Did the universe comes from nothing or something? What is your view on this?

Physics is not currently equipped to deal with the question of origin. It might be in the future though. Right now, according to physics, matter/energy does not just appear out of nowhere. Essentially their answer is to say 'it always existed, just probably in a different form' but they have no proof of that, and if that really was possible then something like perpetual motion would theoretically be possible too.

If life, the universe, and everything is a straight line going from beginning to end, then there had to be a catalyst of some kind at some point (wouldn't it be crazy if the universe really was a closed perpetual system). Call it what you will, but a force of some kind had to act in such a way as to result in 'something' existing. Was that force intelligent? Was that force just a physics law we haven't discovered yet? These are the biggest questions in life.

Something can come from nothing, if that nothing is an eternity or finite convergence of time away, like the way the Limit of 1/x as x reaches infinity in mathematics is 0, maybe the limit of the universe as time extends backwards is also nothing or zero existence.

Therefore, if so, then the universe was born not created. Perhaps God provided the sperm or not.

Something from something is more of a paradox actually; why would the past have a divergent origin from eternity? Like the uncertainty of the Limit of sine of x as x reaches infinity; you do not know if it is 1, 0, -1 or any value between. Though it would be interesting to contemplate, that the universe originated from quantum paradoxes, like the electron that passes through two gates enters all possibilities in the process, perhaps that is the origin of the universe or many alternate ones tangent to ours.

It is one world, many worlds debate, then. Maybe other.

Wow! What a great question and very thoughtful answers too. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that the only thing I could offer this great dialogue was a close examination of the words chosen.

Did the universe come from nothing "or" something? To me, the most important word here is not something or nothing, it is the the conjunction "or". Without "or" the universe would not exist.

Please stay with me here. Something and nothing exist without human intervention. However, we create the universe--and the nature of its origin--in our minds when we form conjunctions and linking words like "or and "and". In doing so we form a means of identity for the universe. In short, you and I are the prime movers.

However, this does not mean that I am a solipsist (God, I love that word). I do not believe that we have god-like powers to wheel around the galaxies like an app icon on our iPhone, the Universe exists even without humans around observing it. However I think that it is pretty self-evident that "or" cannot exist without human the mind forming the conjunction. Without conjunctions somethings and nothings cannot relate to one another. They would be indiscernible. And without nothings "and" somethings the universe would have no identity.

Follow this through history, our concept of the universe, the "somethings" (eg ether, quarks, atoms, big bangs, big crunches, gravity, god) and the "nothings" (anti-matter, black hole by-products, etc.) are in a constant flux. The substance of things remain the same, only our concept of them is changing.

So what is my ANSWER? My answer is that the universe comes from neither something or nothing.

It comes from both something and nothing, and ultimately it comes from us.

(that really doesn't get us anywhere, does it? My bad.)

If you believe in God then his creation (universe) must be part of him. Yet where did God come from? God would be some type of energy not confined to the psychical, basically beyond our intellectual capacity.

If you believe in science something comes from something. Inconclusive as the question will repeat each and every time something physical is brought into the equation. Science deals generally with the physical and measurable.

I am in no position to refute either as the concepts of both are beyond my capacity.

What is interesting to note that although we live in a physical world we are somehow governed by non physical properties. In a dream state we believe all is real and including the physical senses yet it is clearly not possible. Our thoughts and perceptions go beyond the physical and if we can be tricked in a dream state then what makes us think the physical actually exists. This is something anyone of us can relate to and experience.

If this is the actual case the physical has been created by a consciousness or group consciousness and grounded by nothing more than agreed affirmation that it actually exists. Much like any other reality people can be programed to accept.

There is a situation in question of a matter so far removed from the central frame of reference of the normal experiences of the mind that no simple answer could have been suggested, were it not for the simplistic ways the human mind sometimes works to understand most complex of matters. What is the origin of the universe, or of everything? Where has everything, or the universe, come from? The question makes me think: if it is about the origin of everything then it must be the origin of all origins - a purely conceptual thought, suggesting of something so absolute in existence that it has no origin other than its own being or itself, and neither it has any end, something without any external cause to be, the beginning and the end in its own being.

Then if there is something of which everything, the things, the universe of things, has originated, with nothing whatsoever to define ITS origin, then that must also be the end of everything as well, on the side other side of the time line, of what is going to be the end, that in the beginning if the universe was nothing then what will be the end of it all, a general paradox of in every beginning there is an end.

A wonder even greater however is in the thought that if there are to be a beginning and an end at all then there must be something to qualify all limits; nothing therefore is not the beginning of everything, and neither could it be the end, and there must be something beyond the application of all beginnings and all ends, something of which both everything and nothing are but attributes. The paradox therefore persists and the mystery in the mind deepens to the limits of the human knowledge.

In order to find a simple solution imagine the instance, as for the sake of simplicity, that of an hourglass, let the sand be everything, the neck of the device the instance in nothing, its compartments each a measure in time and the apparatus itself the something. Now, imagine the hourglass is placed in eternity, where there is no time outside of its walls, where upon each turning the sand begins to rushes downwards out of the fullness of the compartment at the top, containing ‘everything’, the full measure of the sand - that in this case the contents the time of the universe, through the near impossible narrowness of its neck to fill the emptiness, of the compartment at the bottom.

The universe therefore comes into existence out of existence, passing each time through nothingness in the way, everything becoming nothing once, and thus making us think and believe that everything has come out of nothing, where in fact everything comes out of everything on the other side somewhere, to become everything yet again on this side, for each time the time has run its full measure. The universe therefore, and I say yet again on this side, comes out of nothing as well as everything - out of what to the mind is a paradox, is all within the frame of reference of nothing less but eternity, the eternal being, where in reality nothing could ever be created and nor destroyed, but all things to begin and end in time.

Now, the question is, where does our universe where that you and me belong, is located, on which part of the existence does our world exit … on the side where a universe is being filled up to its fullest capacity, or in where a universe is being emptied all at the same time, in the top compartment of the hourglass or in the one that is at the bottom?

My answer would be the Universe didn't 'come' it always was.

Or more specifically, that

"Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes forms."

See the REAL question is:

Was there always something?

OR

Did something come from nothing?

Now it is fair to say it must be one or the other - but here is the catch..

What we call 'LOGIC' is the understanding of Cause & Effect. Specifically that specific causes cause specific effects.

So to say "Something came from Nothing" is to posit an Effect without a Cause and this is by definition ILLOGICAL.

So even IF the Universe came from Nothing, it would be illogical to believe it did.

AND saying 'God made it' changes nothing, because the next question is "Where did God come from?" which leads us straight back to either God has always existed or he came from nothing.

AND the Big Bang changes nothing, because you must then say whether you think it came from nothing or some prior incarnation of the Universe. E.g. the Big Crunch.

It all comes down to which mental gymnastic you are up to preforming.

You must either accept "Eternal Existence'" or "A Violation of Causality".

And the only LOGICAL choice is the former.

Good question in response to Stephen Hawking's summation that God did not create the universe. I like what the posters JT, Meilin, and Mahdavi said as well as all the others who tackled this question.

I read another article by Professor John Lennox who had an article published in the UK that one cannot explain the universe without God.

I personally have always thought the same thing that something cannot come from nothing. For one thing we live in a world of cause and effect. Our daily life is overwhelmed by this through anecdotal evidence or practical experience. Another thing thing is that every thing that man in discovers in life about anything has details involved in it that appear to show that this was not a random thing but well thought out. Everything serves a useful purpose. Even man who can create things in life most of it is for a useful purpose. All creatures in life have behaviour that show usefulness and purpose even if man does not understand why.

It is a great question and people must decide. I side with those who say God did it. and then from that I look to examine the marvel at how wonderful and awesome He made it. In fact this was the attitude that most of the founding fathers of scientific discipline had in their way to discovering the wonder of the wonder of the universe.

Take care.

Edit. Pheonix Quill as usual makes very valid points as well.

Our universe or spacetime may be part of a greater Multiverse.

I disagree with Lee Smolin's idea that there is only one universe in the traditional sense but there may be some truth in his idea that there is a separate universe for each individual person.

Our universe is an evolved organism which likely is a person like ourselves with thoughts feelings and parents. We can extrapolate back through causal chains (back in time) to the first idea thought or existence to find a primordial ultimate cause, such as an infant God or chaos; but why any ultimate cause should happen is likely to remain a mystery.

Genesis a million a million interior the beginning up God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth became devoid of form, and void; and darkness became upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God mentioned, enable there be easy: and there became easy. 4 And God observed the sunshine, that it became solid: and God divided the sunshine from the darkness. 5 And God spoke of as the sunshine Day, and the darkness he spoke of as night. And the night and the morning have been the 1st day. 6 And God mentioned, enable there be a firmament interior the middle of the waters, and enable it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters that have been under the firmament from the waters that have been above the firmament: and it became so. 8 And God spoke of as the firmament Heaven. And the night and the morning have been the 2d day. In Revelation 21:6 God identifies himself as "Alpha and Omega." Alpha is the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet, and omega is the final letter of the alphabet. In different words God is "the beginning up and the top." yet God isn't speaking approximately alphabets. he's speaking of certainty. God is absolutely the beginning up and surely the top. each and everything this is originates finally in him. And each and everything will a technique or the different end with him.

Stephen Hawking is probably the greatest scientific mind of the moment, Einstein was in his day and there were legions before him, Avogadro, Plato etc, etc. Once it was thought that the world was flat, and that it was the centre of the universe. As our knowledge increases ideas are either proved or disproved, it is very dangerous to make statements such as that made by Stephen Hawking as they are based on present knowledge, or should I say information. I was once told never to confuse knowledge with information. You can read a book which will give you the information you need to drive a car, but the knowledge is acquired in practise. At the moment we all have information, but not real knowledge of this subject.

For the religious it is faith and belief in God and his creation, for non believers it is the opposite.

This is a very deep and long debate, unfortunately God will not stand in front of us and say 'I did it, and this is how'. But when I look around and see all the diverse wonders in the world I see only the evidence of intelligent creation.

God said 'out of nothing I created something, Out of chaos I brought order'.

How do we quantify or define 'nothing'? Is it zero? or is it less than zero? You can look at an open space and see nothing, and is the space between planets nothing? How do we quantify and define something? Is it one or just more than zero? We can all look at something and decide that it's nothing after all. Both these definitions contain the word 'thing', no thing and some thing. What thing are we talking about, is this the 'thing' that started it all?

We know of the existence of grey or anti-matter, and we know when it comes into contact with matter both cease to exist, or at least we are no longer able to register them. Can that process be reversed? if nothing (according to our perception) could be divided into something it would be equal portions of matter and anti-matter, and if the two accelerated apart with 'nothing' between them as an insulator then the big bang occured, and the universe came into being from 'nothing', and will continue untill it moves back together with the other half of the nothing (anti-matter) and was it all instigated by 'something, or someone else, an intelligent energy, or did it just happen?

I heard someone say in a lecture once, (I can't remember his name), that expecting the universe and all life to appear spontaneously, and for all the varied forms of life to have grown, adapted and evolved into what we have today without Intelligent help and resource is like spreading all the components of a modern car haphazardly over a field and expecting them to assemble themselves into a working car.

In the second book of Esdras, Esdras is questioning the angel Uriel about heaven, when Uriel asks Esdras what lives at the bottom of the deepest ocean, and how many grains of sand there are in the desert. Esdras replies that he doesn't know. 'Well', says Uriel, 'If you don't know and understand these things of your world, how do you expect to understand the things of heaven?

I have probably strayed somewhat from the question, but I am inclined to favour the opinion that it all came from nothing, with the help of something.

Every man made thing we see, houses, bridges, roads, castles, pots, pans and cars all started in someones imagination, if it can't be imagined it can't be done. Maybe we all exist in Gods imagination, or are a direct result of it. Whether or not you are religious it is a very deep and interesting question which will probably never really be resolved to every ones satisfaction.

Long live discussion and opinions, without them we are ants!