Lawrence Krauss on The cosmological argument
Krauss argues that modern physics has made the cosmological argument obsolete — a universe from nothing is physically plausible.
Krauss's A Universe from Nothing directly challenges the cosmological argument by arguing that the laws of physics can explain the existence of the universe without recourse to a creator. The quantum vacuum is not 'nothing' in the colloquial sense, but Krauss contends that the philosophical concept of absolute nothing — no space, no time, no laws — may be physically incoherent.
His argument is that the net energy of the universe may be zero: the positive energy of matter is exactly balanced by the negative energy of gravity. If so, the universe is, in energy terms, nothing — and its existence requires no external cause. It is, as he puts it, 'the ultimate free lunch.'
Krauss is dismissive of the philosophical demand for a 'reason' for the universe's existence, arguing that 'why' questions are not always meaningful. Physics tells us how the universe works; asking why it exists at all may be a grammatically valid question with no meaningful answer.
“The universe is the ultimate free lunch.”
“Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”