• Question: What are your opinions on how the world came to existance? And do you believe in the big bang theory? :)

    Asked by naimasultana123 to Anna, Chris, Jane, Iain, Nick on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hi @naimasultana123
      Yes, I definitely believe in the big bang theory and I definitely don’t believe in God. However, what came before the big bang theory is a bit of a stumbling block (but I still don’t think it was God). Personally, I feel the answer to this will come from the study of maths – which might seem totally irrelevant, but maths was one of the key subjects that led to the creation of the big bang theory. Maths and philosophy are very much aligned and both will unpick why and how the world came to existance (in my humble opinion).

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      How the world came into existence is a good question. Our world, planet earth, along with the sun and the other planets in our solar system, came from a large cloud of interstellar gas. This gas, which was left over from a supernova explosion, collapsed following the explosion of another supernova. If go back far enough, though, we do get to the big bang. I think the evidence for the big bang is absolutely sound. The theory made a very precise prediction about background cosmic microwave radiation, and when it was investigated, the prediction was exactly right.

    • Photo: Chris Cole

      Chris Cole answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      I definitely believe in the big bang. For the exact same reason I believe in many scientific theories: it supports all the observations we have so far made, is able to make testable predictions and the predictions we’ve been able test have been correct.

      It’s not perfect as there are still things it doesn’t explain – where did all the anti-matter go? – but it’s the best explanation we have based on fact not faith.

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