The whole point is that atheists are at heart a-nihilists who cannot admit the concept of absolute nothingness prior to the universe's coming-to-be.
Exactly. Whether a Brane collision or a Quantum Fluctuation (I have heard that one too), there is still a "something" there that is then acting....
Then they had might as well drop all this talk of "creation" and just admit that they believe that the universe is eternal. Whatever existed before the universe as we know it was still "the universe."
Then they fall back to the steady state theory that the big bang theory was supposed to replace. The problem with the steady state theory is the universe is expanding.
Btw blaster thanks for the links.