The Eternity of the World

Is the universe eternal? Cosmological predictions set the beginning of the universe, the Big Bang, at about 13.8 billion years ago. How do we know this? Edwin Hubble observed that light arriving from other galaxies shift towards the red colour spectrum - the longer wavelength of the visible light spectrum - which indicates galaxies are moving away from us. That light stretches towards the red spectrum is proof that space is expanding. If galaxies were getting closer, light would shrink towards the blue spectrum - indicating a shrinkage of space. So astronomers reasoned backwards: since light stretches due to the expansion of the universe, space expanded from some origin point. Telescopic observations of the oldest things in the sky is another method of determining the age of the universe, since the universe would have to be at least as old as the oldest existing stellar objects. But from what did space emerge? Nothingness? Or has the universe always existed in some infinitesimally small volume prior to rapid expansion at the time of the Big Bang?

Consider the following: let A represent the unit line - the number 1. And let B represent 2. C representing 3. And D representing 4. And so on.

…
A: |———|
B: |———|———|
C: |———|———|———|
D: |———|———|———|———|
…

If D is shrunk by half, that gives us B. If B is shrunk by half, that returns the original unit line, 1. We could divide the unit line by half, which returns 0.5. Then we could divide every subsequent line by 2 infinite times. Infinite division of the unit line approaches zero, but never reaches it. The closest we get to zero is the infinitesimal, some number closest to zero that’s not itself zero.

The question now is: does the representation of the infinitesimal in the mathematical sense also carry over to the cosmological model of the Big Bang? The answer is likely no, as our current understanding of physics breaks down with respect to the postulated singularity inside black holes. Likewise, the same may apply to the origin of things.

Nature, it seems, holds a dark curtain over its beginnings.