Before the Big Bang? (Origins)

by dhw, Friday, July 11, 2014, 20:58 (3786 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: Well, I'm on your side, so help me out here. You wrote: “The atheistic scientists always point to a virtual quantum vacuum from which all sprung by a 'perturbation', so it is never something from nothing, and by inference, eternal.” By “vacuum” I understand total emptiness, with no particles of any kind. What is a “virtual” vacuum as opposed to a real vacuum? How can there be a perturbation in something that contains no particles of any kind?-DAVID: You are forgetting Ruth Kastner. In our reality there is nothing but in the quantum layer of reality there are always the particles which may decide to pertubate. It is the quantum layer which is eternal. Davies refers to it specifically. Krauss and Stenger do so also. That is not nothing as several philosophers have pointed out.-You seem to understand the terminology, but clearly some terms have meanings beyond the range of normal language, which is why I need help. Once again, what is the difference between a virtual quantum vacuum and a real quantum vacuum? You have somehow distinguished between “our reality” and “reality”. Why do you say there is nothing in our reality? Is it not full of particles and perturbations? How can you know that the quantum layer of reality preceded our reality? How can you know that there were particles in the quantum layer of reality that preceded our reality, assuming it did precede our reality? I don't want to try your patience, but if you can answer these questions, it may help me to understand why your theory is feasible even though Vilenkin, Krauss and Stenger (and Davies in this article) insist there was no “before”.