The Periodic Cycle of Construction - Destruction

There are certain phenomena about which there is no doubt as to their existence, yet they are hardly understood by man. This is summarized in the epic struggle of chemists to place elements in a periodic table, with properties being governed by relative location. The fact I wish to emphasize is, there was knowledge that there is a pattern to the properties of elements, but this pattern was not understood.

Similarly, the magnetic north and south poles of the Earth are reversed periodically, while the exact reason remains unknown. Speculation and theories are rife, but the questions of why and how remain largely unanswered. (By the way, if this reversal had included a period of complete absence of the field, there would be no atmosphere on Earth)

Moving on, we come to the Universe. As I have just mentioned elsewhere, there is no tangible concept of the "birth" of the universe itself, but because the universe's boundaries are being defined by the points where the farthest celestial objects exist, the big bang is taken as the origin.

The big bang was something which propelled matter outwards from a concentration which may be taken as a point.

This might even be periodical. Like the ice ages, perhaps the big bang has a reverse phenomena which occurs after a period of time, to be again followed by the bang itself.

What could possibly reverse the big bang? Something like an object achieving the speed of light. Infinite mass would have an omnipresent gravitational pull, with an infinite force that would immediately begin pulling every object composed of matter towards itself. This, or something like it, may cause the "death" of the universe, just as the big bang caused the "birth".

And the bottom line is, there is nothing we could do to prevent it.