Thanks for catching up, I know how easy it is to let this type of stuff slip
Bigga said:
Question; If, like I have been told before that the 'Big Bang' came into being from 'pressure', what was before the pressure, what created that pressure and is that irrefutably proven?
You're sort of on the right track but sort of wrong too. Let me be clear in saying that nobody currently has an evidentially supported position to explain what happened to cause the Big Bang. Many people feel that this is a false question akin to what happens when you try to travel North of the North Pole.
You have to understand that the Big Bang model only attempts to explain where matter (or "stuff") has come from. It also claims that spacetime (the "fabric" in which "stuff" exists) expanded really quickly. This has limits, it only tries to explain where the stuff we can see comes from rather than all of the stuff in the entirety of creation. Other stuff in a far flung area of space may have come from a totally different Big Bang.
Essentially, the Big Bang model is the most evidentially supported position we currently have to explain where stuff came from and how spacetime came into being. It is not a complete solution but it is also not a guess or an unanswered question.
Question; in which direction has the BB gone? Is it circular or 'outwards' in 'one direction' similar to a linear path?
The Universe expanded in all directions equally. I don't like using the analogy of a balloon blowing up as it creates a false understanding that somebody needs to be adding air. The best way I've seen it described to me, and this might not help others as this sort of stuff is very subjective, is that you imagine a tiny square of rubber that expands when it hits water. Now imagine dumping that square into the Ocean. There is no centre as every piece of rubber that touched the water expanded equally.
This might raise a few questions but every time anybody attempts to simplify a concept they lose accuracy. I'm sure you have the same problem in your field. It's the closest analogy I could give though. Imagine that small piece of rubber and how the bigger it becomes the faster it grows as there's more rubber touching the water thus more rubber to expand.
Question; if the universe is 'expanding', are we not still experiencing TBB??
Yes and no. The Big Bang referred to a period of rapid expansion in the early Universe. We are still experiencing this through radiation and continued expansion. However this expansion was caused by the Big Bang singularity and not really responsible for our current rate of quickening expansion
Question; if space is not a vacuum, was it already in existence before TBB?
Nobody knows but the best answer that can currently be given is "probably". Just to say though that space is a vacuum. As I said earlier, the Big Bang is about the rapid expansion of spacetime in our local area that produced matter through various natural processes. Nobody knows or even has any respected ideas about where spacetime came from to expand. It is just presumed to be always there. The Big Bang model states that spacetime in our bit of the Universe expanded extremely quickly for a reason that we don't know and produced matter in a process that we do know and it eventually created all particles, elements, compounds, stars, suns, planets and eventually life.
That is the limit and presumption of human understanding as it is.
There are numerous current ideas. One of them suggests that the correct model is that all of the blue in here is spacetime and the spheres are there own Big Bang of which we are one:
[bigimg]http://bluria.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/multiverse.jpg[/bigimg]
The truth though is that nobody is sure. This is a possible explanation amongst many flimsy ones. The Big Bang model as it is is pretty well supported because we're talking about experiences within one of those spheres, and we can see and measure that.
The Big Bang isn't something that explains where the blue stuff comes from nor the other spheres. It is limited to our local area which is why we're very sure about many of the ideas in it. We couldn't hope to measure the things outside of our sphere so we're all pissing in the wind, atheist or not.
