Cosmologic philosophy: multiverse (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, January 10, 2017, 14:32 (2874 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Since nobody knows what happened before the big bang (if the big bang happened), and nobody knows the extent of our universe, that part of the universe which we know could be microscopic, and the big bang (if it happened) could have been a blip. Alternatively, the one universe could have undergone innumerable “big bangs” in its eternal history.

DAVID: All the current evidence says the topography of this universe is flat, will continue expanding and die a heat death. Your scenario requires a contraction of the topography, with no evidence for that this time.

Current evidence is so full of holes that I’m surprised you are happy to go along with it. If the universe is expanding, we come to the usual question: what is it expanding into? An infinite universe allows for infinite expansion. As far as contraction is concerned, I don’t see how we can ever know what happened before the Big Bang (if that happened), and so I don’t think there will ever be a time when we can be certain that the Big Crunch theory is wrong.

DAVID:My view is we have to find some 'meaning' for our individual lives and live by those precepts. I don't find life pointless, a concept Steven Weinberg alluded to.

dhw: I agree with you completely. But our individual meaning does not denote that the universe itself has any meaning.

DAVID: The meaning is the presence of us, thinking and debating.

You are welcome to think you are the meaning of the universe. I have a horrible feeling that the billions of solar systems coming and going couldn’t care less about you or me. If there is a God, you yourself have warned us many times not to endow him with human attributes (although it’s OK for you to view him “as a very purposeful guy who knows exactly where He is taking things”), but I guess there is no harm in hoping he regards us as meaningful.