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Scientists say the universe is 14 billion years old. What if it has
always been here and never had a beginning?
That was the thought a long time ago until this guy noticed something:

George Lemaitre. Astronomer, mathematician, physicist and priest. He
noticed something interesting.

Objects were moving away from us. And the further away they were the
faster they were going. So he worked backwards and said, “if they’re
moving away from us then they must have been closer in the past”.

Up until then the model of the universe was the “Steady State” which was that the universe was always there and had no beginning. The scientists
of that day agreed and dismissed George’s idea because it was, and I
love this bit, “too close to creationism”.

That’s right. Scientists thought the idea of a starting point made it
too similar to a religious concept. The fact that a priest brought it up
made it even more suspect. But like all good scientists they examined
the evidence, did the work and figured out, “yeah, he’s right”. Except
of course all scientists are in agreement that it started 13.77 billion
years ago and not less than 10,000 years as some religious types think

(Important to note the word "some" in, "10,000 years as some religious
types think.)

comments include

ents
Profile photo for Roger Graves
Roger Graves
· May 10
Time is an emergent property of the universe, along with the three
spatial dimensions. Asking what happened “before” the universe existed
is really no different than asking “where was” the universe before space existed.

Profile photo for Max Halpern
Max Halpern
· May 11
That reflects a widely accepted interpretation of modern cosmology—particularly within general relativity, where time and space
are treated as dimensions of spacetime that emerged with the universe.
But I think it’s important to clarify that this view, while mainstream,
is not the only way physicists think about the origins of the
universe—or time itself.

Saying “time is an emergent property” can mean different things
depending on context. In general relativity, time as we know it begins
with the Big Bang. So from that perspective, asking “what happened
before the universe” may be like asking “what’s north of the North Pole”—it’s stepping outside the coordinate system in which the question makes sense.

But in other models—like loop quantum cosmology, eternal inflation, or
cyclic universe theories—there can be a meaningful concept of “before.” Time may not end or begin at the Big Bang, but instead continue through different phases or conditions. Some of these models even suggest our
universe emerged from a prior state or event.

Also, the analogy to asking “where was the universe before space
existed” can come across as dismissive. It sidesteps the deeper
philosophical and scientific interest behind the question. It’s not just about coordinates—it’s about trying to understand whether time and space are truly fundamental or emergent from something deeper.

So yes, in one model, time begins with the universe. But that’s not
settled across all theoretical frameworks, and it’s worth being precise
when we talk about it. Not because the question is flawed—but because
the answer is still very much in progress.

Roger Graves
Superb response…thank you for replying. I do appreciate some models----

Erik Painter
· May 10
It should be noted that he was not one of the young earth “religious types.” Georges Lemaître proposed that the universe was around 10
billion years old. While not as precise as the current estimate of 13.8
billion years, his prediction was close to modern scientific understanding.

The “young earth” believers are not a majority anywhere. They are all
part of a tiny subset of sects that were formed in the USA starting
after 1915 with the publication of “The Fundamentals”. It really didn’t become bigger until after 1961. It is a modern, new, and heretical sect.
The biggest group of Christians in the world are Catholic, like Father Lemaitre. A little over 50%, 1.4 billion. Catholicism is against
Protestant fundamentalism-- and literalism. It is not young earth.

Profile photo for Oppong Mark
Oppong Mark
· May 11
You're absolutely right. Unfortunately people refuse to understand that
only a very few subset of Christians hold fundamentalist creationism as
true. Most Christians particularly Catholics (Catholic theology) very
much reconciles creation with evolution and most scientific data on
origin of the universe.

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