••

Actually (!!), scientists are currently counting all the way to eleven.

This seems to me like one step too many. If the someone/something can be eternal, why can't the Universe be eternal?

Of course, since time is itself a function of the expansion of the Universe, the whole debate turns on a, well, pointless point. Just as there was "nothing" before the Universe, there was also no "before" before the Universe! As Hawking has said, asking what was here before the Universe is like asking what lies one mile north of the North Pole.

Perhaps the most disturbing version of all this is that the Universe is the ultimate one-time-only offer. It sprang into existence, literally from "nothing", and when it winds down to the final entropic collapse it will return to nothing.* So whatever we are doing here, we better get it right, as we won't be getting a second chance!

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* The language gets tricky. The literal interpretation of NOTHING that was here "before" the Universe was just that -- NOTHING. No space, no time, no mass, no energy, no volume -- nada. It was not a big empty space waiting to be filled, because a big empty space waiting to be filled is SOMETHING. At the end, tho, I suppose it will leave behind a big empty space waiting to be filled.

••

Actually (!!), scientists are currently counting all the way to eleven.

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The scientists are made up of members from Spinal Tap??

••

Eternity is not a measure of time, any more than infinity is a measure of space. These are terms upon which science and philosophy merge, and start talking about things which cannot really be expressed in language, but must be expressed in language 'cuz that's all we got!

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I think the three theories that are most commonly advocated, Nothing, Another Universe, God are all equally unproven and unprovable…

••

But "nothing" and "another universe" have at least the POTENTIAL to be "proven". However bizarre and alien to us they might seem, they are REAL. "God" is as valid in this debate as the Easter Bunny or the Great Pumpkin.

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Actually (!!), scientists are currently counting all the way to eleven.

+++++++

These are just theories...

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These are just theories...

••

So are the other four.

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Well, given that we all will die, there is the potential that God will be proven at that point. :-)

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At least we can guarantee that Believers will not be disappointed.

Dust is never disappointed.

Actually (!!), scientists are currently counting all the way to eleven.

******************************

The scientists are made up of members from Spinal Tap??

••••

Some day we will achieve a level of cosmic unity such that one of my brilliant witticisms will be allowed to stand, without any perceived need for a "follow up".

"Why? What was on the other side of the road? Bird seed?"

God is beyond it and its boundaries.

Santa Claus is beyond it and its boundaries.

The Great Pumpkin is beyond it and its boundaries.

Xenu is beyond it and its boundaries.

I could go all day.

Seriously though, the problem here is that most people (myself included) have limited capability to comprehend theoretical physics. There is where metaphysical explanations such as 'God did it' start to become tantalizingly attractive.

Ask "Who made time" or "who made gravity"? The answer: either a complex theory or theories; or simply 'God'. One is cold, complex and stresses our brain, the other provides us with a warm feeling of being loved - which would most people prefer? Especially as there is no way to conclusively prove any of the scenarios.

So while I applaud Hawking for expanding our knowledge with his theories, I don't approve of the somewhat sensationalist way he's put across his claims in the mainstream media. All he may wind up doing is pushing more and more people further into the comfort of religion.

I've argued this before, but it bears repeating that logically, no-one can categorically state who/what created us, the Universe, and everything in it, because we were not there to witness it and do not have sufficient information of the Universe to determine the most probable scenario.