GORAP — The Basic Dawah Conversation · A Guided Case for God

7 — Why a quantum vacuum is not nothing

Handle with care. Do not deny quantum physics or present one interpretation as unanimous.

In short

1.Absolute nothing has no matter, space, time, field or law.
2.A quantum vacuum has structure.
3.Unpredictable does not mean from nothing.
4.Why that system exists remains.

The claim being examined

A physical state with fields, laws and probabilities is something, even without ordinary particles.

The Islamic position

Creation from absolute nothing is not explained by renaming a structured physical state ‘nothing’.

Analysis

Lawrence Krauss's popular ‘nothing’ refers to quantum states, not metaphysical non-being. David Albert highlighted this in his 2012 review. Interpretations of quantum mechanics differ on determinism and causation, so the modest point is definitional: a law-governed vacuum is not absolute nothingness.

From the Qur'an

أَوَلَا يَذْكُرُ الْإِنسَانُ أَنَّا خَلَقْنَاهُ مِن قَبْلُ وَلَمْ يَكُ شَيْئًا

A-wa-la yadhkuru al-insanu anna khalaqnahu min qablu wa-lam yaku shay'a?

Does man not remember that We created him before, when he was nothing?

Sources

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