View Single Post
Old 09-11-2003, 02:08 PM   #38 (permalink)
CSflim
Sky Piercer
 
CSflim's Avatar
 
Location: Ireland
Quote:
Originally posted by archer2371
That's not entirely true, first law of thermodynamics states there must be something there to create something, however, it has an exception. It doesn't apply to quantum singularities, that's the only one I know of, if anyone else knows what other exceptions are, I'd be glad to hear them. Currently though, since we don't have any quantum singularities hangin around Earth, a scientist would have to have something to start with in order to create something.
can you find an empty jar?
I mean a really empty one...containing a vaccum?
Nothingness cannot exist, for then that "space" would be pecisely known, defying Hesenberg's principle. So you will find matter/energy coming into existence all over the place. Normally, so tiny that you don't even notice it, but in a vaccum, it's there alright. Sadly it nearly always "annhilates itself", if you want to take the picture of particle-antiparticle.

However, it is true that it has little to do with this argument...it merely draws attention to the lingustic difficulties of defining "nothing".

One that is more relevant to this argument is the idea of cause and effect.
The idea that everything must have a cause is only true in the general everyday sense.
Trvial example, take a single atom of a radioactive isotope.
When will it decay?
Not yet....not yet...there! It decayed! Question is, what caused it? What caused it to decay at that particular instant? Nothing. It's spontaneous i.e. without cause.

Also talk of what came "before" the big bang preciisely meaningless, as time didn't exist "before" the big bang.
Someone on this board used the very clear analogy of comparing talking about "before the big bang" as being like talking about "north of the north pole".
__________________

Last edited by CSflim; 09-11-2003 at 02:13 PM..
CSflim is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360