Some late night musings on a classic philosophical question, given a new spin by quantum physics…

Can something come from nothing? In a vacuum, quantum fluctuations mean that energetic particles appear and disappear from nothing. Some atheists argue that this means we don’t need God to explain why the universe exists.

But even a vacuum isn’t really nothing: it’s like an empty bank account – no money, but it still has rules governing how things can be put in and out of it. Absolute nothing would mean not just an empty account, but no account at all.

Science may be able to describe rules that allow for “nothing” from “something” within the system of the universe; but it can’t answer why there’s a system and rules that permit that in the first place.

What do you think?