Oh I wanted to add that Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy by Cixin Liu is fun scifi if you like speculating about dimensionality and the nature of the universe.
Citing people like Paul of Tarsus who never met Jesus of Nazareth, but instead had an epileptic seizure on the road to Damascus, which is why Paul’s writings take such a sharp turn away from Judaism (additionally, only about half of the Pauline Epistles were actually written by Paul). For example, Jesus says that he came not to abolish the laws of the Prophets but to fulfill them, and then not until heaven and earth disappear and all is accomplished will any of the Law disappear, a firm endorsement of Judaic tradition. But then Paul dismisses all the requirements of Jewish law. Paul says that Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled all the law, but Jesus didn’t say that at all in the Gospels. Again, this divergence can be credited to the fact that Paul never met Jesus but instead suffered from epilepsy and interpreted his seizures as contacts with the divine.
John 1 KJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Written two generations after Jesus of Nazareth’s death (90-110 CE) in a language Jesus never preached in (Greek), in a place he had never been (Anatolia) and by persons who never knew him.
What the Gospel of John does give a glimpse into is the evolution of early Christianity from an apocalyptic Judaism (that the arrival of God’s Chosen People’s Messiah was imminent) which Jesus was likely preaching, to a syncretism of Judaism with Greco-Roman paganism. This was because the belief among Jesus’ contemporary followers that he was going to deliver the Kingdom of God right there in Judea “before that generation passes” (Matthew 24:34). But then it didn’t happen: generations were passing and Romans had not been vanquished and there was no new Kingdom of God with the Messiah ruling God’s chosen people as their liberator. So by the time John was written, the Kingdom of God had transitioned from being a physical place on Earth where their new King David would rule to being a different plane of existence with God above. This is one of many key differences between John and the synoptic gospels. But that’s what you get when you have three gospels based on a similar source and then a fourth written many decades later and partially based on those earlier three gospels but critically influenced by two generations of displacement and rapidly evolving theology.
Even people living nearly 3,000 years ago could understand that something cannot come out of nothing.
Something from nothing
Life from nonlife
matter from nonmatter
yaya... Religion provides a comforting answer until you try to prove it.
Just because religion is a pile of pants, doesn't mean you can just arrogantly say - 'something can come from nothing', when you know you haven't a clue how that could even make logical sense.
yaya... Religion provides a comforting answer until you try to prove it.
Just because religion is a pile of pants, doesn't mean you can just arrogantly say - 'something can come from nothing', when you know you haven't a clue how that could even make logical sense.
Both ‘something’ and ‘nothing’ also come from that vacuum between your ears.
yaya... Religion provides a comforting answer until you try to prove it.
Just because religion is a pile of pants, doesn't mean you can just arrogantly say - 'something can come from nothing', when you know you haven't a clue how that could even make logical sense.
Perhaps it would be more fair to say something came from nothing that we can perceive.
Well, I'm hangin' on to a solid rockMade before the foundation of the worldAnd I won't let go, and I can't let go, won't let goAnd I can't let go, won't let ...
What an absolutely great topic for a thread. Of course the question of what came before the big bang naturally leads to discussion of beliefs about God and creation and physics.
But, I have a fear if I get involved in this thread and put some thoughts into responses some mod for some reason will think, they shouldn't be talking about that and delete the whole thread.
You're not that smart, guy. If you were, you definitely wouldn't be getting a pharmacy degree. Remember that not all autistic people are above average intelligence.