Religion – your views

[iHeckler9]

Apparently, the Universe is constantly expanding, and eventually, it'll get smaller and smaller...until SPLAT!

[Tobbe]

Actually, scientists don't think the Big Crunch scenario is as likely to happen as they used to think. The most supported "end-of-universe" theory as of today is the heat death scenario (where the Universe is in a state in which it has reached maximum entropy, and has no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion).

Wikipedia ftw.

[iHeckler9]

Then the planet must...

A: Go off into deep space and freeze over.

B: Go into the Sun and freeze over. (Sarcasm detected)

[Tobbe]

Earth won't exist until the end of the Universe. It will most likely be "swallowed" by the Sun when it dies.

[iHeckler9]

But we're living on Earth right now!

[Tobbe]

Yeah... What's your point?

[Jona]

Actually, scientists don't think the Big Crunch scenario is as likely to happen as they used to think. The most supported "end-of-universe" theory as of today is the heat death scenario (where the Universe is in a state in which it has reached maximum entropy, and has no thermodynamic free energy to sustain motion).

Wikipedia ftw.

Sounds interesting. maybe I should try to learn more about these kind of theories, it seems quite interesting.

[Holy Crap]

Earth won't exist until the end of the Universe. It will most likely be "swallowed" by the Sun when it dies.

Those alive at the time will probably see a spectacular sight then suffer a quick, fiery death.

[Tobbe]

That depends on how quickly the Sun expands. If it expands relatively slowly, people will die slowly and horribly.

[Holy Crap]

What a nice thought.
If it expands really slowly they'll all die of skin cancer.

[iHeckler9]

But I thought it WAS expanding!!!???

[Jona]

To be honest, by the time that happens we've either been obliterated way before, maybe the dinosaurs will have taken back over by then, or we will be advanced enough to find refuge in another 'solar' system. In fact, it's probably just a few more hundreds of years before that possibility already begins to rise

[Tobbe]

But I thought it WAS expanding!!!???

The Universe is, the Sun isn't.

[Hunchman801]

Multiple universes are shown to be possible by quantum tunneling or maybe something Einstein said. I have to look it up myself, actually

I have studied quantum tunnelling and I don't see how it proves anything about multiple universes

[iHeckler9]

I thought the Earth AND Sun was expanding...

Earth because of the big splat idea.

Sun because if it gets too big, it'll swallow up planets.

Eventually Earth...

But the Universe is expanding as well.

[Xenon]

I've just had a thought.

Time can be harnessed and we know this - if two people were born at the same time and one remained on Earth but the other was sent into space at inconceivable speed (then returned), the second would not have aged as rapidly as the first. So perhaps a similar situation is possible for particles, groups of particles that can then form some sort of tunnel or bridge. One side of the construction could have aged faster than the other (naturally this could vary between seconds and millions of years). Now try to imagine crossing/passing through this structure. What would happen is you'd essentially be going back in time. So perhaps, everything that exists today actually went through this process, and has merely expanded vastly over the billions of years - perhaps creation is actually a question of size and not a question of time.

[Tobbe]

That is actually one of the very few ways scientists imagine backwards time travel could be possible. Even if the necessary technology was invented you could not go back to, say, yesterday, though, as you could only go back to when the first "time tunnel" (I believe they're called wormholes) was created.

Again, Wikipedia ftw.

[Xenon]

Although I cannot conceive it, I don't see how travelling back to yesterday (using your example ^^) could be an impossibility. Correct me if I'm wrong, but would one not be travelling back in time if he were to be moving around the planet in a faster time than 24 hours?

[Tobbe]

Go to teh almighty Wikipedia and search for 'Time travel'. It can answer your questions much better than I can.

[iHeckler9]

WIKIPEDIA KNOWS ALL.