Wow. Thanks for the response, I think.
Does this mean that you believe once the human mind can grasp what "nothing" is, then and only then will we have the prospect of grasping what the Universe is???
Well, that is what the Zen Masters claim.
Let me just ask you a very unscientific, but common sense question. Do you personally have any experience of a "something" being produced by a "nothing?"
Let me give you a very unscientific answer. Yes. For example, our 'money' and the Federal Reserve. They create something out of nothing all the time.
Alternatively put, that something can be caused by Nothing?
Alternatively answered, Hillary and Obama repeatedly create something out of nothing.
Think about that proposition for just a minute, and see if it really makes any sense to you.
Can't, I'm busy thinking about nothing.
The quantum universe unobserved is evidently in a condition of ataxia, formlessness. But because it is formless, this does not denote nothingness. Formlessness is still a something.
Only if you postulate and accept it's existence first, before you define it as formless. The quantum theory may be correct, or it may not. The whole Planck floor may be just the HUM of GOD. I guess it all depends on your definition of formlessness.
It is logically impossible to say that something can ever be the product, or result, of Nothing. Nothing does nothing, causes nothing. It is No-thing.
I mow my lawn regularly. If I do nothing, the lawn grows. Doing nothing cause things like an abundance of weeds, and tickets from the city.
The human mind can imagine within the realm of possibilities.
The human mind can imagine beyond the realm of possibilities. That is why things are possible today that were not possible 100 years ago. We even imagine things that are impossible. Things that are not real.
I believe there is a one-to-one correspondence between the world of Reality and its phenomena, and the cognizing mind. If the human mind cannot cognize something, it may be because it has no corresponding analogue in the natural world.
You mean like UFO's ?
If we say that everything is finally caused by Nothing, and Nothing is no-thing, then in what way is this a testable, let alone provable statement? And if this were a valid statement, what do you think the Universe would look like?
Just like it does now.
Nothing is truly nothing -- it lacks any principle at all. How then can it produce highly principled physical laws? How does it produce an orderly Universe, which is what human beings actually experience?
Yet, that is the BIG BANG THEORY. And orderly Universe was created out of NOTHING. Same theory in the Bible. Only difference between the Biblical and Scientific Theories is that in the Biblical theory, GOD existed before the Big Bang.
"Only difference between the Biblical and Scientific Theories is that in the Biblical theory, GOD existed before the Big Bang. "
Interesting, and well written! And -- with the "money quote" as the climax!
~~~~~~~
Actually, the Biblical version is not a theory, per se. It is a set of ordered, sequential statements -- claimed to be fact.
Furthermore, those claims (and the order in which they are made) can be examined against the best scientific theories and measurements mankind has devised to date.
As a physical scientist, I consider those "bald-faced" claims in Genesis I to be "The most outrageous claims ever made"
As a believer in Divine Creation, I see them as outrageous, indeed -- but, TRUE!
~~~~~~~
Circa 2012, I assigned myself the "trivial" '-) task of comparing -- on a timeline, graphically -- those claims -- and the order and sequence in which they were made -- against the current scientific thinking on the origin and development of our universe.
My working title for that effort is
The Most Outrageous Claims Ever Made
...a scientist looks at the first four verses of Genesis...
To "whet your appetite", here is one frame from that graphic presentation:
It uses fireworks as an illustration of Kaku's point in this posted article: there is ANisotropy (a differentiation, a pattern, a design) imposed upon this universe. Without that ANisotropy, neither stars, nor galaxies -- nor we -- could exist!
Many of you will see fireworks displays this Fourth of July. They usually start with an ISOtropic "big bang", which flashes and booms -- and dissipates into nothing.
Later, the crowd will "OOOH!" over beautiful, multicolored, ANisotropic fireworks masterpieces like the second graphic. Those spectacular works are carefully designed and constructed: the one depicted has hundreds of identical pellets with a Cobalt (blue) core, a magnesium powder (white) layer, and an outer shell (which burns first) containing Strontium (red) salts.
Our universe is far, far more complex, intricate, and amazingly-designed than any firework!
~~~~~~~~~~
Without ANisotropy in our univrese, we wouldn't exist.
Without ISOtropy, we couldn't survive...
TXnMA, ca 2010...