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title: "Lawrence Krauss on The cosmological argument"
description: "Krauss argues that modern physics has made the cosmological argument obsolete — a universe from nothing is physically plausible."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/lawrence-krauss/on/cosmological-argument
source: html
---

# Lawrence Krauss on The cosmological argument

> Krauss argues that modern physics has made the cosmological argument obsolete — a universe from nothing is physically plausible.

Position

# Lawrence Krauss on _The cosmological argument_

Argues againstTheoretical physicist

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.

Key quotes

> “The universe is the ultimate free lunch.”

> “Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.”

Continue exploring

[

Lawrence Krauss

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/lawrence-krauss)[

The cosmological argument

The full argument — stated fairly, then answered.

](/arguments/cosmological-argument)

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