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Can Quantum Mechanics Produce a Universe from Nothing?
www.apologeticspress.org ^ | 2/1/2013 | Jeff Miller, Ph.D.

Posted on 07/18/2013 10:36:09 AM PDT by kimtom

According to the First Law of Thermodynamics, nothing in the Universe (i.e., matter or energy) can pop into existence from nothing (see Miller, 2013). All of the scientific evidence points to that conclusion. So, the Universe could not have popped into existence before the alleged “big bang” (an event which we do not endorse). Therefore, God must have created the Universe.

One of the popular rebuttals by the atheistic community is that quantum mechanics could have created the Universe. In 1905, Albert Einstein proposed the idea of mass-energy equivalence, resulting in the famous equation, E = mc2 (1905). We now know that matter can be converted to energy, and vice versa. However, energy and mass are conserved, in keeping with the First Law. In the words of the famous evolutionary astronomer, Robert Jastrow, “[T]he principle of the conservation of matter and energy…states that matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Matter can be converted into energy, and vice versa, but the total amount of all matter and energy in the Universe must remain unchanged forever” (1977, p. 32). The idea of matter-energy conversion led one physicist to postulate, in essence, that the cosmic egg that exploded billions of years ago in the alleged “big bang”—commencing the “creation” of the Universe—could have come into existence as an energy-to-matter conversion.

In 1973, physicist Edward Tryon of the Hunter College of the City University of New York published a paper in the British science journal Nature titled, “Is the Universe a Vacuum Fluctuation?” He proposed the idea that the Universe could be a large scale ........

(Excerpt) Read more at apologeticspress.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: astronomy; belongsinreligion; notanewstopic; notasciencetopic; physics; quantummechanics; science; sourcetitlenoturl; space
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1 posted on 07/18/2013 10:36:09 AM PDT by kimtom
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To: kimtom

Yes you can, the tricky part is finding the shovel that can dig matter out of space time and leave a hole called gravity.....


2 posted on 07/18/2013 10:41:15 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: kimtom; All

The Steady-State theory has been shredded. The universe has not always existed.

Multiple cosmologists (like Avi Loeb at Harvard Univerity) say that the universe had a beginning and will come to an end.

Now, as to that beginning:

1.) did the universe come from prexisting matter, and if so where did that pre-existing matter come from and so on- thus leading us down the road of using a logical fallacy known as Infinite Regression.

2.) If the universe did come from nothing, how can that be proven?

Observe...test...then confirm.

How can you observe nothing if the universe came from nothing? If you can’t observe nothing, how then can it be tested? If it can’t be tested, what then can be confirmed?

What happens ultimately to the scientific method?


3 posted on 07/18/2013 10:42:45 AM PDT by Laissez-faire capitalist
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To: kimtom

Man goes to God and says, “We don’t need you anymore, we can create man from dirt, just like you did.”

God says, “Ok”.

Man says, “Ok here is some dirt.”

God says, “Uh uh....go and make your own dirt, first.”


4 posted on 07/18/2013 10:43:11 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: kimtom

I always heard the opposite. The reason the big bang could occur was because there was no existing universe to oppose it’s creation. Whether or not you think God was involved in that depends on your own religion I guess.

Nevertheless, there is nothing in the laws of thermo that contradict the big bang. Once a universe exists, within that universe, you can’t create something from nothing.


5 posted on 07/18/2013 10:45:18 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: Laissez-faire capitalist

“.. can you observe nothing if the universe ..”

agreed


6 posted on 07/18/2013 10:45:21 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: kimtom
quantum mechanics could have created the Universe

Yeah, but why would it?

7 posted on 07/18/2013 10:45:23 AM PDT by tbpiper
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To: tbpiper

And who created Quantum Mechanics?


8 posted on 07/18/2013 10:45:44 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: GraceG

“...that can dig matter out of space time and leave a hole called gravity........”

Is that what gravity is??


9 posted on 07/18/2013 10:46:15 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: kimtom

Yes, but it will be full of cats.


10 posted on 07/18/2013 10:47:00 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: fruser1

“..Once a universe exists, within that universe, ...”

yes, but that begs the question...

:)


11 posted on 07/18/2013 10:47:15 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: kimtom

For those of you who don’t have the time to read the article, the answer to the question in the headline is “No.”


12 posted on 07/18/2013 10:47:34 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: Laissez-faire capitalist

Regarding the whole something from nothing issue, I thought the latest ideas were that “empty” space is constantly creating and destroying matter and anti matter from “nothing”.

Am I mistaken?

Also my only take away from the article is that scientists do not know what the universe is or where it came from.

It always seemed obvious to me that just because we can only observe this universe, that does not mean it is the “universe” meaning everything. There could be countless big bang universes all around ours. Or one bigger creation by God.

They just don’t know.


13 posted on 07/18/2013 10:47:49 AM PDT by Williams (No Obama)
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To: kimtom

If god is the basis for our constitution and our
“God given rights” then all the libtards have to do
is prove there is no god. Then in their mind all rights
would default to state granted privilege. It doesn’t
matter, the constitution is a dead letter anyway.


14 posted on 07/18/2013 10:48:04 AM PDT by Slambat
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To: Laissez-faire capitalist
Finite minds are incapable of understanding many infinite realities, at least on this earthly plane. As even the questions take your breath away, the answers must be mind-blowing.
15 posted on 07/18/2013 10:48:14 AM PDT by JPG (Obama Does Egypt.)
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To: Black Agnes

..Yes, but it will be full of cats....”

That would create an imbalance.....


16 posted on 07/18/2013 10:48:35 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: kimtom; All

In the end, that which is to be confirmed must first be tested, and that which is tested must first be observed, but how do you observe matter that is non-existent?


17 posted on 07/18/2013 10:49:05 AM PDT by Laissez-faire capitalist
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To: kimtom

Ok, only half of it would be full of an indeterminant number of potential cats.


18 posted on 07/18/2013 10:49:08 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: kimtom

Or as that great philosopher, Billy Preston sang, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.”


19 posted on 07/18/2013 10:49:20 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: kimtom

Of course, it all boils down to “where did God (or some other first cause) come from?”

And so far as I know, no one has been able to answer that.

I intend to ask God myself, when He calls me home, and I see hi at last.


20 posted on 07/18/2013 10:50:44 AM PDT by chesley (Vast deserts of political ignorance makes liberalism possible - James Lewis)
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