Why do so many Christians insist on claiming that atheists believe the Big Bang came from nothing?

They apparently didn't pay any goddamn attention in school.

But we knew that.

Either God created the universe, the universe simply always existed (how and why?), or the universe popped into existence out of nothing (or from something else that popped up out of nothing). What other alternatives are there? If cosmologists are researching it, that's great. But I still won't become an atheist.

Edit: I'll likely get a thumb down for not agreeing that "Christians are stupid!" But I still won't convert to not believing in God or whatever it is you or anyone else believes. While I have no quarrel with science, I believe in God too. Good day everyone.

Most Christians, and you, are rather confused about the current knowledge of modern physics.

Short answer: Modern physics shows how the Big Bang (and thus the universe) grew from nothing but a random quantum vacuum fluctuation, creating the energy and matter as it expanded - with the balancing negative energy in the gravitational field. This doesn't make sense in Newtonian physics or our Newtonian experience, but it does in the physics of quantum mechanics and relativity.

Long answer:

For thousands of years, people have said that their gods were behind what they didn't understand -- life, morality, lightning, stars, earthquakes, the origin of life, the world or the universe, etc. Positing a god to supposedly answer a question solves nothing. It's just lazy thinking that adds an unwarranted level of complexity and stops you from asking more questions.

It used to be that science couldn't answer the question about the origin of the universe or of the Big Bang, but that didn't mean we should make up an answer (such as a god) and say that it was the cause. Within the last few decades scientists have discovered some good answers.

Quantum mechanics shows that "nothing" does not exist. There are always quantized particle fields with random fluctuations. Quantum mechanics also shows that events can occur with no cause.

There are many well-respected physicists, such as Stephen Hawking, Lawrence Krauss, Sean M. Carroll, Victor Stenger, Michio Kaku, Alan Guth, Alex Vilenkin, Robert A.J. Matthews, and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, who have created scientific models where the Big Bang and thus the entire universe could arise from nothing but a random quantum vacuum fluctuation in a particle field -- via natural processes.

In relativity, gravity is negative energy, and matter and photons are positive energy. Because negative and positive energy are equal in absolute total value, our observable universe is balanced to the sum of zero. Our universe could thus have come into existence without violating conservation of mass and energy — with the matter of the universe condensing out of the positive energy as the universe cooled, and gravity created from the negative energy.

I know that this doesn't make sense in our Newtonian experience, but it does in the physics of quantum mechanics and relativity. As Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman wrote, "The theory of quantum electrodynamics describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as she is — absurd."

For more about the Big Bang and its implications, watch the video at the 1st link - "A Universe From Nothing" by theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, read an interview with him (at the 2nd link), or get his new book (at the 3rd link). See the 4th link for "The Universe: Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps." And, see the 5th link for "Quantum scientists make something out of nothing."

"The total energy of the universe is precisely zero, because gravity can have negative energy. The negative energy of gravity balances out the positive energy of matter. Only such a universe can begin from nothing. The laws of physics allow a universe to begin from nothing. You don't need a deity. Quantum fluctuations can produce a universe."

- Lawrence Krauss, physicist

"Quantum mechanical fluctuations can produce the cosmos. If you would just just twist time and space the right way, you might create an entirely new universe. It's not clear you could get into that universe, but you would create it."

- Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute

"The cosmic microwave background radiation is one of the many reasons that we know that the Big Bang actually happened."

- Lawrence Krauss, physicist

One explanation is that the Big Bang resulted from a fluctuation in nothingness. When that occurred space and time were created along with the energy necessary for matter.

Well if it came from "something" you are right back to point zero - explaining where the "something" came from!

Because they want to think that we believe in something crazy cuz they do