Quantum events have a way of just happening, without any cause, as when a radioactive atom decays at a random time. Even the quantum vacuum is not an inert void, but is boiling with quantum fluctuations. In our macroscopic world, we are used to energy conservation, but in the quantum realm this holds only on average. Energy fluctuations out of nothing create short-lived particle-antiparticle pairs, which is why the vacuum is not emptiness but a sea of transient particles. An uncaused beginning, even out of nothing, for spacetime is no great leap of the imagination.
Quantum mechanics is so counter-intuitive, physicists have never been able to come up with a comfortable picture of how it works. - Taner Edis
Quantum mechanics is so counter-intuitive, physicists have never been able to come up with a comfortable picture of how it works.
- Taner Edis
Attaching a Creator to the boundary is metaphysical skullduggery. - Taner Edis
Attaching a Creator to the boundary is metaphysical skullduggery.
When confronted with a demand that the universe have a cause, infidels have usually pointed out that God was not much of an explanation. This is true… - Taner Edis
When confronted with a demand that the universe have a cause, infidels have usually pointed out that God was not much of an explanation. This is true…
Creation out of absolute nothing is a metaphysical quagmire for theists anyway, since nothing must at least have the potentiality for becoming someth… - Taner Edis
Creation out of absolute nothing is a metaphysical quagmire for theists anyway, since nothing must at least have the potentiality for becoming someth…
Asking about a time before the beginning of our spherical spacetime is like asking what lies north of the North Pole. There is no such thing. - Taner Edis
Asking about a time before the beginning of our spherical spacetime is like asking what lies north of the North Pole. There is no such thing.
Of course, Jastrow's comment is exaggerated at best; theologians hardly predicted the Big Bang. If our universe turns out to be closed, hence with an… - Taner Edis
Of course, Jastrow's comment is exaggerated at best; theologians hardly predicted the Big Bang. If our universe turns out to be closed, hence with an…
To talk intelligibly about modern physics, we have to admit the possibility of uncaused events. - Taner Edis
To talk intelligibly about modern physics, we have to admit the possibility of uncaused events.
Which is better: to achieve Nirvana, or become a Boddhissatva? - Taner Edis
Which is better: to achieve Nirvana, or become a Boddhissatva?
In the popular imagination, the Big Bang is a great explosion; at one time there was nothing, then matter erupted into previously empty space. Howeve… - Taner Edis
In the popular imagination, the Big Bang is a great explosion; at one time there was nothing, then matter erupted into previously empty space. Howeve…
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