Is the universe eternal? Has it always been here? Or did it have a start at some point in time? For thousands of years philosophers, theologians and scientists have debated the question of the origin of the universe. Many have avoided it as an impenetrable mystery. Others have tried to define it away. This debate has revolved around two basic questions. First, is the universe eternal and therefore "uncaused," or did the universe have a beginning in time and space?
If nothing happens without a cause, then something must have caused the universe to appear. But then the inevitable question of what caused that something. One evasive tactic is to claim that the universe didn't have a beginning, that it has existed for all eternity. However, there are many scientific reasons why this obvious idea is unsound.
The universe had an absolute beginning. It came from something. This something, however, cannot be a something like the things around us with their fragile hold on existence. It must be conceived as the source or foundation of Existence.
When faced with the question of the origins of the universe there are two possible options. We can say it came from nothing, or we can say that it came from something, a something when posed leads to all sorts of philosophical and religious questions.
There are only two legitimate options for the origin of the universe:
1) The universe made itself (Random Chance)
2) Someone made the universe (Intelligent Design)
Before the 1920s, most people believed that the universe did not have a beginning. People thought the universe was eternal. In the 1920s however, new facts from science made people question the standard view of the universe.
By 1929, the picture was changing. Edwin Hubble was discovering other galaxies, and found that the farther away they were, the more the light from them was shifted towards the red end of the spectrum, an effect known as the Doppler Effect, indicating that they were moving away and the universe was therefore expanding. Physicists like Alexander Friedmann and George Lemaître and others had uncovered Einstein’s apparent mistake with regard his theory of general relativity.
In cosmology, it was the big bang versus steady state. The "big bang" theory was thought to be false by people who accepted the "steady state" theory of the universe. A new finding in 1965 gave the big bang theory a new boost. At the very least, the big bang theory may explain how and when the universe began. Today it is by far the most popular theory in science today and has moved to the forefront of cosmology.
Science ultimately cannot explain the universe's beginnings because it cannot go that far back. Science can only explain what is here now and even that is speculative.
Theories such as these are often based on the assumption that the universe cannot have "come out of nothing". Theories stating that earth and its life forms were created by a God are referred to as creationism. One of the oldest theories about where it all began suggests that a God exists and that it was this God who created the universe.
In religion, it was the Judeo-Christian creation of the world versus the Hindu-Eastern repetitions of endless cycles. Some in the Judeo-Christian tradition put more stock in God as sustainer, Thus, the affirmative creative act of the Judeo-Christian God may bring the universe into being by a creation from nothing (creatio ex nihilo) or it may be a continuing creative sustaining of the universe (creation continua), or both.
There are many areas that the statement "what is the origin of the universe" has difficulty explaining and providing answers for, and even though I am a way off ascertaining a theory which explains the origin of the universe, I will attempt to discern through much research, the most truthful and accurate theory of the origin of the universe.
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