That it is past eternal.
That inference is based on what?
The same thing as yours - it's one of the equally supported possible interpretations of what we can observe - which is that the universe existed at the Planck time, and that we cannot know what happened before that time.
Equally supported? By what twisted sense of probability are you asserting that. You seem to be reasoning that you have a 50-50 chance of winning the lottery because either you will win or you won't. Way too simplistic. Follow the evidence.
Also….
Your assertion that "we cannot know" is a limited position of epistemology that limits knowledge to only scientific knowledge and thus abandons all reason. It is also self-refuting.
Main point………..you stand opposed to most prominent inference.
Again I’m not saying that the SBBM infers with absolute certainty that the universe began to exist. But if you follow the evidence the SBBM far more reasonably points to a universe with an absolute beginning as opposed to one that is eternal or illogically created itself.
It is not unreasonable to concur with Hawkings that time began…
http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html or with Vilenkin that the universe is not past eternal…
By now, there’s scientific consensus that our universe exploded into existence almost 14 billion years ago in an event known as the Big Bang. But that theory raises more questions about the universe’s origins than it answers, including the most basic one: what happened before the Big Bang? Some cosmologists have argued that a universe could have no beginning, but simply always was.
In 2003, Tufts cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin and his colleagues, Arvind Borde, now a senior professor of mathematics at Long Island University, and Alan Guth, a professor of physics at MIT, proved a mathematical theorem showing that, under very general assumptions, the universe must, in fact, have had a beginning.
http://now.tufts.edu/articles/beginning-was-beginning
I’m not saying that either of these great cosmologists, also atheists, claim that the universe began with absolute certainty, but even they seem to reason so. Last I knew, both are engaged with research that is more along the lines of self-creation, almost surrendering to the notion that from the evidence we have now the universe began to exist. Further the illogical notion of self-creation is in no way more plausible then what we can reasonably predict from what we know now.
The SBBM in regards to the beginning of the universe far more reasonably predicts that the universe had an absolute beginning. Hawking and Krauss, both atheists, each have written a book purporting their solutions as to how the universe began, thereby concluding it began.
There is no viable model that substantiates a universe with an eternal past.
I can see why you WANT the universe to have started, because you think that if it did, your beliefs are better supported. But that's not a reason for anyone other than you to accept without evidence that it did.
My position is one of reason supported by the EVIDENCE of the SBBM. Your position is the one of want, standing opposed to reason and wanting of evidence.
You have no more evidence than I do.
My evidence….
I agree with you that the theory can only physically extend our scientific knowledge of the expansion back to Planck. But examining that 13.7 billion year extension overwhelming leads to a prediction that the universe began to exist. The BGV also adds to that prediction by asserting that any universe which is on average expanding cannot be past eternal. It is that simple.
Here is another way to consider the power of that inference.
We have approximately 8,020,300,637,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Planck seconds of time pointing back towards a beginning and ... only ...one... single ...solitary Planck second that cannot absolutely confirm that beginning.
Plus.......
the added overwhelming evidence of the BGV.
So it is far far far far far far far far ... more plausible (to say the least) that the universe had a absolute beginning as compared to it being eternal.
Serious Question. Please...............
Tell me what would you expect the evidence to look like......If the entire universe actually began to exist at that Planck second?
and.............
How would that evidence look any different from what we actually have right now?
It describes everything that has ever been observed. I assert not that it must apply before the Planck time - only that it is not unreasonable to imagine that it might.
Again the odds against that “might” are
8,020,300,637,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 To 1.
Even Llyod Christmas had a better shot than that.
So technically you have an absurd long shot to avoid the inference. Yet you seem to be asserting it’s 50/50.
Of course, even if you were 100% correct, and the universe started at the Big Bang, and was caused by something immaterial and timeless, your assignment of the label 'God' to that thing in no way justifies the leap to equating this thing with any of the Gods described by human religion.
What was the context of this thread?
Read my last post to Hermit to address your polytheistic concerns.
If the context is 'the universe has a creator', then you still have a SHITLOAD of work to do to show that this creator still exists, or is able to interact with the universe today, or is in any sense 'intelligent', or 'caring', or has anything to do with such unrelated events as abiogenesis - in short, if you were able to prove the thing you are currently failing to prove, you still wouldn't have proved the existence of anything worthy of the name 'God'.
Not there yet and besides much of what you asserted there is self-contradictory.
No worries.