Why is there anything at all? (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, June 09, 2008, 13:08 (6013 days ago) @ Mark

David was quoting me quoting Stenger. Here is an article by Stenger that explains his case more fully: - http://www.csicop.org/sb/2006-06/reality-check.html - He provides this "physical" (as opposed to merely philosophical or logical) definition of nothing: - Stenger: This suggests a more precise definition of nothing. Nothing is a state that is the simplest of all conceivable states. It has no mass, no energy, no space, no time, no spin, no bosons, no fermions-nothing. - Then why is there something rather than nothing? Because something is the more natural state of affairs and is thus more likely than nothing-more than twice as likely according to one calculation. - My own interpretation of what I read was along simpler lines: "nothing" is expressed as zero: 0, but this is short for 0.000000... where the zeros express the accuracy with which 0 is determined. Thus it only takes a change in one distant 0 in this decimal fraction for 0 to become greater than 0, i.e. "something". But clearly Stenger's view is somewhat more sophisticated!