We know that the universe is expanding rapidly at an accelerating pace. At some point it is theorized that it will begin to collapse back in on itself. Is this a cyclical process that that will go on forever?

Within the question is the implicit question: how could something always exist? Whether we speak of God or the physical universe, the question of eternity must address how something could have no beginning. Is it because of the limitations of our minds that it seems so puzzling?

asked 21 Oct '09, 07:48

John's gravatar image

John
4.2k11540


Yes, as you have mentioned, everything in nature (i.e. the universe) is moving in cycles.

The conventional science point of view is that if the amount of mass in the universe is large enough, gravity will make it collapse back on itself. If it is not large enough, it will expand forever, all stars will eventually burn out and expire, and the universe will die the death of coldness.

With the Big Bang space and time were created. Thus, time is just another dimension, and its linear progression is merely some kind of illusion immediately tied solely to our perception of the obversable universe. That means, if there are more Big Bang bubbles out there, it is irrelevant if we ponder if they would exist after ours or parallel to others, because this distinction is not defined, i.e. we can say they mean the same thing.

We can only speculate if this hyperspace/meta-universe/omniverse, in which lots of Big Bang bubbles are born and die, would exist in cycles too, but I guess, yes. There are new alternative theories out there that say that the structure of the universe (and even omniverse then) is holographic or fractal. This means that the black holes we observe are universes in themselves, i.e. filled with life wondering what is before/after/outside their universe big bang bubble. Even in the center of every atom there might be a black hole ultimately causing the phenomenon of gravitation, and carrying its own universe of course.

Finally, we can only stand in awe about all there is and might be. In my belief, it ultimately boils down to the 1 and 0 of existence and non-existence. In the beginning (which is a wrong word of course) there was only void. Somehow, at some point this void suddently got conscious of itself and was asking itself "What is this? What am I?" This created a chain reaction of thoughts about what "existence" is. These thoughts are we. We are God's dream, as we can read in many old spritual writings. Here we are in a thought in which everything is moving in cycles. There might as well be totally different thoughts and concepts and worlds out there which we can't even imagine, which are not built upon any physical or mathematical laws that we are familiar with.

link

answered 21 Oct '09, 09:48

herzmeister's gravatar image

herzmeister
1.9k3719

edited 21 Oct '09, 09:55

I like your last paragraph about we are God's dream, God thoughts put into a physical reality. Remarkable, the way you put it. The earth was void, there was darkness and water. Than God started his creation.

(21 Oct '09, 22:52) flowingwater

I don't have the scientific knowledge or the spiritual insight to answer those deep questions but I like the idea that there is only the present moment. The past and the future are just concepts that we humans came up with. And so are beginnings and end - just concepts that we use to describe our physical experiences. But the Universal Consciousness only knows the now-moment and lives in for eternity. The physical universe may collapse back but the mind behind it won't come to an end because it has no idea what an "end" is.

Recently I met a great Buddhist practitioner who offered a logical explanation as to why mind is eternal. It's based on some assumptions but it's quite interesting nevertheless. Basically we have to accept that everything is cause and effect and therefore the present moment is caused by a previous moment. That previous moment must have it's cause in a moment before it and so on and so forth for eternity...mind-boggling. :)

link

answered 22 Oct '09, 06:07

Toshiro's gravatar image

Toshiro
1.9k159

No, the universe is not eternal it had an begining and it will have an ending as we know it. Now remember we are talking about the physicalo universe The bible says there shall be a new earth and a new heaven and a new Jerusalem shall come down.

Our minds are very limited when it comes to God. But as we know there have been some people with extra ordainly minds and I am not neccessarily talking about intellectual I am talking abut more than that. It is like they used all of our sensery perception and spirual knowledge.

You see only our physical world is controlled by time. God created time when he created the sun, moon, and the stars. Now the sun, moon, stars will be destroyed when Jesus comes back and God and Jesus rules this new earth. There will be no moon, no stars,no sun God will be the light. So therefore there will be no time.

There are some things not for us to know. There are somethings if we search we will found out. Our human minds can not comprehend all what God knows. We can not even look upon God he is too powerful for our human selves to look upon him with our human body we can only look up on him with our spiritual body.

God and Jesus will dwell here on this new earth with us. Now will we be in human form I doubt it but I don't know. If we have an new earth we may be given new bodies and with all of the knowledge we have learn and aquaired we may live as Adam and Eve were suppose to live before they sinned. Or we will spirit living here I really don't know.

The big bang might have happen but it did not create the world and the humans and all God create everything.

Read Revelation in the bible.

link

answered 21 Oct '09, 22:42

flowingwater's gravatar image

flowingwater
7.1k63597

edited 21 Oct '09, 23:15

Click here to create a free account

If you are seeing this message then the Inward Quest system has noticed that your web browser is behaving in an unusual way and is now blocking your active participation in this site for security reasons. As a result, among other things, you may find that you are unable to answer any questions or leave any comments. Unusual browser behavior is often caused by add-ons (ad-blocking, privacy etc) that interfere with the operation of our website. If you have installed these kinds of add-ons, we suggest you disable them for this website




Related Questions