But I think ‘potential to be infinite’ is a great sum-up of a much more complex discussion. Space is as small and restricted as our observation of it, and the more and more we become aware of and experience it, the larger existence becomes.

The closest I get to supernatural beliefs is enough ‘faith’ that the tree is happy to fall, and I’m happy to hear the sound, without the rest of the concept complicating issues.

The idea is that there are teeny tiny strings that make up sub-atomic particles and quantum forces, and then there are huge strings that exist between (or around) dimensions in space and time. These strings are loose, and wave around. When two of them collide together, the force of the collision creates a big bang. It’s really quite elegant, but only if you’re willing to step into science fiction a little further than you should really have to.

I think our biggest problem with trying to understand “intelligent design” (and oh Lord how i hate that term), is that we tend to personify the Creator. Any being that is powerful enough to create a universe couldn’t possibly exist in the realms of our understanding. In fact, I would think that at the end of the day, there wouldn’t be a huge amount of difference either way – we simply don’t have the capacity to understand a plan of that scale, and I think that our understanding of it will never surpass knowledge of the mechanics and physics of how it was done.

I’m giving away far too much great blogging material in the comments!

I’m quite a fan of string theory, and the theory that there were/are multiple big bangs, recursively projecting matter into infinite space. Of course, space can only exist if there is a point of reference for it (matter), and time only exists if there is something for it to effect (just as a one-dimensional object can only be measured if given another dimension as a reference point).

So it’s possible space is not infinite or finite, but semi-infinite – it has the capacity for an infinite amount of matter, but the actual space is restricted by the amount of matter in it. Of course, all that makes my brain hurt :)