Beginning this universe (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 05, 2012, 11:54 (4372 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: All sort of theories, but Vilenkin says it MUST have a beginning:-http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628932.000-before-the-big-bang-something-or-not...-QUOTE: Can we really be sure now that the universe had a beginning? Or are we in for an infinite cycle of belief and disbelief over the matter? "For the first time in history, we have the tools to address the origin question scientifically," says Vilenkin. "So I have a feeling we are getting near to the truth."-Funny, I know lots of people who have the same feeling, and yet they hardly ever agree on what truth they're getting near to.-QUOTE: Any hope of us observing the ultimate origin is fading, however. Soon after Vilenkin and Mithani published their argument, physicist Leonard Susskind of Stanford University in California responded with two papers. In them, he says that a beginning, if it did indeed occur, is likely to have been so far in the past that for all practical purposes the universe has been around forever.-Here we have "if it did indeed occur", which could = it didn't, and clearly Susskind does not believe that we have "the tools" to address the question "scientifically" anyway. I'm sorry, but for me all this is pure speculation, there is and will probably never be a consensus, and I challenge anyone to provide proof that the universe has not been around forever, regardless of how many bubbles it might have blown and burst.