Begining of the Universe: What are your opinions/theories?

[Striek]

Scientist vs. God

The scientist approached God and said,

"Listen, we've decided we no longer need you. Nowadays, we can clone people, transplant hearts and do all kinds of things that were once considered miraculous."

God patiently heard him out, and then said, "All right. To see whether or not you still need me, why don't we have a man-making contest?"

"Okay, great!" the scientist said.

"Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam," God said.

"That's fine," replied the scientist, and bent to scoop up a handful of dirt.

"Whoa!" God said, shaking his head in disapproval.
"Not so fast, pal. You go get your own dirt!"

from www.goofyfun.com

[Evil Moo]

On August 6, 1987 I was born--and it was good. As far as I'm concerned, this is when the universe became relevant to me, so I try not to worry about what happened some odd billion years ago.

[SuperDooper]

This reminds me of the Texas sharpshooter tale. Are we just drawing bullseyes?

[Egaladeist]

Originally posted here by Evil Moo
On August 6, 1987 I was born--and it was good. As far as I'm concerned, this is when the universe became relevant to me, so I try not to worry about what happened some odd billion years ago.

hi Evil Moo,

Now...I'm saying this without actually implying how I feel myself on this issue...but it has been brought up by me in conversations with various members of the cloth...
this is an issue that is usually ignored and flies in the face of official beliefs...in brief...

jesus said that john was elijah
john denied that he was elijah

both cannot be right

so...in order to avoid calling jesus a liar...or john stupid...the very un-official stand is that john was elijah but didn't know it himself...

which is the natural state of being re-born...not knowing that you previously existed...

if this is true then early christians did in fact believe in a form of reincarnation/rebirth which is against church dogma...

how does this apply to you?...

the past then becomes relevant.

Eg

[RoadClosed]

this is when the universe became relevant to me, so I try not to worry about what happened some odd billion years ago

We don't worry about it... we are driven by a curisoty of how thing are. A passion.

[Agent_Steal]

[True]
jesus said that john was elijah
john denied that he was elijah

both cannot be right
[/Quote]

This does a pretty good job at explaining your question .....

John the Baptist was asked by the Jewish leaders, "Are you Elijah?" The answer of John could not be plainer. He said, "I am not" (Jn. 1:21). John the Baptist was not Elijah reincarnated. What Jesus meant is that John the Baptist was like Elijah. Someone like Elijah was supposed to come and that someone was John. Elijah and John were both prophets. They both spent time alone in the desert. They both preached repentance and were persecuted by hostile government rulers. The two men wore similar clothing. John and Elijah were similar, but not the same person. That this is what Jesus meant rather than teaching reincarnation is certainly the case if we will examine the prediction made about John before his birth. It was foretold that "he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Lk. 1:17). The two men were similar, but they were not the same person.

There is no evidence in the Bible for reincarnation and the law of karma. Not only does the Bible not teach this, there are passages in the Bible which teach contradictory to reincarnation. One example is John 9:1-3.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.
If Jesus had believed in reincarnation and the law of karma, he would have answered entirely differently. He would have said the man was born blind because of sins he had committed in his past life. Jesus clearly denied such a possibility, though. As the story progresses, Jesus heals this man of his blindness. If Jesus believed in reincarnation and the law of karma, he would not have done this. This man should have been left blind so that he would receive his just punishment for his sins. It is manifest, then, that Jesus Christ did not believe in reincarnation.

Finally there is one extremely clear statement in the Bible which shows that the Christian faith is not compatible with a belief in reincarnation. In the New Testament we read, "It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgement" (Heb. 9:27). According to this verse, how many deaths do we die? Only one. According to the transmigration of souls we die many times, are reborn many times, and suffer for our sins many times in many lives. The Bible, though, says we live one life and die once and then face God in judgement. As Jesus said, "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgement" (Jn. 5:29).

[Randomizer2.0]

Originally posted here by sec_ware

So much to the scientific world. It is one approach - an
approach, which is based on predicitions. These predictions
must be measured, otherwise the theory is proven false. The
hard thing of developing new theories is to be able to make
predictions.


Cheers

It's easy to make a prediction or a "theory". But in an area such as Physics, for it to qualify as a valid scientific theory and not crackpottery it undergoes mathematical rigor and consistency, with previously held models such as Relativity.

[!mitationRust]

About the who created God question. That's an infinite question. Ok, I see now, who created that God. Well, who created the God that created that one and that one and that one? etc.... Eons pass, and the question still remains strong...who created that one and that one and that one? I guess only personal faith in "one being all" can stop it.

About the time direction. All the undefeated equations of physics are symmetrical in time. Someone famous said that. <----- ------>

On August 6, 1987 I was born--and it was good. As far as I'm concerned, this is when the universe became relevant to me, so I try not to worry about what happened some odd billion years ago.

Ahh, see, we need deep thinkers with enquiring minds in COSMOS. It's an old school hobby. Google archaeocosmology or archaeoastronomy. Halley's Comet: "Its appearances have been recorded at least 30 times over the past 2000 years"! ~ Girl from NASA. If you think about it, almost all of our planets, objects, Suns, Moons etc... are named from or after the Greeks and Greek words. Orion/Heaven Kosmos.Cosmos/order etc... That being said, I wouldn't waste too much time in studying the Greeks. I had a friend who, like a jackass wasted his parent’s money in college studying the Greek philosophers. Didn't really learn any skills for the real world. He probably takes a 30 grand hit each year for that blunder. But when I see pictures like these http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...spirit_big.jpg http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
my mind automatically starts asking questions.
Some of us actually care about how many parsecs those celestial objects are away. How many petameters away? We want to know the interstellar distances between galactic halos and globular clusters. Parallax (Greek) etc... Is light heavy? ya... inertial mass (mi) ggravitational mass (mg) rest mass... some of us are into it, deep brotha, deep like a black whole.

***edit*
Just for kicks, if your evil cow could moo, his muh, in the form of sound. In space you wouldn't be able to hear your evil cow moo, because sound needs a medium to travel. Maybe that will jumpstart the inquisitive portion of your brain.

[Evil Moo]

lol. I didn't realize my (intended to be obvious) jest would recieve so much attention. Existenstialism is an infinite subject matter that is only limited by a person's willingness to discuss it. So, these threads are meandering and extremely lengthy--my post was a poke of fun at this. Please don't mistake my dabble with humor for a short-sighted apathy.

Even with that said, I opt for the scientific over the metaphysical. Religion for the most part has merely been a composite of dogmas and supersitions used to explain difficult questions and/or establish order (whether it be legal, moral, etc.). So, I opt for the tense that everything is infinitely divisible, and that it is either impossible to find an absolute beginning, or that we as human beings have not evolved mentally far enough to understand and explain with scientific support that there is an absolute.

Hell, I hope we never do discover the exact origins of the universe. Existance becomes pointless without a goal to it. I've said it once, and I'll say it again; The pursuit of perfection is so much more noble than the achievement of it.

[Aspman]

I've got to say I really like:

Somewhere in a little room there is a very old creature who lies sleeping. So long as he sleeps, he dreams of our existance and the universe in which we live. When he wakes, everything we know to be reality is destroyed.

I think he broke wind and produced a universe. It expands much like any other fart to fill the room until everyone leaves or opens a window. I just hope he doesn't follow through.