Changes

|pages=135

|pages=135

|isbn=0-553-10953-7

|isbn=0-553-10953-7

|url=}}</ref>, [[string theory]], prior universe beyond the reach of [[Scientific observation|observation]]<ref name="ESA">{{cite web

|url=}}</ref>, [[string theory]], prior and/or alternative (parallel) universe(s) beyond the reach of [[Scientific observation|observation]]<ref name="ESA">{{cite web

|title= Is the Universe finite or infinite? An interview with Joseph Silk

|title= Is the Universe finite or infinite? An interview with Joseph Silk

|publisher= ESA, European Space Agency

|publisher= ESA, European Space Agency

|access date= 09.03.2012

|access date= 09.03.2012

|quote= ESA: We seem to agree that the Big Bang started with an 'inflation', a short period of high-speed expansion. But what happened before that?

|quote= ESA: We seem to agree that the Big Bang started with an 'inflation', a short period of high-speed expansion. But what happened before that?

Joseph Silk: Maybe long before inflation there was a Universe that was collapsing near a singularity, which then inflated again, so there was already a history before the Big Bang. Some people think there was a 'pre-Big Bang'. One possibility is that this pre-Big Bang, ''if there was such a place'', would have made lots of entropy (the amount of disorder in the Universe). And the Universe we live in does have huge amounts of entropy. That's one theory. But ''we have no understanding of how to change from collapsing to expanding. There's no physical way to explain that transition.'' Some people believe that they have explanations the pre-Big Bang, so it's a respectable theory.}}</ref> (cf. [[Victor J. Stenger]]: "In the scenario I presented, our universe is described as having "tunneled" through the [[chaos]] ...from ''prior universe'' that existed for all previous time")<ref name="WhomadeGod"/>, or put their hope to [[quantum mechanics]]<ref name="PhysLink"/><ref name="DismantlingBB">{{cite book|author=Alex Williams, John Hartnett|title=Dismantling the Big Bang|publisher=Master Books|location=Green Forest, AR, USA|year=2005|page=101|pages=346|isbn=978-0-89051-437-5|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=FR7basoxkSwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hartnett+dismantling+the+big+bang&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JvNwT_6nJJOP4gTP6fG_Ag&sqi=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=hartnett%20dismantling%20the%20big%20bang&f=false|quote=It is simply assumed that space was expanding right from the beginning and the substance of the universe "went along for the ride", and was thereby carried out of the singular state. No one can explain how, so they place their hope for an explanation in quantum gravity...At this stage it is still in the realm of speculation. ... Big-bang theory is based on the laws of physics but those laws cannot explain the important components of the model. The big-bang universe begins in a singularity (all matter,  energy, space and time crushed into a point of infinite density) and there is no known mechanism to start the universe expanding out of the singularity - the equations in the theory only work after the expansion has begun.}}</ref>. Some resort to the assertion that the world was ''uncaused'' (cf. [[Carl Sagan]]: "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be")<ref name="skeptics"/> while other dismiss the question of ''the first cause'' altogether (cf. Hawking: "To ask what happened before the universe began is like asking for a point on the Earth at 91 degrees north latitude. Instead of talking about the universe being created, and maybe coming to and end, one should just say: the universe is.")<ref name="DeniableDarwin"/>.

Joseph Silk: Maybe long before inflation there was a Universe that was collapsing near a singularity, which then inflated again, so there was already a history before the Big Bang. Some people think there was a 'pre-Big Bang'. One possibility is that this pre-Big Bang, ''if there was such a place'', would have made lots of entropy (the amount of disorder in the Universe). And the Universe we live in does have huge amounts of entropy. That's one theory. But ''we have no understanding of how to change from collapsing to expanding. There's no physical way to explain that transition.'' Some people believe that they have explanations the pre-Big Bang, so it's a respectable theory.}}</ref> (cf. [[Victor J. Stenger]]: ''"In the scenario I presented, our universe is described as having "tunneled" through the [[chaos]] ...from ''prior universe'' that existed for all previous time"''<ref name="WhomadeGod"/>; Neil Turok, Cambridge University: ''"And the Big Bang is the aftermath of some encounter between two parallel worlds"''<ref name="BBC"/>{{#tag:ref|The idea of ''parallel universes'' is not new and it is native to many [[Gnostic]] heresies. Basilidean mythology, for instance, sets the number of ''"heavens"'' (cosmic spheres) at three hundred and sixty five.<ref name="Hart">{{cite book |title=Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies|author=David Bentley Hart|publisher=YALE University Press|year=2010|pages=140|isbn=978-03-0016-4299|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NtG5QQAACAAJ&dq=Ateist+delusions&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LWKgUezkCumF4ATem4DYCA&redir_esc=y}}</ref> According to [[Alan Guth]], evidently by applying the [[Logic of possibility]] and Gnostic thought, ''"essentially anything that can happen does happen in one of the alternatives which means that superimposed on top of the Universe that we know of is an alternative universe where Al Gore is President and Elvis Presley is still alive."''<ref name="BBC"/>|group=note}}), or put their hope to [[quantum mechanics]]<ref name="PhysLink"/><ref name="DismantlingBB">{{cite book|author=Alex Williams, John Hartnett|title=Dismantling the Big Bang|publisher=Master Books|location=Green Forest, AR, USA|year=2005|page=101|pages=346|isbn=978-0-89051-437-5|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=FR7basoxkSwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=hartnett+dismantling+the+big+bang&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JvNwT_6nJJOP4gTP6fG_Ag&sqi=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=hartnett%20dismantling%20the%20big%20bang&f=false|quote=It is simply assumed that space was expanding right from the beginning and the substance of the universe "went along for the ride", and was thereby carried out of the singular state. No one can explain how, so they place their hope for an explanation in quantum gravity...At this stage it is still in the realm of speculation. ... Big-bang theory is based on the laws of physics but those laws cannot explain the important components of the model. The big-bang universe begins in a singularity (all matter,  energy, space and time crushed into a point of infinite density) and there is no known mechanism to start the universe expanding out of the singularity - the equations in the theory only work after the expansion has begun.}}</ref>. Some resort to the assertion that the world was ''uncaused'' (cf. [[Carl Sagan]]: "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be")<ref name="skeptics"/> while other dismiss the question of ''the first cause'' altogether (cf. Hawking: "To ask what happened before the universe began is like asking for a point on the Earth at 91 degrees north latitude. Instead of talking about the universe being created, and maybe coming to and end, one should just say: the universe is.")<ref name="DeniableDarwin"/>.

== The hot big bang singularity ==

== The hot big bang singularity ==