Big Bang vs. God

On the subject of matter appearing from nothing, this is not what bing bang theory states. First of all, according to Einstein's famous equation E=mc2, matter equals energy. So matter can originate from energy, and energy can originate from matter (which is qhat makes nuclear fission possible). Now, in the classical theory the universe is thought to be energy neutral, which means that in essence it is also matter neutral.Now, where did matter come from? The example of virtual particles has already been mentioned. This has been experimentally observed, where within a vacuum (i.e. an energy and matter neutral space), particle of matter and anit-matter have appeared. It is not that difficult to imagine a slight imbalance in this process, giving large quantities of one of the two. Why this imbalance would appear is the stuff of fundamental physics, but it is interesting to note that the result of this theory was that there had to be a small inhomogeneity in the cosmic background radiation. This effect was later indeed observed, AFTER the prediction. The power of science in action.You can accept it or not, but the presence of matter is the least of the Bing Bang's problems. The major one is the incompatability of the Quantum Mechanics with General Relativity.

Sidelined,No worries, my bubble is not so easily burst. Matter is used here (by me at least, and that's also how I understood it from the original poster) as all particles having mass. Mass is a property of matter. It is mainly a question of semantics I think. I don't really see why you say matter is a whole different matter (except for the opportunity of making the pun of course). Now E=mc2 gives the relation between the mass bearing matter that dissappears in a nuclear reaction, and the massless energy that replaces it (and heats some of our homes). It also appears in relativity (when the velocity or energy of a particle increases its mass also increases as given by the formula), but that IS a different matter altogether.I was trying to explain that the origin of matter is not a problem for the bing bang theory (this doesn't necessarily mean it is correct, we more or less KNOW it is not correct before the planck time). But the classic inflationary BB theory describes a energy NEUTRAL universe, containing negative gravitational energy and positive "particle-energy" (my words, don't know how to describe it). This positive energy is basically all matter.BTW, any phycisists out there please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I seriously dealt with this.[This message has been edited by Taco, 12-12-2003]