(January 26, 2015 at 1:18 pm)Stimbo Wrote: It rather depends on how you're defining "universe". If you're going with the general scientific consensus, then the universe is the reality that emerged from the Big Bang and expanded into everything we observe. If however you're defining universe as the set of everything that can possibly exist, you're going to get different results. To conflate the two is misleading; to do it at will as and when necessary is dishonest. Be careful and be clear in your definitions.
Okay, say if we allowed for M-theory and some sort of universe generator, then the argument would still stand (the answer being the universe generator is the cause). However, it just sets up the next question, what caused the universe generator. Or, did you have something else in mind?