Even though until the ’50s, the generally accepted idea among scientists was that the Universe never had a beginning and, therefore, always existed, most astronomers and astrophysicists nowadays embrace the Big Bang Theory. What this theory claims is that in the very beginning, all matter, time, and space were condensed into a very small singularity the size of an atom. The singularity then started to expand extremely fast, giving birth to the Universe.
The Big Bang Theory is backed up by some strong scientific evidence, such as Einstein’s General Relativity equations that confirm it, the cosmic microwave background radiation, or the simple fact that the Universe is going through an everlasting expansion. However, not all scientists are convinced that the Big Bang did occur or at least that it occurred in the form and presentation that’s being given to us. Paul LaViolette, for instance, is one of the scientists who disproved the Big Bang Theory.
Therefore, how can it be possible for the Big Bang Theory to still be put under doubt by scientific voices today? Let’s see some of its shortcomings:
How could something come out from nothing?
Judging by the science and common sense we know, we can’t imagine anything in the Universe that doesn’t include the causality effect. In other words, everything that happens in nature represents the effect of a cause. Everything happens for a reason, both metaphorically and objectively speaking. The Big Bang Theory, on the other hand, rules out any physical cause leading to the appearance of the singularity. This has made many invoke God as the primordial cause, which is fair enough, but we are looking for a physical cause. Scientists simply say that we still don’t know what caused the Big Bang, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
Stephen Hawking had a pretty interesting explanation for this conundrum. He said that there’s no use asking what caused the Big Bang simply because time didn’t exist before the Big Bang. In other words, it wasn’t time for anything to happen. Time just spontaneously appeared along with the singularity that contained it, along with matter and space. However, this is just a theory, as Stephen Hawking cannot prove to us that time indeed didn’t exist before the Big Bang.
How did the laws of physics appear?
Even the singularity that existed before the “bang” had to obey the laws of physics, along with the Big Bang itself. While the theory tells us what happened with matter, space, and time, it doesn’t tell us anything about what set the laws of physics in motion. It doesn’t explain how those laws came into existence. And without the laws of physics, there’s no use trying to explain anything in this world since literally everything in the Universe has to play by their rules.
Why was the singularity full of “stuff”?
Once again, the Big Bang Theory claims that in the beginning, all matter, time, and space we can see today were cramped inside a singularity in the form of energy, while that singularity was the size of an atom. But why was there so much energy inside the singularity? Where did it come from? And if it did come from nothing, as some scientists such as Stephen Hawking claim, what is the cause for so much energy being cramped in that tiny space? All these remain huge conundrums even today.
Ultimately, nobody can prove with 100% accuracy that the Big Bang did or did not happen. Even though there is some strong scientific evidence to support the theory, questions without answers still remain. Scientists generally prefer only to tell us that even though we don’t have some answers about the Big Bang, that doesn’t mean that we can’t still have faith that the event did happen. Perhaps the world will untangle the mystery at some point in the near future.
