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 ...
Look in my bank account.
You're missing the point. The value of the initial entropy of the universe doesn't matter: it is whatever it is. The issue of importance is that entropy always increases. How that law came into existence is not a matter of physics, it's metaphysics. And just as I argue elsewhere on this thread, material reality is not a necessary reality, it is a contingent reality. Physicists (like Stephen Hawking) who argue that the material evolution of the universe don't require God might very well be correct. But their point is also irrelevant, because it doesn't tell us where the laws creating and driving material come from, and that is what matters.
A Christian would argue thus: all this "stuff" is just "stuff," and in a metaphysical sense as it applies to the question of Creation is purely incidental [environmental, if you prefer.] It came into existence by God's Word. That is all that is required. And that is what the laws of physics are.
[Now there is another part of this, outside of what we are talking about, which is this: God does not do anything for no reason. The universe has the specific characteristics it has, and the specific laws that govern it for a reason. The actual form He has used to actuate the material world matters, for reasons that are completely unknown to us. But that doesn't alter the present discussion, whose point is, in arguing the existence of God, you are straining at a gnat from a metaphysical point of view when you ask the question why was the entropy low at the start of creation. The real question is why is there entropy, and why does it increase, and the answer is to make time possible, without which our flesh cannot exist.]
“...space and infinite time cannot change, never began, cannot end...”
...as we know it.
:)
That’s it! I am opening up an automobile repair shop and naming it Quantum Mechanics!
The Publishers of Popular Mechanics.
No. Quantum mechanics is not an object, and is not energy. It’s a set of rules that attempt to describe how matter and energy act under certain conditions.
“nothing” can’t do anything. Nothing is a convenient word used to talk about the absence of something. Like “dark” or “cold” or “space.”
Where/when there is no matter and no energy, it is ludicrous to talk about “nothing” causing “something.”
Unless the speaker is a scientist hell bent on disproving that the universe’s cause is external to itself.
But then where’s the cat box!? Hmmmm?
Arrogance is not involved on my part, but on your part. I EXPECT a citation because your explanation is not the explanation accepted by science. If you are saying this on your own authority, you’re mistaken. The Casimir effect is not produced by the mechanism you posit, and you won’t find any scientist in the world who agrees with you.
My wallet seems to definitely be under the influence of quantum mechanics ... cash pops in and out of it at an alarmingly random pace.
Gravity is dust on my furniture
Space is the absence of dog and cat in bed...........
There is an interesting take on this in Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism going way back.
They said that the purpose for the universe is that God had a question He could not answer: Is there anything *not* God?
So God decided to create the universe as a mirror of His image. To do this, God created a “contraction”, a vacuum, in which there was no God. Into the center of this vacuum, God sent a very complicated “bolt of lightning”, which created a single particle in the center of the contraction.
The particle was to continually replicate until it had made the entire universe. Once complete, God will look upon it, answer His question, and the universe will cease to exist, the contraction with vanish, and everything will become part of God again.
Cat boxes could be anywhere.
Nothing would be better than a black-hole kitty box!
“...God does not do anything for no reason. The universe has the specific characteristics it has, and the specific laws that govern it for a reason....”
Interesting........
We must keep in mind that God’s ways and thoughts are “higher” than our ways and thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). “How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).
The Bible, however, does give us a clue as to why God created the stars and planets throughout the Universe. In the book of Psalms, David praised God, and wrote about how “the moon and the stars” are the work of His fingers (8:1-4). He then wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (19:1). The heavenly bodies show God’s glory and creative ability. They exist (at least partly) to serve as a proof of God’s existence and His power.
Another reason God created the many hosts of heaven may also have to do with the fact that He knew men would use the stars at night to help them know which direction they were going (Genesis 1:14).
-Doug
The pin is hot?
You have a better understanding of the current ‘model’ of the Universe than most ‘geniuses’.
And by the same token, I would not cite an article about science from a theologian.
How do you know she is or is not a genius?
No. One must have legos, an erector set, and at least a 12 pack of good beer...
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