1.  Is the "Big Bang" a theory of creation or a naturalistic theory of origins?
 

2.  If a person believes the universe began as a "fluctuation out of nothingness", is he a creationist?
 

3.  Are the following proposals best classified as science, faith , or philosophy?

a fluctuation out of nothingness,
imaginary time
infinite number of universes
inflation
vacuum energy
 

4.  Compare and contrast the Copernican principle (our position cannot be special, Earth is utterly insignficant on a celestial scale, we are on a nondescript planet in a nondescript solar system among billions in our galaxy which is just one of 100 billion or so other galaxies) with the Anthropic coincidences (the incredible fine-tuning of the initial conditions, laws, and fundamental constants that allows life to exist in our universe).    view article by Guillermo Gonzalez on this subject
 

5.  J. Bennett, in his recent book On the Cosmic Horizon, makes the following statements  (pg 170 and 171).  "A guiding principle of science is that the burden of proof falls on those who claim new discoveries."   "According to the principles of science, we should not accept the hypothesis of alien visits without strong evidence."  ...   "Perhaps because they have no strong hand to show, UFO enthusiasts often take the antiscientific approach of placing the burden of proof on those who don't believe them." ... "Whereas a single piece of indisputable evidence could prove that they do exist, an absence of evidence can never be used to probe that they don't exist."
 

Where do you think the burden of proof lies for the following:  dark matter, dark energy, inflation, imaginary time, multiple universes, the universe arising as a fluctuation out of nothingness?