Claim CF101:

The first law of thermodynamics says matter/energy cannot come from nothing. Therefore, the universe itself could not have formed naturally. (See also CE440: Origin of everything.)

Source:

Brown, Walt, 1995. In the beginning: Compelling evidence for creation and the Flood. Phoenix, AZ: Center for Scientific Creation, p. 21.

Response:

  1. Formation of the universe from nothing need not violate conservation of energy. The gravitational potential energy of a gravitational field is a negative energy. When all the gravitational potential energy is added to all the other energy in the universe, it might sum to zero (Guth 1997, 9-12,271-276; Tryon 1973).

References:

  1. Guth, Alan H., 1997. (see below)
  2. Tryon, Edward P., 1973. Is the universe a vacuum fluctuation? Nature 246: 396-397.

Further Reading:

Guth, Alan H., 1997. The Inflationary Universe. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
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created 2003-4-22, modified 2004-4-27