Cosmology: time begins (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 22:06 (3834 days ago) @ dhw


> Let me repeat my objection to this. You've explained "our" time as "we measure time by a succession of events". Since we humans cannot measure anything unknown to us, of course our human mode of time measurement begins with the BB, but that doesn't mean no events and therefore no time before the BB. .... We only know (or think we know) of an event through which time became measurable by us humans.-Please note once again that inflation preceded the hot big bang. Time for us starts with the theoretical inflation period. Guth Borde and Vilenkin have published two papers which say "the past is incomplete", which means in their view that there is no past which we can indentify in theoretical math. Linde and others who work with and accept inflation theories agree.
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> dhw: The distinction becomes important when we relate it to George's atheistic argument that nothing preceded the birth of our universe: he says there was no before, no cause, no time. The theistic argument depends on there being a before and a cause, and you cannot have a before or a cause-and-effect sequence without time. That is part of the reason why I'm so surprised at the rigidity of your argument.-It again is a matter of definition. Our time starts with inflation. We don't know what went before, but we know there was start. For me there had to be a cause, which I accept as timeless from our viewpoint. An unchanging cause philosophically does not require time.