Professor Sean Carroll on Why there is Something...

[Jehanne]

....rather than Nothing:

Professor Sean Carroll -- Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?


It's a good podcast, although, Dr. Carroll asks for money up front; kind of tacky in my opinion, but after that, very informative.  He considers "God" as a cause of the Universe to be "reasonable"; but, I suppose that some God perhaps, but not necessarily the Judaeo-Christian one.

[vorlon13]

....rather than Nothing:

Professor Sean Carroll -- Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?


It's a good podcast, although, Dr. Carroll asks for money up front; kind of tacky in my opinion, but after that, very informative.  He considers "God" as a cause of the Universe to be "reasonable"; but, I suppose that some God perhaps, but not necessarily the Judaeo-Christian one.

The universe is clearly dissipating itself into the infinite void via the relentless conversion of matter into Hawking radiation which is then 'erased' via redshifting.


Averaged over a lengthy interval, on average then, our universe doesn't 'exist' . . . .

[Jehanne]

I suppose that it depends on how dark energy "behaves" over time.  If it reverses direction, slowing the expansion of the Universe, then a Big Crunch will occur.  The consensus is that the Universe will expand forever, but, who knows?

[Whateverist]

I don't agree that any god at all is at all helpful in explaining anything whatsoever. Explaining something requires you to show how it fits in with what you do know. Gods, or at least the xtian God, is by definition apart from everything else we know.

[Abaddon_ire]

I don't agree that any god at all is at all helpful in explaining anything whatsoever.  Explaining something requires you to show how it fits in with what you do know.  Gods, or at least the xtian God, is by definition apart from everything else we know.

And there is the problem. Absent an explanation, theists seem to think that adding something that even they cannot explain makes everything better. Occam weeps.

It's gaps all the way down.

Carroll nailed it. There are no more gaps in which some claimed "god" can reside anymore. Theists don't much like that.

[Jehanne]

As far as I can tell, the "Quantum Eternity Theorem" that Dr. Carroll references is found in David Griffith's Quantum Mechanics:

[Jehanne]

Ooooh...he even has a paper!

Why Is There Something, Rather Than Nothing?

[Angrboda]

....rather than Nothing:

Professor Sean Carroll -- Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?


It's a good podcast, although, Dr. Carroll asks for money up front; kind of tacky in my opinion, but after that, very informative.  He considers "God" as a cause of the Universe to be "reasonable"; but, I suppose that some God perhaps, but not necessarily the Judaeo-Christian one.

Bookmarked.

[Jehanne]

You owe him one American dollar; not sure how many Yens that is.

[Brian37]

....rather than Nothing:

Professor Sean Carroll -- Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?


It's a good podcast, although, Dr. Carroll asks for money up front; kind of tacky in my opinion, but after that, very informative.  He considers "God" as a cause of the Universe to be "reasonable"; but, I suppose that some God perhaps, but not necessarily the Judaeo-Christian one.

He's full of shit.

He's still stuck with infinite regress in regards to a super cognition.

Neither something, or nothing require a super cognition to happen. 

There is no scientific consensus on something vs nothing. 

It could be this universe came out of nothing, or it could be this one was the result of the death of a prior universe. In that respect infinity could be true, but only as an cycle between off and on, like our seasons constantly change but each individual season is finite.

Deism does not fill the gap either, even if you try to avoid the mythology of antiquity.

This attitude that a super cognition factory boss is required is really nothing more than our species projecting it's own desires on the universe around them. It is mentally projecting human qualities on non human events.

Fluctuating between states can repeat, but each state is finite. Our species cognition is an temporary blip in evolution, just like a snowflake in a snowstorm does not last forever.

Stephen Hawking, "A God is not required," and he means the lower case too."

To assume a super cognition is required, causes the problem of infinite regress. If that super cognition created us, than an even bigger super cognition created that, and an even bigger bigger super cognition created that super cognition.