An examination of the most carefully written scientific treatments of the astronomical evidence, and of the cosmological theory which appears to fit the evidence, will discover that the big bang theory does not posit an absolute beginning of the cosmos — a coming into existence out of nothing — but only an initial event in the development of the cosmos as we now know it, an event that occurred at a time that is estimated as between fifteen and twenty billion years ago.
Our present techniques of observation and measurement, and the technical facilities they employ, do not permit us to penetrate the past beyond the time, some fifteen to twenty billion years ago, when the big bang occurred.
What is being said here is not that past time is limited (finite rather than infinite), but only that our knowledge of past time is limited — limited to a time beyond which our observations and measurements cannot go. Time may extend back infinitely beyond that initial explosion of matter, out of which the present shape of the cosmos has developed, but unless some radical alteration in our techniques and instruments of observation and measurements occurs, we will never be able to penetrate the veil that hides the infinite past from us.
– Mortimer J. Adler
January 26, 2009 at 9:29 pm |
Without getting too far into big bang cosmology it must be remembered that the big bang theory is in response to the well accepted idea that the cosmos and time did in fact have a beginning. We do not need to have any techniques or instrumentation to establish this fact. However, this writer does accept that there are those who will not accept it but there are those who will read it and accept it. If time were indeed infinite then that would mean that an infinite amount of time would have elapsed before now arrived and this proposition is mathematically impossible. I will illustrate by using an illustration.
If an infinite amount of dashes had occurred the now in the illustration would have never entered the screen. Since the now in the center does in fact appear then the dashes had a beginning. If you replace the dashes with passing moments, minutes, years, decades or centuries the same principle would apply. An infinite amount of moments, minutes, years, decades or centuries could not have passed before now. Let me use another illustration. If I contract you to work for me and I promise to pay you after an infinite number of days had passed would you agree to work under this agreement? I would agree with it because I would never have to pay you. If you approached me for pay I would simply state the original agreement that an infinite amount of time had not passed yet and was not time to pay you. There are those who will say that moments, minutes, days, years, decades and centuries do not exist so time does not exist but this is semantics. It is like saying that inches feet and yards do not exist so distance does not exist. I do not know many rational people who would agree that distance does not exist. Whether you are using inches or millimeters the expression of “distance” is the same and shows that it is only a linguistic manor of expressing an actual thing – distance – in an abstract way that others can comprehend what is being said. This applies to time as well, as Einstein would most probably agree. Time may in fact be relative but time does indeed exist and since it could not have been infinite it had to have a beginning.
February 17, 2009 at 3:11 pm |
This is a riddle that has puzzled me even as a child. How could something have always existed? How could the universe have suddenly appeared when there was nothing before? Wouldn’t that event had to have been born from a previous event, or space, or time, to have ever happened.
Therefore, time existed before the big bang. How much time? Was that time infinite?