“Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could,” sings Maria in the Sound of Music. You have to agree.
Why does anything exist? Start with the concept of absolute nothingness – no space, no time, no matter, no energy – absolutely nothing. Now, again, why does anything exist? It is an unshakeable mystery. Observing and experimenting with what does exist – our universe – will never solve the mystery of why anything exists at all.
I am constantly amused by Atheist suggestions that the mystery has been solved. A typical “solution” is that the universe popped out of a “quantum fluctuation.” A recent pseudo-science article claims, based on invented theories that cannot be tested, that it was a “mathematical certainty” that our universe would arise. I say, quoting the great John McEnroe, “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!”
What scientists call the “quantum field” is the foundation of our reality. It is a high energy field, and, as I explain in Chapter 14 of Counting To God, described by fantastically complex mathematics. It appears to consist of pure thought – ideas in the mind of God. Clearly the creation of the universe is connected to events at the quantum level – the subatomic level – of reality. But what caused the quantum field to exist? You can’t seriously just assume the existence of the quantum field. How does energy described only by mathematical patterns and equations pop out of absolute nothingness?
Yet, if your theology actually does boil down to “in the beginning was the quantum field,” I’m OK with that, and again smiling. That is a very interesting translation of the first sentence of the Book of John – “In the beginning was the word.” The original Greek for “word” here is “logos,” which can be translated as divine thought. John 1:1 claims God thought the universe into existence. The theology of “in the beginning was the quantum field” is strikingly similar to John 1:1, when you consider the overwhelming scientific evidence that the quantum field is pure thought (see again Chapter 14). You might say John 1:1 predicted quantum mechanics almost 2,000 years ago.
There is no Atheist solution to the unshakeable mystery of why anything exists. “Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.” Yet here we are. Why?
As for the so-called multiverse, we’ll look at that pseudo-science next week, in “Turtles All the Way Down.”
Thanks for reading.