Objection · Case 09 · Atheism
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.
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
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.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Lawrence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing.
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…
Under Claim 01: The universe began to exist a finite time ago, which points to a cause beyond space, time, and matter.