Lawrence Krauss: A Universe From Nothing

[Recusant]

It's something one often encounters in discussion with theists.  Most of those who accept the "God hypothesis" will say something along the lines of, "Something cannot come from nothing!"  As if it were self evident, and as if no one could possibly disagree with such a statement.  My various answers to this, calling the self-evident quality of the statement into question, are usually met with incredulity if not downright contempt.  In the future, I might try getting them to watch a video available on youtube, called:  'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss.  Many of the concepts which Dr. Krauss talks about are not in dispute, though plenty of cosmology and theoretical physics is still up in the air. The point is; there are currently viable theories regarding the origin of the universe in which "something" literally did come from "nothing."  I think that it's an unsound argument to throw out the, "Something cannot come from nothing" statement as if it were an indisputable axiom. Be warned; the video is around an hour long, but I thought it time well spent.

[Sophus]

Thanks Recusant. I've never understood how something can come from nothing either. I'll have to watch this next chance I get. lol Hope I'm making sense.

[LoneMateria]

I watched it and it was a great lecture.  I will probably watch it again.  Anyway it really blew my mind when he was talking about how in 100 billion years that if life developed and it learned the principles of astronomy, gravity, evolution etc ... that it could have all the math right and the data won't match the observation when it comes to looking at the universe.  That they will see their galaxy and nothing else.  It makes me wonder if the way galaxies move if eventually they will see only half their galaxy then 1/4 of their galaxy and eventually their sun would move faster then the speed of light and they would die.

Regardless its a very good lecture.

[AlP]

I read Frank Wilczek's "The Lightness of Being". It doesn't sound like it's about physics but it is actually a popular science book on physics. He won the Nobel prize. It's not actually a particularly good book in my opinion but it's the only one I know of that goes into any detail on some the ideas in the talk, like dark matter, dark energy and instability of nothing in a way that a layperson might grasp. Just throwing it out there...

[karadan]

Thanks for that link. I've had an entertaining lunch break today.

[Ultima22689]

I must watch that then, not right now because i'm busy but trying to think of how something can come from nothing makes my head hurt, badly.

[joeactor]

Good video (a bit longish).

I get it, but it's not really an "ultimate" answer.

After all, it still doesn't answer where the rules that govern it all come from.

It's turtles all the way down,
JoeActor

[Prometheus]

Awesome. I like the cyclical aspect of this cosmology. This birth and death of the universe could go on infinitely in both directions. It would explain everything neatly. The laws that govern the universe are either universal and natural/innate as most scientists believe or variable in which case they may be unique for each universe. All of this seems irrational which also makes sense. We all evolved to understand and deal with the world immediately around us. Our reasoning abilities don't readily lend themselves to understanding reality beyond the brief scope of human existence.

[Sophus]

Would it be possible for someone to boil down the gist of it? I just can't find the time.

[AlP]

Would it be possible for someone to boil down the gist of it? I just can't find the time.

Among other things, nothing is unstable. It turns into matter and energy. That's my understanding anyway.

[Sophus]

Would it be possible for someone to boil down the gist of it? I just can't find the time.

Among other things, nothing is unstable. It turns into matter and energy. That's my understanding anyway.

Nothing is unstable? I'm confused. Nothing doesn't currently exist.

[AlP]

Nothing is unstable? I'm confused. Nothing doesn't currently exist.

If nothing is unstable then why would one expect it to exist?