LETTERS: The logic of nothingness

"THE claim that the Universe originated spontaneously from nothing does not, after all, contradict the laws of physics ... once the properties of quantum mechanics are taken into account," writes Paul Davies.

If quantum mechanics came into being with the creation of the Universe, how could they be responsible for causing the singularity that brought them into being? Is the "nothing" of space/ time where quantum uncertainty operates the same as the "nothing" from which space/time "originated spontaneously"? Are there different kinds of "nothing"? Or is quantum mechanics independent of space/time?

Was King Lear wrong when he said: "Nothing will come of nothing."? Or did Macbeth get it right when he complained that "Nothing is but what is not"? Should metaphysics be core curriculum?

Non-mathematical answers gratefully accepted.

Lawrie Walker

Woodstock, Oxfordshire