Those who speak of creating from nothing are playing with words
This argument is used in the debate Does God exist?.
This argument is an objection to The universe was created from nothing.
Summary
Quotes
“The law of gravitation can at best be considered as a cause, but only if it applies to a pre-existing reality. It cannot, therefore, account for the existence of any reality. Hawking's point is that the law of gravitation, applied to the original quantum vacuum, produced a certain state of the universe - namely, the emergence of a first particle (which he misleadingly calls "the universe"). But this has nothing to do with the creation of the universe (for the quantum vacuum is something, not nothing). From a scientific theory explaining the transition from a certain state of the universe to another state of the universe, Hawking draws totally disproportionate conclusions, by simple vocabulary sleight of hand: he calls "nothingness" the state tTemplate:Index et « univers » l’état tTemplate:Indice et tire de là que le néant a produit l’être, par l’intervention de la loi de la gravitation !”
