Is Eternal Universe Possible? No. (Quora)

Q

Is creationism really different from big bang assumption? Why our mind needs a "beginning"?
https://www.quora.com/Is-creationism-really-different-from-big-bang-assumption-Why-our-mind-needs-a-beginning/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl

Answer requested

by Michele De Solda

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Thomist after starting with CSLewis

Answered 23h ago

Epicure and Aristotle believed in an eternal universe.

There are two major problems with this approach.

• Human history does not reach back to a past eternity. Epicure suggested periodic disasters (he would have loved the story of Noah’s Ark … or for certain reasons not) which wipe out human achievements and this would include the predisaster history, forcing us to begin all over again. I take a less bleak view on mankind’s capacity on recording a disaster and what went on before it and handing it down to future generations - even if Genesis 2 - 7 is fairly sketchy as historiography goes (I think Mahabharata gives more detail on the Cainite side).
  
  
• Some processes have been discovered to go on in one direction. A process like the water cycle is no problem for Aristotle (who had somewhat incorrect views on water cycle, partly due to his sources for geography not being as reliable as he) or for Epicure, but Helium being produced from Hydrogen + Hydrogen and this never reversing, well, this is a problem for a steady state eternal universe.

Michele De Solda

23h ago

Thanks Hans, a couple of cool reference. I have to check the helium one and I had sooner or later study seriously Aristotle’s metaphysics. What you mean with “steady universe”? Infinite in time, no beginning and no end?

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

Exact, infinite in time, no beginning, no end, and no major diversification between its qualities, only minor vaccillations, mostly on a local level (like the world wide disasters or culture wide disasters would be).