{"quotes":[{"text":"People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.","author":"Neil deGrasse Tyson","tags":["america","big-bang","big-bang-theory","church-and-state","creation","creationism","dinosaurs","education","evolution","first-amendment","freedom","freedom-of-religion","intelligent-design","letters","literacy","new-jersey","new-york-times","noah-s-ark","religion","science","scientific-literacy","teachers","teaching"],"id":533,"author_id":"Neil+deGrasse+Tyson"},{"text":"A beam from the everlasting sun of God.Rude and unresponsive are the stones;Yet in them divine things lie concealed;I hear their imprisoned chant:–“We are fragments of the universe,Chips of the rock whereon God laid the foundation of the world:.","author":"Helen Keller","tags":["big-bang-theory","creation"],"id":14646,"author_id":"Helen+Keller"},{"text":"The idea that the Big Bang theory allows us to infer that the universe began to exist about 15 billion years ago has attracted the attention of many theists. This theory seemed to confirm or at least lend support to the theological doctrine of creation ex nihilo. Indeed, the suggestion of a divine creation seemed so compelling that the notion that 'God created the Big Bang' has taken a hold on popular consciousness and become a staple in the theistic component of ‘educated common sense’. By contrast, the response of atheists and agnostics to this development has been comparatively lame.","author":"Quentin Smith","tags":["atheism","big-bang-theory"],"id":28458,"author_id":"Quentin+Smith"},{"text":"As Nobel laureate physicist Frank Wilczek has put it, 'The answer to the ancient question, 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' would then be that 'nothing' is unstable.' ... In short, the natural state of affairs is something rather than nothing. An empty universe requires supernatural intervention--not a full one. Only by the constant action of an agent outside the universe, such as God, could a state of nothingness be maintained. The fact that we have something is just what we would expect if there is no God.","author":"Victor J. Stenger","tags":["atheism","big-bang-theory","cosmology","divine-intervention","existence","god","miracles","naturalism","new-atheism","physics","religion","skepticism","something-from-nothing","supernaturalism","the-big-bang"],"id":53864,"author_id":"Victor+J.+Stenger"},{"text":"In the beginning, there was nothing. And then BOOM! Universe.","author":"Aishabella Sheikh","tags":["big-bang-theory","converting-the-bad-boy","mr-newton","universe"],"id":125569,"author_id":"Aishabella+Sheikh"},{"text":"The claim that the universe *began* with the big bang has no basis in current physical and cosmological knowledge. The observations confirming the big bang do not rule out the possibility of a prior universe.","author":"Victor J. Stenger","tags":["big-bang-theory","cosmology","physics","science","space","spacetime","the-big-bang","theoretical-physics","time"],"id":128684,"author_id":"Victor+J.+Stenger"},{"text":"The God of the gaps argument for God fails when a plausible scientific account for a gap in current knowledge can be given. I do not dispute that the exact nature of the origin of the universe remains a gap in scientific knowledge. But I deny that we are bereft of any conceivable way to account for that origin scientifically.","author":"Victor J. Stenger","tags":["atheism","big-bang-theory","cosmology","explanation","god","god-of-the-gaps","ignorance","knowledge","naturalism","nature","origin-of-the-universe","science","the-big-bang"],"id":137990,"author_id":"Victor+J.+Stenger"},{"text":"The existence of matter and energy in the universe did not require the violation of energy conservation at the assumed creation. In fact, the data strongly support the hypothesis that no such miracle occurred. If we regard such a miracle as predicted by the creator hypothesis, then the prediction is not confirmed.","author":"Victor J. Stenger","tags":["big-bang","big-bang-theory","conservation-of-energy","cosmology","creation","god","miracles","physics","religion","science","thermodynamics"],"id":195313,"author_id":"Victor+J.+Stenger"},{"text":"Stephen Hawking asks, 'what did God do before he created the Universe?' Answer: He created Nothing.","author":"Atom Tate","tags":["big-bang-theory","creation","existence","god","nothingness","universe"],"id":288945,"author_id":"Atom+Tate"},{"text":"I've never really addressed those rumors because I figured, 'Why defend yourself against something that is not offensive'?","author":"Johnny Galecki","tags":["big-bang-theory","gay","gay-rumors"],"id":313458,"author_id":"Johnny+Galecki"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":14,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}