Quantum Fluctuation and Critical Analysis of the Physical Approach to the Creatio ex Nihilo of the Universe

The Big Bang theory and the standard cosmological models based on it imply the world’s temporal finitude. The temporally finite universe, most physicists believe, must have been created out of nothing. In order to avoid the theological and metaphysical implications of such an idea, the most important scenarios that have been proposed are: (1) The universe is not temporally finite, but rather is pre-eternal; (2) The creation of the universe out of nothing can be explained purely physically; (3) There is no correlation between the temporal finitude of the universe and having a temporal beginning, so the universe always existed; (4) The creation of the universe as a brute fact is a spontaneous uncaused origination ex nihilo.

In this essay, I aim to discuss and criticize scenario (2). To reach this aim, two important physical models, i.e: The Tryon-Vilenkin and Hawking-Hartle models, which have been formulated based on quantum fluctuation, will be explained. It will be shown that they are indeed explaining the creation of the universe, not out of nothing, but from something.

No physical theory can ever explain the creation of the universe out of nothing by appealing to the physical phenomena or the laws of nature. The outcome of the paper is that creatio ex nihilo of the universe out of nothing can only be explained metaphysically by appealing to some external causes.