Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The universe likely exists indefinitely and myths about specific creation times are irrational.
In plain terms
The universe has no clear beginning according to reason.
What can you take from it?
Rely on evidence over stories about origins.

Where it applies

  • debating origins
  • philosophical debate
  • teaching

Putting it to work

  • follow evidence
  • question timelines
  • study physics

Questions to consider

  • How do we know the universe age?
  • Why do creation myths exist?

Another view

Some theories do suggest a definite beginning.

More from Hannes Alfven

  1. 'The peer review system is satisfactory during quiescent times, but not during a revolution in a discipline such as astrophysics, when the establishment seeks …

    Permalink to quote #4
  2. 'We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed sc…

    Permalink to quote #6
  3. 'Students using astrophysical textbooks remain essentially ignorant of even the existence of plasma concepts, despite the fact that some of them have been know…

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

  1. All that can really be said is that at some indeterminate point in the very distant past, for reasons unknown, there came the moment known to science as t = 0.…

    Bill BrysonBill Bryson quote #44
  2. The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.

    Freeman DysonFreeman Dyson quote #3
  3. 'The difference between myth and science is the difference between divine inspiration of `unaided reason' on the one hand and theories developed in observation…

    Hannes AlfvenHannes Alfven quote #12