?

Fine Tuning Of The Universe Is Probably A Brain Flaw

"You could argue that if God is not in the constants, then he must be in the laws of quantum mechanics and general relativity. After all, if the universe follows fundamental laws, there must be a lawgiver. But the problem with this argument is that you are replacing something like the laws of physics that may be eternal, with something else that is eternal but more complicated - God."

Another look at the Fine-Tuning Argument for God. Click on the link below:

Is God in Physics? Fine Tuning Scrutinized