Isaac Newton wrote that he believed God occasionally intervened miraculously to set the planets right in their orbits, i.e., to correct cases of minor perturbations.

Today, astronomers no longer invoke "God" to restore orbital perturbations. Neither do they invoke "God" to explain how the elements continue to rise out of fusing hydrogen atoms.

"God" is the biggest intellectual cop out ever conceived and it explains exactly nothing. Every time in history we reach the limits of our understanding, some morons pipe up that God did it and that we will never understand so we shouldn't even try.

Time and again they have been proven wrong as science and progress press forward without invoking miracles or God's magic wand. Please stop spouting your inane, ignorant non-answers.

Just because the big bang coincides with parts of Genesis doesn't mean the Bible must be true. Never underestimate the intelligence of humans two millenniums ago. The only thing that has changed in 2,000 years is the passing down of lessons gained through all of humanities lives and experiences, and the advancement of technology, also the product of experiences passed down, mainly trial and error and evolution. But the overall capacity for IQ has not grown very much. Even as much as it has expanded, the Bible is one of the greatest works of art of all time, hence it's effectiveness. If you think the success of the production car, the light bulb, or Titanic the movie represents the pinnacle of human existence, I beg that you reconsider the Bible. And religion in general.

I don't rule out that God exists. But I guarantee...he doesn't seem like the type of entity who would create man in his own image and likeness, and then his perfect creation consequently betray his maker. And then his maker punish his own creation. And then send his son through a virgin to die to save all of us. All the while denying all other religions from being the true one. Oh and then make man write a book, which is his word. Because you know, he couldn't write it himself, he had to get a man to do it. If you've never watched George Carlin's "Religion is Bull****" video on Youtube, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Some people are so gullible. They'd rather believe in the Bible written thousands of years ago by who-knows-who than believing in science which is based on careful research and self-correcting mechanisms. There is a place for faith and religion in the human culture because that's who we are. And God may even exist. But how likely is it that this God is the one described in the Bible? How about the other religions who worship their own Creators. Obviously, they can't all be right. So has it occurred to these people that they could all be wrong and that God does not exist?

How small are we !!!!

anon14946: We will never see more than this planet because we will destroy ourselves way before we ever get far enough into space to even matter.

Me: No, we'll never get there because we won't be human by the time we -could- get there, according to current understanding of science. Nothing travels faster than light. Unless we can find a way to move the way the Universe does (which is faster but isn't involving the actual movement of matter so it may not be possible) it would take us 80,000 years to reach just the far side of our galaxy (our galaxy is 100,000 light years across, but we're only 30,000 cy from the center of our galaxy so its closer). It'd take millions of years to get elsewhere. Whatever we are, we won't be what we are now by then. Also, if you're referring to all the things that we're doing that threaten to wipe us out (nuclear weapons, global warming, etc), actually we'll likely survive it... well, 1% of us anyway.

anon14721: big bang would lead you to expect expansion in all directions Simultaneously, all particles expanding outwardly spherically. So how can the universe be flat?

Me: The 'Bang' is an easily misunderstood idea. It's not an explosion in the conventional sense (which would leave us with an ever-expanding sphere of matter around a core of nothing). Instead it refers to when matter started spreading out, fast. As for the 'flatness', what that means is that, for the most part, if you travel in a straight line you'll just keep -going- in a straight line without that line being altered. It's not describing every part of the universe, mostly just the huge empty gaps between stars/galaxies where there isn't anything to pull on you.

anon8411: I have been always thinking about the survival of light created by big bang to travel 14 billion years without losing its momentum and force?

Me: Momentum and force are aspects that only get altered by other things. In empty space if you throw a ball it'll go in a straight line and never slow or lose force because there's nothing to slow it down. On earth if you do the same thing there's all this inconvenient air in the way and then gravity pulls it to the ground where there's friction and other objects to get in the way. Light travelling 14 billion cy to get here never had to put up with that.

glava2005: if the universe was created 14 billion years ago the farthest any matter could travel is 14 billion light years in each direction which adds to 28 billion light years across...? so how did we get to 156 billion?

Me: The problem here is one of expansion versus travel. Matter/Energy cannot move faster than the speed of light. However the reason the universe is expanding has nothing to do with moving matter. Space is stretching (for lack of a better word). It's actually, as I understand it, largely like the Warp Drive of Star Trek and similar. The idea there is that you make a bubble of space and sit your ship inside. Then you move the section of space. Since space isn't matter or energy there's no limit to how fast such a pocket could move. Here, the space between bits of matter (like galaxies) is expanding, getting wide, and there's no limit on how fast it can do that. The interesting thing, though, is that it seems to be stretching like a rubber sheet. That is, the further away from us something is, the faster away from us it's travelling. So to get 156 light years, start 14 billion light years away and send a beam of light. Have it travel for 100 years, and it'll have moved 100 cy closer to us, but the space behind it, and therefore the space between the light and the object that created it, has expanded in the mean time and is therefore more than 100 cy. Do this for 14 billion years, add up all the expansion as we think it's happening, and you get 156 billion light years.

anon11306: If the big bang theory, and it's just a theory i might add

Me: This is ignorance of science and the word theory. The problem is that people use it the wrong way (so no fault to the poster, it's the language that is to blame). A 'theory' is not just some idea that someone came up with. It's something that people thought about, did tests to confirm, and has survived the attempts of every other scientist in the field to shoot it down. Just think about it: Einstein is world famous because he came up with his theories that describe gravity. But someone already did that. Sir Isaac Newton. Einstein's equations work better, they are more accurate (although not completely, which is why Science is currently getting into Dark Matter and Dark Energy, both of which are really weird stuff). When most people say 'I have a theory' what they mean is 'I have a hypothesis'. A guess. An idea. It takes years and years of study, debate, modification, and so on to turn a hypothesis into a Theory. Does this mean the Big Bang Theory is right? No. All it means is that, so far, no one, with thousands of people who could make their career and be famous in the scientific community for centuries, has yet been able to come up with observations or tests that show the Big Bang Theory is wrong. These next bits deal with God. My apologies to those I will insult by disagreeing with and by being an atheist.

anon8682: Why do some people refuse to believe the universe was created? Since we live in the universe we cannot even begin to explain what if anything was here prior to the start. The only logical answer is God.

Me: Well, some people refuse to believe that GOD created the universe, not that the universe was created. Current scientific thinking says the Big Bang created the universe, and that this Big Bang wasn't an intelligent being but just a consequence of the laws of its own existence. However I find your last statement to be truly insulting. Since we can't figure out what came before, and likely never will be able to, the only logical answer is God? How about this: We can never figure out what came before, so the only logical answer is that we were created by a kid in science class from a universe of which we are a sub-set? Or we were created by the Easter Bunny? There's no 'logic' there, you're just saying that your answer has to be right because science doesn't have an answer for you. Unless you are saying God is 'all those things which we as a species do not understand'. In which case God ceases to be an entity with intelligence, motives, plans, and whims and is relegated to the status of 'stuff we don't know'. A mystery to be solved and nothing more. Appeals to God of any sort are not logical. They are belief based and nothing more. I accept that God _could_ exist, but I have found no reason to suggest that he/she/it _must_ exist. And, as someone else pointed out, using 'God' as the initial cause of everything does you no good. Before the universe existed, there was God. Well... what came before God? Who created God? And if you believe God always existed, why not believe that the initial compressed dot that was the universe always existed?

anon5172: If the so called "edge" of what we conclude to be the beginning of "time" or the start of the so-called "big-bang" is only as far back as we can see due to light being way tooooo dim to see in the first place then how can anyone make an assumption as to the age in the first place? God created the heavens and the universe.

Me: The 'edge' is the 'causal edge', that is the furthest point away from us that anything could possibly be and still have some sort of effect upon the earth (such as a light in the sky). The problem with objects that far away isn't that the light is too dim. We can see them just fine (alright, we can see whole galaxies at that distance, and they show up as dots of light like stars but still). The problem is there hasn't been enough time for the light of anything further away to have reached us yet. Since no matter or energy from further than that can reach us, it doesn't much matter if it's there. It'll never affect us.

156 billion light years is just how long it took that light to get here, maybe there are stars farther out the light just hasn't gotten here yet. truthfully this is all stupid. I don't care how big it is. We will never see more than this planet because we will destroy ourselves way before we ever get far enough into space to even matter.

big bang would lead you to expect expansion in all directions Simultaneously, all particles expanding outwardly spherically. So how can the universe be flat?

I think it has to do with the 4 forces of nature (Strong Nuclear force, Weak Nuclear force, Electromagnetism and Gravity) as one in the beginning... Then somehow Gravity broke off, thus expanding the universe faster than the speed of light... Gravity holds everything together and without it the forces of nature are free to move infinity...

That's 58,106,862,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 inches.

Choosing to believe something just because the Bible says it with no other evidence is stupid.

Refusing to accept the possibility that God exists is stupid.

Balance, people. Science and religion don't have to be at either end of the spectrum.

If you consider that looking at the universe is looking into the past because of the elapsed time that occurs during the trip across space to within the distance where our telescopes can detect light, would you subtract that distance from the age of the star?

we as humans think only with a finite mind. we cant even begin to understand beyond our limited senses. of time, space, it would take man over hundred years to just get out of our solar system with a spacecraft! let alone out of our galaxy! If the big bang theory, and it's just a theory i might add. happened in the way we finite humans see it, then what a chance the universe started! there has to be more! if GOD exists, he could snap his fingers, the big bang happened, bible says And GOD said "let there be light" just a thought, mike

I think using the big bang as evidence for Genesis is absolutely pathetic.

I've seen the 156 billion light years estimate in several places - so it is probably pretty accurate. The comment about 28 billion light years being the max size the universe could be assumes c was the limit during the big bang/inflation - and that turns out to be untrue - based on current estimates, the universe expanded insanely fast during the initial bang, while all the rules of physics were being generated - perhaps 150 billion light years of expansion during that time (75 billion in every direction) - and the remaining 6 billion have occurred in the last 14 billion years - that's still allowing for galaxies to move at (3/14) c - which is pretty darn fast (40,000 miles per second!). I don't recall how fast the farthest observable galaxies are thought to travel, but those are only 12-13 billion light years away - and then some guessing goes on to estimate how fast the ones that are 78 billion light years away are moving. But please, for the love of, uh, science, stop mentioning superstitions on a fact based website like this one.

What does God answer? What created God?

What stinks about this whole debate is that, either way, we have to accept that something just 'was'. Bugs the heck out of me.

Why do some people refuse to believe the universe was created? The Bible tells us the first thing God did was create light. "let there be light, and there was" this matches exactly with the "big bang" theory. As far as the 6 day period, we do not have a way of knowing what a day meant to God. When the Bible was written no one would have had anyway to relate to what is being said now. Also we do not even know if those 6 days are complete. God is NOW. Time did not even start until creation or the big bang as it is called now. Since we live in the universe we cannot even begin to explain what if anything was here prior to the start. The only logical answer is God.

I have just logged in and am very happy to join you all folks. I am starting from zero.

I have been always thinking about the survival of light

created by big bang to travel 14 billion years without

losing its momentum and force?

the universe's size is measured in the movement of force not matter.

If you do a google search for how big universe 156 and choose the space com link there is a good article that explains why the universe is bigger than 18 billion light years.

If the so called "edge" of what we conclude to be the beginning of "time" or the start of the so-called "big-bang" is only as far back as we can see due to light being way tooooo dim to see in the first place then how can anyone make an assumption as to the age in the first place? God created the heavens and the universe.

hey i don`t get something... how can we know that the universe is big as u have said "The current, observable universe has been determined to have a width of 156 billion light years, with an error of less than 1%" when if the universe was created 14 billion years ago the farthest any matter could travel is 14 billion light years in each direction which adds to 28 billion light years across...?

so how did we get to 156 billion?