Evidence · Case 09 · Atheism
Lawrence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Some argue that quantum physics shows a universe can arise without a cause, out of an unstable quantum vacuum, so no God is needed, an idea Lawrence Krauss popularized. But the atheist philosopher of physics David Albert made the key reply in his New York Times review: Krauss’s “nothing” is not nothing at all. It is a quantum vacuum with fields and physical laws, which is a kind of something, and the book does not explain where those fields and laws came from. So the account shows how something can come from something, not how anything comes from literal nothing.
Sources
- David Albert, “On the Origin of Everything,” New York Times, March 23, 2012 (review of Krauss, A Universe from Nothing) (opens in a new tab)
Lawrence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing (Free Press, 2012); reviewed by David Albert, New York Times Book Review, March 23, 2012
Objections & responses
- Krauss’s nothing isn’t the theologian’s nothing, but maybe the theologian’s nothing isn’t a coherent state at all. Perhaps absolute nothing is impossible and the quantum vacuum is as close to nothing as reality gets.
A fair philosophical reply. Notice where it leads. If absolute nothing is impossible, then something has always existed necessarily, which is the conclusion of the contingency argument under the next claim, and the theist then asks what that necessary something is. So the reply does not escape the argument; it moves the debate to whether the necessary reality is a physical field or a mind. That is a better place for the debate to be than a dispute over the word nothing.