[mrjesse]

The energy locked up in a spacewarp can be converted into particles of matter and antimatter. This occurs, for example, near a black hole, and was probably also the most important source of particles in the big bang. Thus, matter appears spontaneously out of empty space. The question then arises, did the primeval bang possess energy, or is the entire universe a state of zero energy, with the energy of all the material offset by negative energy of gravitational attraction?

There's quite a lot of conjecture and "It might be so it must be" in that page you provided. I wondered if I even detected a little techno-jargon in there. But I don't know enough to sort technojargon out of that topic -- do you? Are you certain (by some means other then your sheer faith in the auther) that there wasn't ant techno-babble in there?

So apparently, according to modern physics, the big bang is far from impossible and, in fact, may be the "path of least resistance"!

Yeah, physics that nobody can demonstrate to me. And saying "oh, well, the big bang is now possible because it's possible for the negative energy that to release large amounts of positive energy.." just differs the problem: We still have the problem that such a thing cannot be demonstrated to even be possible. (While that website had a few lines stating that it was possible, it is no more proof that it's possible then when some website quotes people saying that intelligent design is possible.)

We still have the problem of something having taken place which requires that the laws of physics as we've always known them, to be suspended or not exist. It's still requires a faith in something that we cannot reproduce and which aren't even possible with the current known laws of physics.

-Jesse

[AndrewC]

Thus, matter appears spontaneously out of empty space.

Pull the other one. It may be empty of matter, but there is something there. Otherwise, we'd have matter coming out the wazzoo, since most of the universe we can inspect is "empty space"(devoid of matter). I know of virtual particles and particle pair production. But you have to have other things around for matter to be produced.

And that negative gravitational energy, I think is called "potential energy". The same principle applies to the positron and electron. The charges on those particles produces an attraction which is called potential energy until we allow the particles to move closer together. Then it becomes kinetic energy. However, unlike two massive uncharged bodies, the electron-positron pair gives a bit more energy than the potential/kinetic energy when they get close enough. They annihilate.

Plus. one other factor, photons have no mass. They have energy. So what offsets the energy tied up in the photons?(speaking of a zero energy universe)