Athiests.. How do you explain the beginning of time?

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
I'm a spiritual person. I personally believe in 'God' or at minimum, a higher power.

If you don't believe in creationism, or some degree of it, how do you rationalize how time started? Has it always been?
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
Grade school thermodynamics would say the universe was always there because something cannot be created from nothing.


Of course not everything in grade school is 100% true. The Bohr model of the atom is flat out wrong but it's close enough to be worth learning.
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91
We don't know. There are theories, but I prefer "We don't know" rather than "god did it"

The first allows rational debate
 

TechBoyJK

Lifer
Oct 17, 2002
16,699
60
91
Grade school thermodynamics would say the universe was always there because something cannot be created from nothing.


Of course not everything in grade school is 100% true. The Bohr model of the atom is flat out wrong but it's close enough to be worth learning.

I agree to a point. Information can't be created or destroyed, simply re-arranged, recompiled, etc. Where did this information come from? It's not logical to say it's just "always been".
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,997
126
I'm a spiritual person. I personally believe in 'God' or at minimum, a higher power.

If you don't believe in creationism, or some degree of it, how do you rationalize how time started? Has it always been?

The $64,000 question is how you rationalize it. You think we have a problem with a ball of stuff exploding to form the universe, but you have no trouble with an all powerful invisible man in the sky that did it one day after breakfast because he was bored? How did your higher power get started?
 
Oct 25, 2006
11,036
11
91
By the world I live in. I don't buy that this all happened by "chance" and life has no meaning.

Not chance. Physical phenomenon that caused small biological components to form that came together while in a soup and created a self perpetuating organism that adapts slowly over millions of years through non random natural selection.

Meaning of life is to continue the expression of superior genes.
 

Beev

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2006
7,775
0
0
By the world I live in. I don't buy that this all happened by "chance" and life has no meaning.

He asked how you rationalize the creation of God. Was he just always there? You have the same obligation to explain that as atheists do to explain the beginning of time.
 

rcpratt

Lifer
Jul 2, 2009
10,433
110
116
By the world I live in. I don't buy that this all happened by "chance" and life has no meaning.
I mean, where did God come from? How did he come to be? When? That's just as valid a question as "how did time start?"
 

HAL9000

Lifer
Oct 17, 2010
22,021
3
76
I'm a spiritual person. I personally believe in 'God' or at minimum, a higher power.

If you don't believe in creationism, or some degree of it, how do you rationalize how time started? Has it always been?

I'm an atheist and I don't believe "time" ever started, it's a constant.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
2
81
I agree to a point. Information can't be created or destroyed, simply re-arranged, recompiled, etc. Where did this information come from? It's not logical to say it's just "always been".
The universe probably has some kind of cycling that we don't yet understand. Lots of things in nature have cycles that span millions or even billions of years.

Animal populations is one type of cycling. Global warming and cooling is another.
 

yhelothar

Lifer
Dec 11, 2002
18,409
39
91
I agree to a point. Information can't be created or destroyed, simply re-arranged, recompiled, etc. Where did this information come from? It's not logical to say it's just "always been".

It's just as not logical to say God made it all, as you'd run into the issue of who created him.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
I'm a spiritual person. I personally believe in 'God' or at minimum, a higher power.

If you don't believe in creationism, or some degree of it, how do you rationalize how time started? Has it always been?

I don't need to rationalize it. The human mind fears the unknown and so for our entire history humans have created myths and stories to explain that which we can't prove. I, however, am perfectly accepting of realizing that we know very little about our surroundings and only through scientific advancement can we learn more about them. So until that time, "I don't know" is an acceptable answer.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,727
31,091
146
Techboy, how do you explain your epic douchyness and love of tricked-out BMWs?
 

Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,449
264
126
The $64,000 question is how you rationalize it. You think we have a problem with a ball of stuff exploding to form the universe, but you have no trouble with an all powerful invisible man in the sky that did it one day after breakfast because he was bored? How did your higher power get started?

How did your ball of stuff get started?
 

CallMeJoe

Diamond Member
Jul 30, 2004
6,938
5
81
How did your ball of stuff get started?
In the Beginning, there was a Turtle.
And the Turtle was Alone.
And he looked around, and saw his Neighbour,
Which was his Mother.
And he lay upon his Mother, and behold!
She bore him, in tears, an Oak Tree.
Which grew all day, and then fell over.
And under this Tree was walking a Catfish.
And he was very big.
And he was the biggest he had seen.
And the fiery Balls of this Catfish -
The one is The Sun.
And the other they call: The Moon...