Sunday Quote: Alexander Vilenkin on Cosmic Beginnings

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sunday Quote: Alexander Vilenkin on Cosmic Beginnings

"It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning."

- Alexander Vilenkin

Many Worlds in One (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 176.

3 comments :

Ron said...: If we want to be intellectually honest, we must ask ourselves a key question: If we are unable to “sense” other dimensions in our Cosmos, does that merely demonstrate we do not have the ability to sense other dimensions?

Book 3; Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 5:07:00 PM GMT+1
Gericho49 said...: His theorem not only applies to our finite rationally intelligible law-abiding universe but to any number of hypothetical multiverses.
There cant be an infinite regress for ant physical events, since the past cant be eternal.
“The infinite as in infinite past time is nowhere to be found in reality. It neither exists in nature nor provides a legitimate basis for rational thought. The role that remains for the infinite…is solely that of an idea…” Dave Hilbert; Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 1:26:00 PM GMT+1
Ex N1hilo said...: We know that God did not create an infinite past because God has told us so. And we know that God did create an infinite future; again, because He has told us so.

We can also infer the former from observation, but this is tentative.

There is nothing contradictory or illogical about God creating something that has an aspect of its being that is infinite. We forget the radically contingent nature of creation. Creatures have neither necessary existence nor any necessary properties.; Wednesday, July 3, 2013 at 5:19:00 AM GMT+1