Matter Quantum Fluxuations

[knowingthomas]

The article is a few months old, but I thought it was worth posting about.

www.newscientist.com/article/dn16095-its-confirmed-matter-is-mere
Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.
If ALL matter was proven to be quantum fluctuation as this article reports, doesn't this support the claim that something on the scale of a universe came out of nothing uncaused? Or am I misunderstood?

[humphreyclarke]

Well it wouldn't come out of 'nothing'. The physical ‘nothing’ of the quantum vacuum is really an incredibly rich structure, teeming with possibilities and energy. If it existed before the Big Bang then from this nothing – spontaneously erupted space-time, laws of physics and matter, the properties of which are all suspiciously fine tuned to allow the existence of concious observers (or bits of frozen nothing if you prefer). It is true that all matter is 'merely' quantum fluctuations but that chimes pretty well with the idea that all of existence is dependent on God. It doesn't chime particularly well with materialism.

[unkleE]

May 29, 2009 1:52:11 GMT knowingthomas said:

If ALL matter was proven to be quantum fluctuation as this article reports, doesn't this support the claim that something on the scale of a universe came out of nothing uncaused? Or am I misunderstood?

I agree with Humphrey. If the facts you quote suggest that matter is less .... er ..... material than we thought, if it had any significance at all, wouldn't that make materialism a less robust philosophy? Materialism may be a plausible worldview at first, but it seems to me to struggle to explain anything apparently non material, like minds and consciousness, even thoughts and pain. These, it would appear, have to be reduced to neurological processes in material brains.