Author: Bruce Gordon

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
September 23, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Alexander Vilenkin, Boltzmann brain, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin, cosmologists, Everettian universe, fine-tuning, Hartle-Hawking model, Ijjas-Steinhardt model, inflationary string landscape, intelligent design, John Leslie, knowledge, Lawrence Krauss, metalevels, observer-selection effect, past-eternality, quantum cosmology, quantum mechanics, Samson, Sean Carroll, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, temporal beginning, The Grand Design, The Telegraph, universe, Vilenkin model}

So, You Say that No Cosmologists Have Ever Claimed the Universe Came from Nothing?

_{Bruce Gordon
September 23, 2026

Cosmology, Physics, Scientific Reasoning

6}

Like mighty Samson of old, in a single-handed effort physicist Bruce Gordon responded to 1,870+ comments. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
September 23, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Philosophy of Science
Tagged
, "God of the gaps", abductive inferences, ad hominems, Arkansas, Bruce Gordon, chemistry, contingency, cosmology, creator, dark matter, demarcation problem, evolutionary biologists, existence, forensic scientists, genetic fallacies, geologists, Larry Laudan, necessary being, New Atheists, philosophy of science, red herrings, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Meyer, The God Delusion, The Telegraph}

“God of the Gaps,” and Other Old Friends: Responding to Critics in The Telegraph

_{Bruce Gordon
September 23, 2026

Cosmology, Philosophy of Science

4}

There are a lot of commenters refuting arguments that Stephen Meyer never made. What he is offering is what philosophers of science call an abductive inference. Read More ›

Artistic depiction of many worlds interpretation showing several Earth-like planets across parallel universes

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
August 13, 2026

Categories
Mathematics
Physics
Tagged
, Acts of the Apostles, Betteridge’s Law, Born rule, branching, Chiara Marletto, Closer to Truth, David Albert, David Deutsch, David Wallace, decoherence, entanglement, Everettians, formalism, Gedankenwelt, Haag’s theorem, headlines, Hugh Everett, interviews, journalists, many-worlds interpretation, mathematics, Oxford University, particle physics, physics, possibilities, quantum field theory, quantum mechanics, quantum probabilities, quantum theory, qubits, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Rudolf Haag, Standard Model, sufficient reason, thought-world, universal wavefunction}

Searching for a World, Any World, in the Many-Worlds Interpretation

_{Bruce Gordon
August 13, 2026

Mathematics, Physics

17}

Journalists have a general rule for headlines called “Betteridge’s Law” that seems to apply in this case. Read More ›

Conceptual hand writing showing And The Survey Says.... Business photo text doing poll and bring the results discuss with others Speakers alarming script signals announcement message convey

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
August 4, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Tagged
, argumentum ad populum, background knowledge, Big Bang, Big Mysteries Survey, Black Holes Inside and Out, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin, Brian Keating, brute facts, Copenhagen, likelihoods, naturalism, Niayesh Afshordi, Phil Halper, physicists, physics, Physics Magazine, polling, principle of sufficient reason, Stephen Meyer, surveys, The Story of Everything, theism, UC San Diego, universe}

Polling the Physicists: What the Big Mysteries Survey Shows, and What It Does Not

_{Bruce Gordon
August 4, 2026

Cosmology, Physics

8}

The nature of the surveys to which Phil Halper appeals is that they measure what physicists believe. They cannot measure what the evidence actually supports. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
June 26, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Tagged
, aeons, assumptions, Bars-Steinhardt-Turok model, black holes, Boltzmann brain, bouncing cosmologies, concentric low-variance circles, conformal cyclic cosmology, consciousness, cosmic microwave background, cyclic cosmologies, dark matter, de Sitter horizon entropy, disorder, Douglas Scott, Edward Tryon, entropy, erebon, fine-tuning, gravitational wave epoch, Hawking radiation, intelligent cause, Mount Everest, Phil Halper, physicists, physics, Roger Penrose, Sean McDowell, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, Tod equations, trilemma, universe, Weyl Curvature Hypothesis}

Fantasy in Conformal Cyclic Cosmology

_{Bruce Gordon
June 26, 2026

Cosmology, Physics

19}

Penrose was right, then, that fashion, faith, and fantasy have led much of modern cosmology astray. He was more right than he knew. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
June 24, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Aeon, Baylor University, bouncing cosmologies, conformal cyclic cosmology, Conservation of Information, Cumrun Vafa, cyclic cosmologies, dark energy, David Olive, Don Page, empirical record, erebonic field, erebons, eternal recurrence, faith, fantasy, fine-tuning, geometers, Gordon Kane, John Polkinghorne, John Roberts, John Roe, Krzysztof Meissner, Laurie Brown, Michael Denton, Michael Dickson, Northwestern University, Page curve, Paul Tod, Phil Halper, Phillip Johnson, physics, quantum theory, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dalitz, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Sean McDowell, Simon Saunders, Stephen Meyer, The Nature of Nature, The Story of Everything, Weyl Curvature Hypothesis, William Dembski}

Fashion and Faith in Conformal Cyclic Cosmology

_{Bruce Gordon
June 24, 2026

Cosmology, Physics, Scientific Reasoning

24}

This brings us, at last, to the remaining “cyclic” proposal, that of Roger Penrose, which is perhaps the most quixotic of all. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
May 28, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Scientific Reasoning
Tagged
, Abhay Ashtekar, Aron Wall, beginning, Big Bang, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin, bounce, conformal cyclic cosmology, cosmic aeons, cosmic inflation, cosmology, cyclic cosmologies, entropy, flatness problem, geodesics, gravity, horizon problem, Kinney-Stein proof, Kinney-Stein result, loop quantum cosmology, Martin Bojowald, mechanism, Mithani-Vilenkin instability, Mithani-Vilenkin instability proof, Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems, quantum effects, quantum singularity theorem, quantum-geometric bounce, Roger Penrose, Second Law of Thermodynamics, singularity theorems, Tolman entropy problem, universe}

Past-Eternal Loop Quantum Cosmology Gets the Bounce

_{Bruce Gordon
May 28, 2026

Cosmology, Physics, Scientific Reasoning

15}

Oscillating universes have been discussed in philosophy from time immemorial and in mathematical cosmology for over one hundred years. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
May 26, 2026

Categories
Cosmology
Physics
Tagged
, abductive reasoning, Alexander Vilenkin, Anthony Aguirre, Aron Wall, Audrey Mithani, Big Bang, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem, bounce-free cyclic model, causal horizon, conformal cyclic cosmology, conformal frame, cosmic beginning, cosmology, cyclic bounce model, David Klinghoffer, deductive logic, Emma Chapman, entropy, Generalized Second Law, geodesic, Itzhak Bars, Justin Brierley, naturalism, Neil Turok, Paul Steinhardt, Phil Halper, philosophy, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Tolman, Roger Penrose, spacetime, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, Steven Gratton, The Story of Everything, universe, Wall Street Journal}

On the BGV Theorem and Eternal Cyclic Cosmology

_{Bruce Gordon
May 26, 2026

Cosmology, Physics

35}

The beginning of the universe doesn’t need to be singular, so doubts about a singularity don’t need to translate into doubts about a beginning. Read More ›

Two dice bouncing with sparks. Concept for probability and random choice. Casino gambling and gaming.

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
May 19, 2026

Categories
Fine-tuning
Intelligent Design
Physics
Tagged
, Anthony Aguirre, Battle of the Big Bang, beans, Caltech, Christopher Hitchcock, cosmos, Daniel Díaz-Pachón, debates, dice, dimensional analysis, fine-tuning, Frank Wilczek, Fred Adams, general relativity, intelligent design, Justin Brierley, Luke Barnes, Martin Rees, Max Tegmark, normalizability, Ola Hössjer, parameter space, Phil Halper, physics, Planck scale, posterior probability, prior probability, probability, Robert Marks, Robin Collins, Standard Model, Stephen Meyer, theism}

Halper and Meyer on Inscrutable Dice and Cosmological Fine-Tuning

_{Bruce Gordon
May 19, 2026

Fine-tuning, Intelligent Design, Physics

15}

Phil Halper has argued against a position that no one holds, and his argument as a whole lays claim to the very capacity his objection denies. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Bruce Gordon

Date
March 27, 2026

Categories
Fine-tuning
Philosophy
Physics
Tagged
, Alex O’Connor, background knowledge, Bayesian formalism, Bayesian reasoning, belief, Big Bang, calculus, conditionalization, cosmology, deductive logic, Dutch book arguments, fine-tuning, Fisherian hypothesis testing, inference to the best explanation, John Maynard Keynes, logic, Mercury, naturalism, Nevin Climenhaga, null distributions, philosophy, precession, probability, propositions, psychological states, rejection regions, Sean Carroll, Socrates, subjective interpretation, syllogism, The Fine-Tuning Argument and Its Cultured Despisers (series)}

The Objective Probability of the Fine-Tuning Evidence

_{Bruce Gordon
March 27, 2026

Fine-tuning, Philosophy, Physics

11}

Science and philosophy aim to explain aspects of the world and of our experience, and both offer judgments about what is correct or incorrect. Read More ›