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Can Quantum Mechanics Produce a Universe from Nothing?
www.apologeticspress.org ^ | 2/1/2013 | Jeff Miller, Ph.D.

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: astronomy; belongsinreligion; notanewstopic; notasciencetopic; physics; quantummechanics; science; sourcetitlenoturl; space
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To: catbertz
A fellow Hitchhiker!

And a real hoopy Frood who really knows where his towel is at.

101 posted on 07/18/2013 11:51:37 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Anywhere there is tyranny you will find that the people were first disarmed.)
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To: FredZarguna
Your assertion, so assumed definitive as you try to make it, is a immediate example of your arrogance. Give the following article a read ... I have no further time to waste with you:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-casimir-effect

102 posted on 07/18/2013 11:51:51 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: kimtom

It’s like current federal monetary policy: the Federal Reserve writes a big $0 in their ledger to acknowledge they have nothing, then write -$1,000,000,000,000 in the Liabilities column and $1,000,000,000,000 in the Assets column, then loan the newfound assets out, lots of economic activity ensues, eventually they get their $1,000,000,000,000 back (takes a long time), add the two columns together again, write $0 in both, and a whole lot happened between nothing and nothing.


103 posted on 07/18/2013 11:53:26 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Making good people helpless doesn't make bad people harmless.)
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To: kimtom
why would they do that?

To celebrate the creation of the Universe.

104 posted on 07/18/2013 11:55:47 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: FredZarguna

Understood...

And by the same token, I would not cite an article about science from a theologian.
...”

Truth is truth no matter who quotes it, so I have to most respectfully, disagree.

If Hawkins makes a statement (public) he can be quoted to prove or disprove a argument.
Also a scientist can be a Christian, some of the first scientist were.
Science is the study of God’s creation, whether you believe in Him or not.

However, your comments are very good!!
:)


105 posted on 07/18/2013 11:56:40 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: kimtom
Can Quantum Mechanics Produce a Universe from Nothing?

As surely as the FED can produce a HEALTHY ECONOMY by printing money and buying bonds and t-bills. /s

106 posted on 07/18/2013 11:57:42 AM PDT by VideoDoctor
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To: kimtom

None of those would reveal the reason behind the specific choice of form: he could reveal himself as awesome in many ways, could have created lines in the sky instead of stars, and so on. I suspect that the metaphysics behind specific forms and laws of the universe were chosen because that particular expression of material was the one which would maximize God’s love.


107 posted on 07/18/2013 11:59:04 AM PDT by FredZarguna (They Old School. We New School. We don't read cursive in New School. My Generation. We retahded, sir)
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To: SgtHooper

He doesn’t say she isn’t a genius. He’s suggesting that she isn’t a ‘genius.’


108 posted on 07/18/2013 12:00:32 PM PDT by FredZarguna (They Old School. We New School. We don't read cursive in New School. My Generation. We retahded, sir)
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To: SgtHooper; metmom
How do you know she is or is not a genius?

Answers like hers tell me she's not a genius, she's just more open minded and intelligent than a genius.

109 posted on 07/18/2013 12:01:56 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: MHGinTN; FredZarguna
can you explain how such a low entropy state could exist,

Government subsistence funding.

110 posted on 07/18/2013 12:03:23 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: kimtom
I would not cite an article about science from a theologian.

Your reply omits my reason for not quoting a scientist, which is the same reason for not quoting a theologian, and does not fundamentally disagree with yours; to wit, most scientists don't know anything about theology, and vice versa. Truth is truth no matter who quotes it, but the likelihood that a theologian will make a scientifically precise statement is -- unfortunately -- low, just as is the likelihood that a scientist would make a truthful observation about religion.

111 posted on 07/18/2013 12:05:46 PM PDT by FredZarguna (They Old School. We New School. We don't read cursive in New School. My Generation. We retahded, sir)
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To: UCANSEE2

Hmmm, you may be onto something there! I am reminded of the state of the toilet bowl at the moment the contents disappear down and out the siphon bend in the sewer pipe.


112 posted on 07/18/2013 12:06:12 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: kimtom
ummm? Can we understand the mind of God??

>ummm? F*** if I know.

113 posted on 07/18/2013 12:10:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: kimtom

God used quantum mechanics to create the universe after he created the universe.


114 posted on 07/18/2013 12:10:48 PM PDT by RockyMtnMan
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To: Laissez-faire capitalist
What happens ultimately to the scientific method?

When Science disproves your religion, you invent a Science that needs no proving, only speculation and faith. That Science is called oddly enough Quantum Mechanics.

I say oddly as Quantum is a measurable vector, and Mechanics is the interaction of a defined set of existing physical objects. Neither of which apply to Quantum Mechanics. The very definition of Quantum Mechanics is an Oxy-Moron.

Fitting for a religion FOR morons.

115 posted on 07/18/2013 12:11:52 PM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: MHGinTN
Assuming anyone is willing to accept that a heuristic argument from a blog in Scientific American constitutes a citation, the citation that you provide is a manifestation of your ignorance. It completely demolishes your claim, that the attraction is produced by "waves created by the universe," affirms that the Casimir effect is the result of fluctuations in the vacuum state, and proves the original poster is correct and that you are wrong.

Thanks for playing.

116 posted on 07/18/2013 12:14:10 PM PDT by FredZarguna (They Old School. We New School. We don't read cursive in New School. My Generation. We retahded, sir)
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To: FredZarguna

Why do you say that? The author quotes several respected physicists who concur that quantum theory leaves no room for “nothingness.”


117 posted on 07/18/2013 12:14:37 PM PDT by riverdawg
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To: kimtom
The question in the title of the article seems funky, and no, I didn't read the article. LOL

It seems to me that QM cannot create anything other than the mathematical answer to a question about the probable behavior of sub atomic particles (if that's what they are).

The behavior of mass and energy (and whatever else there may be) are what they are, and there may not even be a deep reality there to understand. QM is not something present from the beginning of the universe. It is merely our best mental tool for explaining certain things right now. A mental tool that may be discarded some day in the future.

Oh yes, it all makes perfect sense to me...not.
118 posted on 07/18/2013 12:20:49 PM PDT by ZX12R (Never forget the heroes of Benghazi, who were abandoned to their deaths by Obama)
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To: FredZarguna

Amazing ... and where do waves originate, in your so professional opinion? Do they arise from a source or sources outside of the Universe? Tie your shoelaces, ballerina. The ‘vacuum state’ exists inside the Universe God Created, thus ALL the waves are a product of an already created environment in which they arise. Just keep spinning, ballerina, you may get this turned completely around in readers’ minds and you won’t look so feckless. Enjoy your dance.


119 posted on 07/18/2013 12:25:40 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: FredZarguna

“..Truth is truth no matter who quotes it, but the likelihood that a theologian will make a scientifically precise statement is ...”

What if it is a Christ believing scientist? can he a precise statement?
Can not a theologian quote a scientific statement correctly?Could a scientist be a Creationist???


120 posted on 07/18/2013 12:36:43 PM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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