Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
Yeah, I've heard similar concepts. And to be honest I have no quarrel with the idea. My belief, though, is that the universe is cyclical, exploding into being, expanding for billions of years, then slowly contracting back into the cosmic egg before exploding once again. If you can live with the concept that God is eternal, why can't the universe be eternal?

Either way, unless you intend to ride out the end of the universe and step into the next one (see "Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson) I don't think there's any way to prove either point of view. Certainly not with our present scientific knowledge.
Agreed. But by that very fact, (at least as far as we know as of now,) it's the one place that perhaps the two beliefs can easily co-exist. And more importantly, the issue between science and faith can also coexist.