The universe is at least 986 billion years older than physicists thoughtThe universe may be 986 billion years older than previously thought, and creation may be cyclical and is probably much older still, according to a radical new theory. The revolutionary study suggests that time did not begin with the big bang 14 billion years ago…

The standard big bang theory says the universe began with a massive explosion, but the new theory suggests it is a cyclic event that consists of repeating big bangs and big crunches – where every particle of matter collapses together…

“I think it is much more likely to be far older than a trillion years though,” said Prof Turok. “There doesn’t have to be a beginning of time. According to our theory, the universe may be infinitely old and infinitely large…” [Link]

… According to Steinhardt and Turok, today’s universe is part of an endless cycle of big bangs and big crunches, with each cycle lasting about a trillion years. At every big bang, the amount of matter and radiation in the universe is reset, but the cosmological constant is not. Instead, the cosmological constant gradually diminishes over many cycles to the small value observed today… the cosmological constant decreases in steps, through a series of quantum transitions. [Link]

The Hindu concept of time is so over-the-top that it beats even the Chinese long view quoted sanctimoniously by bestsellers on the business shelves:

… the life cycle of Brahma is… 311 trillion years. We are currently in the 51st year of the present Brahma and so about 155 trillion years have elapsed… [Link]

As Carl Sagan wrote in his book Cosmos (via Slashdot commenter):

The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still…

The most elegant and sublime of these is a representation of the creation of the universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle, a motif known as the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva. The god, called in this manifestation Nataraja, the Dance King. In the upper right hand is a drum whose sound is the sound of creation. In the upper left hand is a tongue of flame, a reminder that the universe, now newly created, with billions of years from now will be utterly destroyed. [Link]

If you are interested you can read “The Tao of Physics” by Fritjof Capra (or many other similar books). In his book he explores the similarities between Eastern religious/philosophical ideas (Hindu and Buddhist mainly) and quantum physics. There are quite a lot of striking similarities between the conclusions arrived at by modern physics and ancient Indian philosophy.

The more I look at eastern (specifically Indian) culture, the more it seems to me that ancient religions have always been very good at abstract concepts. The concept of zero (born in India), when you really think about it, is quite abstract but of great practical significance. The same is with the “no beginning and no end of time” concept of Hinduism. We see this in almost every facet of Indian society – painting, music, science.

I have spent quite some time researching the link between science and religion and have found that Hinduism beats all other religions as far as factoring science into the practice of religion. There is a well thought out scientific reason behind almost every fundamental act in Hinduism. And let me just say, I don’t mean to patronize the religion, I’m not a Hindu fanatic, and nor do I think Hinduism is perfect. If one can get beyond the silly cultural traditions established by man and go to the core of the vedas and upanishads, many of the answers lie within them.

I wonder how they were so precise in predicting/calculating so many things. Maybe we are just taking a wrong apporach with science…