Has the universe existed forever? Serendipity sways today - I had just finished this, an experiment in a simple visual conception of a core, long standing, mathematically based belief of mine,


Then this popped up in my inbox: ‘AS BIG questions go, it's hard to beat. Has the universe existed forever?.....(some) have argued that the opposite must be true - something must have happened to bring the cosmos into existence....earlier (this) year, cosmologists Alex Vilenkin and Audrey Mithani claimed to have settled the debate. They have uncovered reasons why the universe cannot have existed forever....Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking were two young theorists at the University of Cambridge. Their work showed that if you reversed the expansion of the universe, it is impossible to avoid reaching a point known as a singularity, where physical parameters such as density and temperature skyrocket to infinity. Crucially, physics breaks down at a singularity making it impossible to predict what lies on the other side. According to Penrose and Hawking, the big bang must truly be the beginning...Our universe is inside one such bubble that appeared in a big bang 13.7 billion years ago...’ New Scientist 03/12/12


Just a thought as we approach the Christian celebration of the birth of the prophet of one of the three religions tracing their origins to Abraham-Islam, Judaism and Christianity .