Big Bang?

[Michael J. Hußmann]

jbor at bigpond.com (jbor at bigpond.com) wrote:

> I don't see much if any difference between a priest-caste of scientists 
> fantasising, with no proof or logical explanation, that the universe 
> magically appeared from nothing, and another group of equally 
> reasonable and intelligent men and women positing the existence of a 
> Divine Creator. They're equally implausible hypotheses, in my opinion, 
> with no reason to justify the imposition of either the one or the other 
> worldview as gospel.

For one thing, modern physics doesn't really claim that the universe
appeared from nothing, magically or otherwise. Rather, it is outright
impossible to even post something like this as a scientific question.
Given that there was no "before", how can we even ask about what was
before the Big Bang and still make sense? It is not like any religion
has an alternative framework for talking about this; Genesis, for
example, recounts physical events within an essentially historic time-frame. 

The other thing is that physicists don't require us to believe in some
hypothesis. Hypotheses evolve into theories, and theories make
predictions; that's what makes them so useful. If these predictions turn
out to be true, the theory has established its usefulness. That doesn't
make it immune against doubt, and certainly not immune to falsification
-- in fact, any theory must be open to falsification, or it wouldn't
count as a theory. No religion I've ever encountered meets these
criteria: neither do they make verifiable predictions, nor are they open
to falsification (actually, both requirements of a theory amount to the
same thing). As a layman, you may choose to simply accept what
scientists tell you, without questioning it. But that is hardly the
scientists' fault.

Debates such as this always remind me of the old joke about scientists
hunting in a pitch-black room for a black cat, philosophers hunting in a
pitch-black room for a cat that isn't even there, and theologians
hunting in a pitch-black room for a black cat that isn't there, but
always shouting "I've got it!"

- Michael


Michael J. Hußmann

E-mail: michael at michael-hussmann.de
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