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To: Diamond
But that would mean that the universe is non-contingent, i.e., uncaused. And everything about the physical universe that we know tells us that it is contingent because everything in the physical universe depends upon a prior cause.

Everything in the classical universe has a cause. But when you go into the realm of the quantum world, things happen without a cause. A number of theories have been put forward that a allow the universe to exist, like a quantum event, without a cause.

199 posted on 12/19/2001 4:59:52 PM PST by nimdoc
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To: nimdoc
But when you go into the realm of the quantum world, things happen without a cause. A number of theories have been put forward that a allow the universe to exist, like a quantum event, without a cause.

Even in the various theories to which you refer, a quantum world is still not absolutely nothing, but a necessary set of physical conditions. Things cannot happen where there is total nothingness because by definition there are no things in total nothingness. A quantum vacuum is not nothing, and fluctuations in a quantum vacuum do not constitute an exception to the principle that whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe still has to have a source, and appealing to arbitrary necessity by saying that it just happens to exist is not a reasonable or satisfying explanation.

Isn't that the whole point of science anyway; namely, looking for rational reasons for things? Our scientific knowledge about the physical universe is based on our understanding of cause and effect, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that the universe itself has a cause, and so is contingent.

Cordially,

211 posted on 12/19/2001 7:49:32 PM PST by Diamond
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