Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 5/3/2008

Question
QUESTION: If the "Big Bang" made the universe, where did the material needed for the "Big Bang" come from?  If is was always there...how did it get there?

ANSWER: Alan,
How old are you?
I smell an upset idealist here! :)

I ask this question because i have found this problem with young people only.
I HAD the same problem.

It goes like this.
A young person "takes it upon himself" to ask unanswerable questions..and ends up wasting a lot of his and other's time on something that even he most probably knows at the back of his mind, that is un-answerable.

My hangup was (when i was young) what creates gravity.
I mean space time curvature is ok, but WHAT is the underlying mechanism?

I dont know what drives people to do this sort of thing, may be it is dismay that the world is NOT an ideal place after all, and that there are indeed fearsome lacunae in our knowledge of the world.
(a situation where a young idealist is confronted with unwelcome "prosiac" hometruths about the practical world).

May be i am wrong...But you will understand my point of view as you grow older.

To answer your question directly, i will do a cut paste job of my answer to rachel, a "like minded" student,who asked an "ante-bang" question in similar vein.

********** start ********
Subject:  Big Bang Theory
Question:  What created the Big Bang?
 
Answer:  Hi Rachel,
No one can ever answer that!!:)
Insufficient data for a meaningful answer!
That is all one can say.

This is why i have chosen not to answer.
[but rather point out something about dependencies].

If i did answer, i would be fooling you as well as myself.

There are some questions the answers to which will have to wait a long time.
Rather like auto tyres "had to wait till vulcanisation of rubber happened.
Or that the Wright brothers could not have built their plane had not Bernoulli come up with his theorem!

We call it dependency in science.

And that is where the "insufficient data" part comes from.

In the meantime why not get on with life?

do rate the "answer" or lack thereof!!
regards
Jayen

********** end **********

Alan, the point is to let matters be and get on with life...someday we will have all the answers, and that day WE WILL BE THE GODS!!

till then...why not acknowledge our lacks, TRUE science is all about that, being honest about lacks and keeping up the slow plodding progress!

Do rate my answer.
Jayen

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Oops...I'm 57 years old!  I have been somewhat following the History Channel's special on the universe and this is what raised the question for me.  I am also studying the Bible (have never attended church) so's I'm not coming from that direction.  I have read that Einstein believed in a "Greater Power" and that many educated and scientific minds were also beginning to lean toward the theory of "God" and abandoning what I call the Ameba Theory: From the ocean to the land (via the frog), from the frog to the monkey, and from the monkey to man.  What I have discovered is that the Bible is based on old stories, wives' tales, and speculation.  The scientific side is mostly the same, excluding the wives' tales.  Take some time, sit down, and contemplate my question.  It will drive you nuts if you continue.  Does the universe end?  If it does, where does it end and then where does that "end" end?  The only one that does know is the maker.  Who's the maker?  This is the real question.  Thanks for your time and considerations.
awh

Answer
Alan!
Life IS full of surprises..
And thanks for the rating ofcourse.

What made me think of a young disgruntled mind was that ,most of my questioners are young.

For some strange reason grown ups stop questioning or are too tied up in mundane bread & butter issues.

But you ARE a bit disgruntled..arent you?

Have you tried reasoning why you ask these un-answerable questions, or what is driving you to do that?

Thank heavens you did not go the fundamentalist bilble way...that is working into real science in the USA. If the US has anything to fear, it is THAT subtle subversion from within, the advance of biblical creationist viewpoint, which will trigger its downfall. Most civilisations progress, then make the error of mistaking their superiority with the superiority of their gods..("my living god is greater"..) ..soon they turn away from the technology and science that made them great and in the end bite dust.

It happened to the Hindus 2000 years ago when "gods" overtook their science, it happened to the muslims with their failed invasion of europe (Vienna), It will happen to the US if this creationism thing continues...it appears you too dont believe in evolution which is sad.

Science has its lacks, but it is honest and humble about that. It does not arrogantly (like usher) set a date for the world to start say in 4004 bc!

I will take the liberty to dwell somewhat on ancient hindu thought.
(since you are deep into philosophy). For some strange reason, westerners never read eastern thought..i wonder why..they do not realise what they miss. It is a full body of secular irreligious literature on philosophy of the highest order!

Pardon the digression.

Hindu thought (i am not preaching, just stating, and dont mistake it for religion), is surprisingly secular and modern if you have delved into the thoughts of Sankhya philosophy of Rishi Kapil.

It does not need God. (not an anthropomorphic fire and brimstone type of a patriarchal nor a matriarchal god).

The rig veda too asks a strange blasphemous question (one that few other religions of that age asked).."there was a time when the gods themselves did not exist, who / what existed then? whom (that genderless it) shall we worship?

This part of the veda says "IT" ('TAT' in sanskrit OR "THAT" in english both being indoeuropean languages, the similarity is striking), that most primeval "thing" perforce was free of all dependent-dualities like male-female, life-death, light-darkness, it is/was/will be timeless, as it cannot be bound by limits...an indescribable "IT".
[refer:- Hiranya-garbha sukta of the riga-veda]

We have to side with science. Hindus can do science and still believe in a formless genderless "it" that contains the cosmos in itself and transcends it some more. (by the proverbial 10 fingers..)!!

One view holds that the universe is but a dream in the mindscape of Brahma and is made up from the mind-matter of that being! An idea worth thinking about when we know shrodinger showed matter and waves to be equivalent!


Coming back to your question, the only good answer one could give would be "god knows"! :)
regards.

Thank you once again for your rating.
Jayen