Evidence Suggests Universe is Finite

Perplexing observations beamed back by a NASA spacecraft are fuelling debates about a mystery of biblical proportions - is our Universe infinite? Scientists have announced tantalising hints that the Universe is actually relatively small, with a hall-of-mirrors illusion tricking us into thinking that space stretches on forever.

I still cant help wondering what is beyond the universe if not more space...

www.newscientist.com...

Maybe with a big enough telescope we could see ourselvs......

Maybe outside this universe is other universes or the rumoured darkness? the void.

or maybe we are in some kids shoe box in annother reality or dimension?

ha ha!

70 billion LY is just not enough room.... Maybe we can build an addition.

By definition the term finite means something exist outside it.

well i always wondered how they could say that in the result of the big bang, space is still expanding. It cant expand and be infinite at the same time... I dont see how it could maybe someone else can.

Infinity makes no sense to the Human Mind.

Then again, 70 billion ly across and shaped like a football made out of pentagons is strange enough for this mind.

William One Sac....you might wanna explore this site & discussion forum--->>>

metaresearch.org...

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quote Toltec: By definition the term finite means something exist outside it.


Then by deduction---> g-d is excluded? yes? as g-d being an eternal being,

is therefore outside the creation/universe (if it is finite)...

the statement tends to confound rather than reveal...

Umm, bumping this thread...
Really?
If "our" universe has anything to do with being "finite", it is because it is inter-connected to an infinite amount of other finite universes.

If the sumulation hypothesis is correct then I'm not suprised by this at all. Mathematicaly speaking it is almost certain that we are inside a super computer. So of course it's smaller than we thought and the illusion of size would be incredibly easy to produce compared to complexity such as galaxies stars and life.

That being said I'm going to have to wait and see on this one. This debate has gone back and fourth for so long that it's rediculous. It is my opinion that the universe is finite inside a much larger perhaps infinitesomething else. Could be hyperspace or true vacuum or cotton candy and ginger ale. I just don't know.

Doesn't the whole smoke and mirrors line make you think of a god? Who else would want an elaborate illusion to keep us fooled. (not trying to start a religious debate as I don't have a position to argue on that front). Just commenting on what came into mind when I read that line.

Either way interesting stuff OP.


By the way OP your source goes to Newscientist front page instead of the article itself.

[edit on 3-4-2010 by constantwonder]

Originally posted by constantwonder
If the sumulation hypothesis is correct then I'm not suprised by this at all. Mathematicaly speaking it is almost certain that we are inside a super computer.
...
Doesn't the whole smoke and mirrors line make you think of a god? Who else would want an elaborate illusion to keep us fooled. (not trying to start a religious debate as I don't have a position to argue on that front). Just commenting on what came into mind when I read that line.

yes, it makes me think of the god concept, but then i just realize the futility: being frustrated by the inability to conceive of a) whatever a finite universe resides "in" or b) how a universe - or anything - can be infinite; is not explained by the presence of a god. that actually just adds insult to injury because "god" is either infinite/eternal or finite/specific and neither makes any sense, so it's all a pointless cycle that really makes life and existence a conundrum.

(the simulation idea is cool and trippy, too, but still doesn't answer anything because where's the computer that's "running us" and what is the state of the universe in which it resides? it's never-ending.)

it's the #1 extra-personal issue of my life. not whether god exists or not or whether the universe is infinite or not but how none of those options make sense, yet some of them must be true.

sorry, but i just don't see facts in what they say. when your talking billions of light years in distance, the amount of evidence man can gather from our limited, infantile, measurement tools, is simply not there...the variations associated in these types of cosmic distances, pertaining to energies, matter, and unknowns, requires extrodinary proof, not simply arrogant statements.

Originally posted by constantwonder
By the way OP your source goes to Newscientist front page instead of the article itself.

Try this link for a copy from the Internet Archive.

The link from the opening post probably worked in 2003.

I believe what lies beyond the edge of the universe is a large "this page failed to load" screen... lol

I always imagined it as more of a flattened sphere, like everything else seems to be, in the Universe... So, it's like trying to sail to the "end" of the world... There is no "end", you just loop back.

reply to post by Gazrok


But then how did this universe start if it was a sphere, wouldn’t that make a big bang impossible? I’m thinking in linear time so it’s hard for me to grasp concepts like a never ending universe

reply to post by William One Sac

The Bible does make the same conclusion.
Luke 23
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

2nd Peter 3:10 The heavens will pass away with a great noise. the earth also and the works there in.