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Friday, December 13, 2013

Big Bang and beginning of time

In my opinion the odds are the BB was in fact the "Beginning" of time.  We cannot say for sure and may never be able to say for sure, unless of course someone demonstrates an alternative history to have been true.

The thing to do when thinking about infinity is to avoid that word and use instead "endless."  It helps avoid the mistake of thinking of infinity as a number -- some place in the very very distant past -- and realize that if time is endless then there cannot be a "now."   You can climb out of a well that has a bottom, but you cannot climb out of a well that has no bottom.

If time had a beginning, then talking about "before" that beginning is nonsense.  There was no existence "before," no "eternity" as there was no time to have an eternity.  There was also no causation: if something happened -- anything might happen -- that would be the beginning of time and after that you can insist on cause and effect (although I don't think causation is quite as real as we think it is, for this issue it doesn't matter).

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