9. Attributes of the Acceptable Nothing

Even if the Universe had come out of Nothing, any definition or specfication of Nothing will not do. Most religions (major exception being Hinduism or rather Sanatana Dharma or more specifically the Upanishad Philosophy expounded 4000+ years ago) defined this Nothing as God: God desired and said let me create the Universe. He must indeed be powerful.


Science has defined this Nothing as nothing that the scientists know off or have been so far able to identify.


But, we can try to define this Nothing by what we would consider as possible source of the Universe in terms of the chracteristic it must have in order to be a source of the Universe.


First, Nothing, as the source of the Universe, must be perpetually ceaseless, permanent, indestructible and inexhaustible even after the Universe comes out of Nothing: otherwise the Universe cannot be explained continually on a permanent basis.
Second, Nothing must be uncharged, unchanging, unaffected and unperturbed by the Universe: other wise, it becomes part of the continually changing Universe whose source we are exploring.
Third, Nothing must never have been born or dead: otherwise it would be contradicting with the first two requirements above.
Fourth, Nothing should be as infinite as a Source capable of explaining the infinite nature of the Universe.
Fifth, Nothing, being the source from which all energy, matter, space and time have emerged, must be powerful enough to contain at least all these in implicit form in itself: if it did not contain these, Nothing cannot be the source of the Universe and if it contained these explicitly, it would become part of the physical Universe.
Sixth, Nothing should be incomprehensible, unexplainable, inexpressible, unimaginable, unalterable and original: otherwise, we cannot use it as the source from which the Universe has come.
Seventh, Nothing should be capable of making its impact felt in any part or the whole of the Universe: if there is no impact of Nothing on the Universe, we cannot say that the Universe has come out of Nothing. Nothing must make its presence felt in each and everything in the Universe: Nothing must be felt to be present everywhere and in everything.
Eighth, Nothing must be formless in the sense of the Universe, i.e, it cannot have any physical form that matter, energy or space or time can take.


In sum, Nothing should satisfy the following criteria to be eligible to be the source of the Universe: be implicitly present ceaselessly in everything and everywhere of the Universe,  and yet Nothing should be formless, indestructible, indivisible, infinite and permanent unlike the continuous transient phenomenon that continually transform in the Universe.


You are right. Nothing satisfying the above criteria is close to the description of God in the Upanishads of the ancient Indians (ancestors of Hindus) ( http://senland.blogspot.com/2009/02/gita-and-god-0002.html and http://senland.blogspot.com/2009/02/gita-and-god-0007.html).  But that is besides the point.

We have some acceptable criteria now to imagine (cannot really describe it properly as per the specifications above) Nothing from which the Universe has come out. Not that we hope to satisfy all these criteria by imagining ANoting, nor we may like allcriteria to be satisfied. But we can explore and experiment. Let us imagine One Nothing in the next post.