Many religious people (Christians especially) don't accept the big bang.

Big bang cosmology can be described to fit any version of God and visa versa. Since God, as a fictional character, can be said to be omnipotent and is generally described as the creator of the laws of physics then God can do whatever it wants.

If God exists outside of time then he cannot create anything at a certain time. If God created Big Bang then he did it at a specific time, this specific time (Big Bang) could have happened at any time in relation to God but if god is timeless then the Big Bang has never happened or it has always happened.

If God is outside of time then the moment the universe was created at that same moment the end was also created and everything in between. And how does this short time, billions of years, relate to a timeless God?

Another viewpoint: If God created Big Bang at a certain point it means that God made a choice, the choice was, to create it (obviously) . And choice means confusion, uncertainty, you cannot choose something 100% because that would no longer be a choice. This makes God human-like-minded and it indicates that God exists in time.

So:
1. God is timeless. which means He could not have created the Universe at a certain point which means that Universe existed (not necessarily this universe) always with God, which means Universe is also timeless.
2. God exists in time. Which means the Big Bang happened at a certain point. Which also raises the question who/what created God, for everything that exists in time was created and will be destroyed in time. That makes Him very human-like, as most people imagine Him, especially in the old days.

Given that all extant cosmological evidence indicates that it had a planck radius at "the beginning", the universe is a very-far-from-equilibrium "macroscale" effect of a primordial "microscale uncaused event" (i.e. quantum fluctuation), and therefore not a(n act of) "creation". — 180 Proof

... my understanding is that the BB was a planck-scale event, therefore acausal; or, in other words, the initial conditions of the universe were randomly set [ ... ] As an explanation, saying 'g/G caused it' is indistinguishable from saying it randomly occurred ... — 180 Proof

Oldies but goodies – that's my story and I'm sticking
to it. :smirk:

Would someone tell me how religious people explain this without defying physics. — scientia de summis

They don't because they can't. Creationism (or "Intelligent Design") are just woo-of-the-gaps / appeals to ignorance fairytales religious theists like to tell themselves to help them sleep with the lights off on stormy nights.

They don't because they can't. Creationism (or "Intelligent Design") are just woo-of-the-gaps / appeals to ignorance fairytales religious theists like to tell themselves to help them sleep with lights off on stormy nights. — 180 Proof

Thank you, this is exactly what I thought and very helpful!

Would someone tell me how religious people explain this without defying physics. — scientia de summis

Typically they claim that God is beyond our comprehension.

Ok thank you @frank

... God is beyond our comprehension.

Yep, g/G is a mystery (i.e. inexplicable).

The answer to the question of origin of the universe is "Mystery created it" or "Mystery caused it" or "Mystery did it", which only begs the question and does not answer it.

Either (i) religious theists don't know that they don't know or (ii) they know they don't know and just bullshit themselves and us with "Mystery did it", etc.

Explain something to me. I'm a bit worried about myself, seriously, because I've never had the experience that seems to lie at the foundation of theism viz. that desire, even desperation, to need an explanation for the universe. In short, the question, "why all this?" never crossed my mind. Is there something wrong with me?

Either (i) religious theists don't know that they don't know or (ii) they know they don't know and just bullshit themselves and us with "Mystery did it", etc. — 180 Proof

I guess. First Amendment protects their bullshit, though. The Big Bang is also presently a mystery.

I know I'm not who you're asking, but if you don't mind, I would like to answer.
I personally would say:
NO! There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!

Two types of people are-
1. Curious people who always want to know the answer to everything. These tend to be academics and scientists-I am one of these people.
2. People who...let me put this bluntly...just couldn't care. These people, tend to be more creative, but by no means always.

I don't know if you are either of these people or completely different from both, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with you in any case!

Would you describe yourself more as academic or creative?

I wouldn't say a mystery, so much as not all clear. We know much about most aspects of the big bang, we just don't know the details.

The simple answer to what was "before the Big Bang?" is "we don't know."

To answer your question though, I refer you to Pierre-Simon Laplace's reply to Napoleon's query, and I'm paraphrasing here, "where is god in all this?" which was, "I had no need for that hypothesis." The message is clear - God is not necessary for science. This may at first give us the impression that religion and science are at odds with each other but surprisingly no, this ain't so for God being unnecessary doesn't imply that God is inconsistent with science; in other words there's enough room in science for one more albeit unnecessary hypothesis viz. God. To sum up, God, as an aspect of our reality, doesn't break physics.

I wouldn't say a mystery, so much as not all clear. We know much about most aspects of the big bang, we just don't know the details. — scientia de summis

I'm not a physicist, but I understand that quantum theory doesn't work in the Big Bang.

That's not a detail.

Would you describe yourself more as academic or creative? — scientia de summis

I don't know how to answer that question without being dishonest. Anyway, I describe myself as fairly curious but not to the point of being the cat that curiosity bumped off. Also, I've gone through university but wouldn't characterize myself as an academic.

What bothers me is that the thirst for explanations seems to be rather ancient, traceable back to prehistorical periods even and yet here I am in the 21st century devoid of any such feelings.

Then I would say that there is definitely nothing wrong with you, you're just perhaps...uncommon, and believe me, that is nothing but good! I say uncommon as opposed to unusual as there are definitely others who feel the same.

I'll answer without using a religious response. I'll preface this by saying, though I'm religious, I don't believe God "created" anything.

Now, the response is this:

Dr. Roger Penrose and many other physicists while admitting that "time" in our conception didn't exist prior to the Big Bang, it is possible still to talk about a "before" the Big Bang. Even though our precise conception of what that means breaks down the further back we go.

So that's a secular response to the problem, that could theoretically be used. However, Christians probably don't want to use this because his model of the Universe is an eternal cyclic model. LOL And that contradicts Biblical Cosmology. But that's one way the problem could be addressed. Could be.

The universe exists within God. Physical (space)time is a physical object just like a chair or table except it has an extra dimension. 'Before time' is not important. What is important is the fact that time is a property of existence.

Amusing, how those who believe in god chime in to provide examples of

woo-of-the-gaps — 180 Proof

Would someone tell me how religious people explain this without defying physics. — scientia de summis

Sure, if they could. But they can't. That's why they're religious. Your ancestors were the same of other scientific reactions and happenings they couldn't explain. How far you've come. Or perhaps.. you've reached the arrogance and devaluation of the mystery (ergo joy) of life they hoped for you to avoid. Congratulations.

And that contradicts Biblical Cosmology. — Dharmi

True. But all the Christians I know see the Bible as allegory.

I'm a bit worried about myself, seriously, because I've never had the experience that seems to lie at the foundation of theism viz. that desire, even desperation, to need an explanation for the universe. In short, the question, "why all this?" never crossed my mind. Is there something wrong with me? — TheMadFool

No. I share that too. I really don't care.

Many religious people (Christians especially) don't accept the big bang. — Tom Storm

You know the originator of the big bang theory was a Jesuit, George Lemaître, right? Here's an interesting snippet from his Wikipedia entry:

By 1951, Pope Pius XII declared that Lemaître's theory provided a scientific validation for Catholicism.[34] However, Lemaître resented the Pope's proclamation, stating that the theory was neutral and there was neither a connection nor a contradiction between his religion and his theory.[35] [36][16] Lemaître and Daniel O'Connell, the Pope's scientific advisor, persuaded the Pope not to mention Creationism publicly, and to stop making proclamations about cosmology.[37] Lemaître was a devout Catholic, but opposed mixing science with religion,[37] although he held that the two fields were not in conflict.[38]

One argument I have heard from Franz Liszt is that God exists outside of time, however for that to be the case, a God would have to be outside of the whole universe, which seems scientifically impossible given that nothing is outside of the universe by definition. — scientia de summis

Where is the number 7 located?

Quite right; god is a figment of human ingenuity, just like numbers.

God would have to be outside of the whole universe, which seems scientifically impossible given that nothing is outside of the universe by definition. — scientia de summis

Doesn't God defy the laws of physics and can do what it pleases? I never quite get that God can be limited by the impossible.

God does not exist - Pierre Whalon, Bishop in charge, Episcopal Churches in Europe.

'God made the integers, all else is the work of man' ~ Leopold Kronecker, mathematician.

Pierre Whalon, Bishop in charge, Episcopal Churches in Europe. — Wayfarer

You know what they say about Episcopals? It's the bland leading the bland....

It (or Anglicanism, in my part of the world) was the religion I left, although I'm sure it left more of an imprint than I would like to admit. Still, Whalon's essay makes a point highly relevant to the OP.

Typically they claim that God is beyond our comprehension. — frank

One approach to God is to present the deity in altogether familiar, knowable terms. The opposite approach is to define God as unfathomable, incomprehensible, unknowable.

I hold that man created the gods, not the other way around, and defined the gods in various ways. The most problematic approach is to define God as unknowable, then to go on and explain why and how God does this, that, and everything else. It becomes nonsensical. I was raised to believe that God is omnipotent, omniscience, and omnipresent. Fine, except that we have no idea what "being everywhere in all time, past and future" would / could mean. Ditto for God's other omni-features.

If God is a mystery, then shut about it.

Back in my religious days, I had no problem thinking that God caused the Big Bang. I never believed in the 6 day creation presented in Genesis. My then religious conception of God was that he was outside of time and space--he had to be, since he created the cosmos--God was before the beginning, At the same time, he inhabits his creation. Science accounts for the God's methods. Big Bang, evolution, pandemics, supernovae, etc.

That was my solution before I threw out the whole religious framework. Things are clearer now. There was a big bang which is still expanding, we are here on this minor celestial ball, and our prospects are partly-cloudy to dim.

:smirk: