Why is there something rather than nothing?
Hubble discovered that our universe is expanding. If we imagine running the clock backwards, then the universe must shrink. Do so long enough and the logical conclusion of an expanding universe is that it began at a single point in space - from nothing.
Scientists think our universe came from nothing, all at once, in a really big explosion - the big bang. Remnants of that explosion can be heard and 'seen' by tuning your TV when connected to an antenna to a channel with no local broadcast. 10% of the snow and static you see is left over energy created by that explosion 13 billion years ago.
So the something - the universe - came out of nothing, all at once. To explain something from nothing requires an understanding of nothing. But science requires physical cause. Therefore, goes the argument, science cannot explain the creation of something from nothing. It is completely lost at the boundary between nothingness and something.
As soon as the big bang idea of creation became widely accepted theologists rushed in to explain it - something from nothing cannot be explained by science - the big bang can then only be explained and understood by evoking a creator God.
I think we can't answer the question - why is there something rather than nothing - until we better understand the something in order to better frame the question. We are still very much in the dark about the true nature of the universe and are probably asking the wrong question without any hope of understanding the answer.
Science pursues understanding of the something. Given enough time we will someday come to understand its true nature - and in doing so come to understand our beginnings and the true nature of 'nothing'. Religion provides only a focus for faith.
Hubble discovered that our universe is expanding. If we imagine running the clock backwards, then the universe must shrink. Do so long enough and the logical conclusion of an expanding universe is that it began at a single point in space - from nothing.
Scientists think our universe came from nothing, all at once, in a really big explosion - the big bang. Remnants of that explosion can be heard and 'seen' by tuning your TV when connected to an antenna to a channel with no local broadcast. 10% of the snow and static you see is left over energy created by that explosion 13 billion years ago.
So the something - the universe - came out of nothing, all at once. To explain something from nothing requires an understanding of nothing. But science requires physical cause. Therefore, goes the argument, science cannot explain the creation of something from nothing. It is completely lost at the boundary between nothingness and something.
As soon as the big bang idea of creation became widely accepted theologists rushed in to explain it - something from nothing cannot be explained by science - the big bang can then only be explained and understood by evoking a creator God.
I think we can't answer the question - why is there something rather than nothing - until we better understand the something in order to better frame the question. We are still very much in the dark about the true nature of the universe and are probably asking the wrong question without any hope of understanding the answer.
Science pursues understanding of the something. Given enough time we will someday come to understand its true nature - and in doing so come to understand our beginnings and the true nature of 'nothing'. Religion provides only a focus for faith.
