• Question: Some people believe it was god that put everyone where we are now, but some other people say its the big bang. Can you explain to me what the big bang is?

    Asked by georgiad123 to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 13 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by ericamcg123, eimearbrady.
    • Photo: Shane Bergin

      Shane Bergin answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      The big bang occurred at the beginning of the universe. This has no bearing on whether god exists or not.

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      The big bang was a massive explosion that created all the atoms and material in the world, that woudl then go on to form the stars, the planets, and eventually living things on Earth. The vast majority of scientists are happy with this explanation, and that life and hence people arrived through natural processes without a god putting us there. As Shane says though, accepting that the big bang occurred does not necessarily affect whether a god exists or not.

    • Photo: Aggelos Zacharopoulos

      Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      @georgiad123
      Some other people say that it maybe God who made the Big Bang… The fact that we dont know for sure makes it so much more interesting. Studying at school and later at university will allow you to make your own theory based on what you ‘ve learned!

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Its funny, because scientists say that the Big Bang wasn’t actually a huge explosion – it was more of an expansion that created our universe. And some scientists think that this could have happened in multiple locations – meaning that we’re actually living in a multiverse (meaning many universes). This happened about 13 or 14 BILLION years ago – I can’t even imagine all of those years!

      After this expansion happened, different particles were created – like protons, neutrons, and electrons. These combined to give us our elements – the things like hydrogren, oxygen, nitrogen…all of the elements you’ve probably seen on the periodic table of the elements.

      Now a very good question is what started the big bang, and where the bits came from that made it start expanding (and why!) I wish I knew the answer to that, I think most scientists would love to be able to solve that question. Maybe one day you’ll decide to try and research this! But what we do know, and can prove with science, is that it happened and thats what’s gave us the bits to make life on Earth!

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      The theory behind the big bang is that there was once an extremely hot and dense mass, and that a buildup of this heat resulted in an enormous explosion. The explosion caused everything to spread out and we think that the universe is still expanding today. As things spread out as a result of the blast, they cooled down enough to form atoms and molecules, which eventually combined to form everything else, including us!

      You know the way a radio goes all fuzzy when it’s out of tune? Some scientists say that that fuzziness is caused by energy left over from the Big Bang. Still though, the big bang theory is something that no-one can prove for certain, just like the existance of God. A lot of people think that religion and science can’t happily exist together, but that isn’t true. What matters is that religion and science respect each other, and for the most part, they do.

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