The matter doesn't have to be destroyed, just dispersed with trajectories that prevent it from ever meeting again (luckily it has infinite space to do this in).

As far as we know, all the energy/matter came into existence with the creation of space-time. If this happened again, would that be a different universe? I suppose how that's how I was viewing it. One universe consisting of a certain amount of matter/energy from it's initiation, and that another one doesn't/couldn't/won't happen(?) inside another.

Another thing to consider is that space time didn't exist until the big bang, so it can't really be said to be a time-probable event. As far as we know, time didn't exist to lead up to it happening, so it might not really be applicable to apply it to happening "again" given enough time...because it includes/created/IS time.

You're right about that. I guess I'm assuming that black holes aren't infinite -- or rather, that nothing is infinite, which is odd since I'm assuming the universe is infinite in this question.

I see what you mean.

On a side note -- this seems pretty interesting to me.

If our universe was really infinite, the night sky would be completely white. :usehead:

http://memecrunch.com/meme/LEF/neature-walk/image.png

Only if it was infinitely old as well as infinitely large.

Yeah, I used infinite there to describe both time and size.

But..but...

If it was infinitely old, then all the stars would have died, and their light long since passed us an infinitely long time ago....so it could just as equally be all black(?)

Also, the infinite space would also have to consist of infinite matter in infinite directions to form the infinite stars/galaxies for complete coverage.........

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls...7nhuo1_500.gif

Goddamn, There's too many buts!

Fuck, I got busy with finals and never even checked back on this thread. Way too much to respond too, but bless you guys for an interesting discussion. And I've only gotten through the first two pages so far.

A couple things I just wanted to throw out real quick before I get back to studying for my epistemology final:
Tore's explanation of my original intention was spot-on, better than I said it.
I also wasn't talking about this universe necessarily. Infinity is important for the original point, but...
I am not willing to say that our universe is not infinitely old. It is certainly not infinite in size. But I don't think the universe is necessarily like the ray Neo described, because we didn't begin at the singularity. That's just the oldest thing that we can tell happened, because of the expanding galaxy. We almost definitely were a singularity, but I don't think I'm incorrect in saying that we could have been something before that.
I also don't think the universe should be compared to the numbers on the line Tore was talking about. Infinite time isn't the same as infinite numbers. But I'm not firm on this.

The rest that I've read so far I think I can be on board with.

Infinity is a notion of mathematics, no such thing has been observed. All we know the Universe is finite and expanding. But everything that has a beginning has an end. So there.

What I'm saying is I don't think that our universe necessarily did have a beginning, though. Infinity couldn't be observed, could it? You seem like you may know what you're talking about so I'll defer to you.

There was a beginning, the Big Bang, contemporary science agrees on that. Space and time were created at that very moment, there was no such thing as space and time before (there might have been something else but we have no way of knowing). Outside that I've no idea :)