User blog:Christian Sirolli/Nothing

At school, during one my classes, we had to do a 1 1/2 minute to 2 minute presentation on a topic of our choice. I chose to talk about nothing. I later used my notes to write out the presentation, which is located below.

"I might talk about something, definitely nothing, and I won’t talk about anything.

What is nothing? Nothing is the absence of space, time and energy. Now when I say energy, I am including mass and matter since they are somewhat equivalent (according to Einstein). I would also like to define the word “universe.” It comes the Latin word universum, which means “whole body of things that exist.” This includes all space, time and energy. So outside of the universe there is nothing, and before the universe existed there was nothing.

All credible scientists accept that the universe had a beginning, which means that space, time and energy had a beginning. Yet scientists have no idea where everything came from, nor do they know how we got something from nothing. The absence of space, time and energy cannot do anything, let alone create space, time and energy. Scientifically, whatever caused the universe to exist could not have been physical or natural, since the laws of physics say that energy cannot be created nor destroyed (1st Law of Thermodynamics). So the universe’s origins may have come from unnatural or even supernatural origins.

Whatever the cause may be, it would have to be uncaused since it would be the first cause; that is, it is not the effect of any prior cause. It would have to be timeless, since it created time and should not be bound by time. It would also be beginningless, or it would have a cause, thus no longer being uncaused. This first cause would have to be spaceless, not being bound by space since it created space. It would have to be immaterial, since it created all matter and energy; it could not be made of something that does not exist and that it created, and it being a material object would make it part of the universe. It would have to be a personal being endowed with freedom of will and enormous power, since it would need such freedom of will and enormous power to create the universe at will.

The most likely first cause of the universe, which created the universe out of nothing, would be a deity. We can explore the religions to try to figure out which deity it is. I believe that the God of the Bible (the God of the Christians and Jews) is this deity. He is uncaused, timeless, beginningless, spaceless, immaterial, and a personal being endowed with freedom of will and enormous power. His believers and followers say that He still exists today and can affirm that He is personal and can interact with us.

I would be interested in any questions related to this topic of nothing, the origins of the universe and God being this first cause."