Cosmologic philosophy: Egnor on Big Bang, etc. (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, September 27, 2021, 15:10 (1153 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I stand by my quote from my book. You have invented an objection based on suppositions we invented 17 years later that prior BB's might have occurred. Guth's point stands. There can be no 'before' before our BB because our time started with our BB. Simple and correct.

dhw: Once again you are twisting your own statement. You did not say our time started with our BB, which is self-evident. You said time did not exist before the BB – as if there could only have been one BB. It never occurred to you that your God might have created prior BBs. But now you accept that this is possible, and you realize that Guth’s point – or your previous point (as bolded above) - which started this whole discussion two months ago, does NOT stand. That should be the end of this discussion.

DAVID: This discussion is based on concepts about BB's 17 years apart in time. What I/you currently discuss does not change the validity of the previous written sentence created without any consideration of previous imagined BB's. It is your invented controversy.

dhw: This is one of the strangest arguments you have ever come up with. In July this year you informed me that “the problem you are not seeing is, there is no before before the BB. Time didn’t exist. This was proven by Guth, Borde and Valenkin by mathematics years ago, presented by my books and here.” I asked: “Do you believe your God would have sat there for eternity and done absolutely nothing until he decided to make a big bang out of himself? If one big bang, why not millions of big bangs?” It is the fact that you had not considered the possibility of previous BBs that makes you now accept that your statement made in July (emphatically reiterating your beliefs of 17 years ago, and even blaming me for not "seeing the problem") was wrong. Nobody can possibly know or prove what did or did not exist before the BB. Why don’t you leave it at that?

I think we now agree. I hadn't considered the possibility of prior BB's seventeen years ago. With that point made, it is obvious there was prior time within prior possible BB's. Since Guth hadn't considered prior BB's Guth made no mistake.