Big Bang(!) or I-n-f-l-a-t-i-o-n?

[Procrustes Stretched]

While reading the posts in another thread about whether the universe is eternal, impermanent, or whatever I remembered that there were recent developments in cosmology that I stumbled upon in my web searches not too long ago.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2007) — There is no such thing as a free lunch, some say, but they would be wrong. In fact, the entirety of the universe defies them. According to Stanford physics Professor Andrei Linde, one of the architects of the inflationary theory, our universe (and all the matter in it) was born out of a vacuum.

Is the universe eternal, or did it have a beginning? World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking gave his answer to a large audience in Beijing on Monday.

A few religiously inclined posters were going on in the above mentioned thread about how the universe is eternal. Then I remembered trolling the religious/science sites for ammo and entertainment. It appears they are more conflicted on this point than one would think. Imagine, people who posses the truth not being able to agree on what exactly that truth is?

The Universe is Not Eternal, But Had A Beginning
link...

I recently received an e-mail claiming that most scientists do not believe that the Big Bang represents the beginning of the universe. Other visitors to the site have made similar claims in the past, so I thought it would be a good idea to set the record straight about the origin of the universe. Although there are atheistic scientists who believe that the universe existed before the Big Bang, I must make it clear that they present no evidence for this belief, since none exists! This kind of belief is metaphysical in nature as indicated in an article from the The Origin-of-Life Foundation, Inc.®:

"Appeals to multiple or 'parallel' cosmoses or to an infinite number of cosmic 'Big Bang/Crunch' oscillations as essential elements of proposed mechanisms are not acceptable in submissions due to a lack of empirical correlation and testability. Such beliefs are without hard physical evidence and must therefore be considered unfalsifiable, currently outside the methodology of scientific investigation to confirm or disprove, and therefore more mathematically theoretical and metaphysical than scientific in nature. Recent cosmological evidence also suggests insufficient mass for gravity to reverse continuing cosmic expansion. The best cosmological evidence thus far suggests the cosmos is finite rather than infinite in age."1

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)


Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time


So here's to the golden moon
And here's to the silver sea
And mostly here's a toast
To you and me


So here's to the ginger lei
I give to you today
And here's a kiss
That will not fade away