Dr. Craig is a liar.

[wiploc]

I've never seen anyone giving a reason for this.... Usually just general hand waving, and appeal to very small things or vague references.   Thought maybe by the way you where talking, you knew something that I didn't.

I'll take a stab. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that we cannot simultaneously know the position and velocity of a particle. A nonexistent particle would have a position and velocity of (0,0). We can't even know that, so when we use our instruments to detect the effect of an absence of particles on an incredibly tiny scale, we find effects that can be explained by particle pairs 'popping into existence' and immediately annihilating each other. It's like someone squeezed on zero and made it divide into +1 and -1 for a nanosecond. A variety of 'forces' seem to be mediated by virtual particles.

I am not a physicist, I hope one comes along and gives a better explanation and shows where I'm wrong.

I totally get that we can't know.  That's what is always explained.  But then the explainer jumps to the assumption that what we do know is all that's real.  We don't know the position of the electron because looking at it would move it--but also the electron doesn't even have a position.  There's no reality for us to know. 

The closest thing I've heard to an explanation of that is this:  If an electron had an actual position, if it was a thing rather than a statistical smudge, then it would be on one side of the semi-conductor or the other.  It would never make it to the other side.  Computers would never work.  The cat has to be considered alive and dead at the same time because there is no reality until we open the box. 

I believe it.  I believe it all.  But I don't understand how we get from "we don't know the location of the electron," to, "The electron doesn't have a location."