Why is there a universe?

Physics or philosophy?

The discussion of the creation and existence of the universe was, before physicists got involved, a philosophical question.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu put it this way in his Tao Te Ching: "Nothing is the beginning of the name of heaven and earth. Yes, the name of the mother of all things ", and said "Tao begets one, life two, two begets three, three begets all things".

Lao-tzu believed that everything under heaven was born from something and something from nothing. What is nothing? Is a way. Tao is the truth, Yin and Yang two qi.

Lao Tzu's view of the universe

Different from the ancient Chinese cosmology, scholars in the Western world at the same time mostly attributed the existence of the universe to the creation of God. They believe that the universe was originally empty, but that "God" created it one day in accordance with his will. So how did "God" come about? Where do they live? The answer is that you can't assume "God", he is beyond nature, and this blocks your way to questioning.

Cosmic creationism

When astronomers joined the discussion about the evolution of the universe, things changed. Astronomers explain the universe by observing the laws of celestial motion and then applying the principles of mathematics and physics. Whether it is the earliest geocentric theory, heliocentric theory or the subsequent theories of the universe, all are the results of mathematical derivation and physical experience. Until Einstein's general theory of relativity, Hubble's discovery of the redshift phenomenon of distant galaxies, and the Big Bang theory were put forward, all of them had gone through complicated mathematical calculations and the test of existing theories, so these theories were widely accepted by the scientific community and the public.

There was a heliocentric theory that the sun was the center of the universe

A problem is still a problem

The harsh reality is that to this day, no theologian, philosopher, or astronomer has ever fully answered the original question -- why is there a universe? What does the universe look like? Where did it come from? Where will it go?

Theologians believe that the universe was created by God, so you have to ask God all these questions, and of course God doesn't tell you directly, so you have to read the Bible. I had read the Bible, but after I read it I decided that I still wanted to look for answers to the universe from a scientific and philosophical perspective.

Philosophers often hold different views. Some scholars hold that the universe has no beginning and no end, and we are only finite units within the infinite. Others theorize that finite units are rather unlikely to lead to infinite results, and therefore the universe is finite. But what is beyond the finite? If the finite universe is not the universe, it is contrary to the concept of the universe itself. A very simple example is this: When you stand at the edge of the universe and throw a rock, where does it go?

If you throw a stone at the edge of the universe

By observing the redshift of galaxies and the microwave background radiation, scientists have concluded that all galaxies are moving away from each other, and in reverse, the universe was once an infinitely compact and infinitesimally small point. More than 13 billion years ago, that dot exploded violently, creating the universe we have today. What about before the Big Bang? There is no space and time.

Theologians like the idea of a Big Bang. Because the explosion of the prehistoric singularity must require a trigger condition, if there is nothing else in the universe except this singularity, then it can only be triggered by the supernatural "god". In addition, the explosion of a point with "no time and no space" is also far beyond the scope of ordinary people's cognition, and there is not much we can do except "unawareness".

The "Big Bang" theory says the universe began at a singularity

You may say, Lao Tzu said at the beginning of "nothing, the name of the beginning of heaven and earth also" ah! In fact, Lao Tzu's second sentence, "Having is the mother of all things," precisely acknowledges the materiality of the universe. By "Wu" he meant "Tao", that is to say, the universe should operate in accordance with the principle of Yin and Yang merging.

An insight into the universe

1. Why is there a universe?

A: Don't ask why. The universe is the universe. It is the space we are in, the matter in space, and time. In a broad sense, the universe is objective, whether you look at it or not, it is always there, and it is not subject to the subjective will of human beings.

The universe is infinite, without beginning or end

What does the universe look like?

The universe is infinite. It is infinitely vast and shapeless. There are stars, dust, radiation (energy), and things in space that we humans have yet to perceive, like dark matter and dark energy.

It is difficult for human beings to infer the infinite universe from the finite world they perceive, so most people deny the existence of infinite universe. That makes sense from a scientific point of view, because science needs to be verifiable, and all of humanity's verifiable phenomena come from the part of the universe that we can observe.

Remember the fable "The blind man feels the elephant"? We laugh at the blind man who holds an elephant's leg and says that an elephant looks like a tree trunk or a pipe, but how similar are we to those blind men when it comes to the vastness of the universe?

elephant

Where did the universe come from and where is it going?

The universe is an eternal existence. It has no beginning and will never have an end. The reason why the Big Bang is still a scientific hypothesis is that there are so many key questions about it that have yet to be answered scientifically. Do photons really have no mass? Is light really the fastest and constant speed in the universe? If distant starlight does scatter before it reaches our eyes, all our physical theories would need to be revised, and the so-called redshift would not prove that distant galaxies are moving away.

The redshift theory predicts the Big Bang

Another key reason is that astrophysicists already know that many galaxies are spinning at speeds that defy the laws of gravity in relation to their masses. Therefore, we speculate that there may be more dark matter in the galaxy than we can imagine. Does this dark matter affect the motion of all celestial bodies? Since we accept that human observations of the universe are finite, why do finite observations negate infinite space?

The "Big Bang" model is still a scientific hypothesis

For example, if you look out on one of the stars where a supernova explodes so violently that it produces nebulae and brand new stars, all the dust and planets are moving away. But if you use that as an excuse to say the Milky Way is expanding at the same rate, that's a joke. In the same way, we can infer the entire universe from the motion of some galaxies in the observable universe.

From this we can draw the conclusion that:

The universe is objective and eternal. It did not begin and will not end with annihilation or the "Great Crunch". The visible universe is only a small part of the universe, we should not be partial to the whole.

Why is there a universe? Because it's always here. Mankind's exploration of the universe has a long way to go, and it will never end.