Why the word “nothing” does not necessarily mean “darkness”?

What first comes to your mind when you hear the word “nothing”? I am sure that it’s darkness. And you are not to blame; it’s the limit of your imagination. While it is true that it’s unimaginable, what we say “nothing” doesn’t necessarily mean darkness.

For example, according to some, “The universe just came out of nothing”, nothing else.

They simply fail to explain the state of the non-existence of space and time before it came out.

Some philosophers and scientists, on the other hand, claim that due to quantum fluctuations, energy from nothing can be generated.

They disagree on how to measure the uncertainty of energy, but they agree that it was created from nothing.

Was there no starting point?

If you are asking yourself; did nothingness create the universe, then that is a different question from “why does nothing mean darkness”?

The first one is about science, and the second one I think is about comprehension.

Let us start with science. Yes, the universe did come out of nothing. It was always there; it just never came into existence. This would be like saying “Tree” before it became a tree.

At that time, there was no tree; only a void space filled with energy and potential (also called “dark energy” or “dark matter”).

The Big bang symbolized the creation of that energy and potential into our universe.

But why do we say “nothing”? Well, to give you a clearer picture of the difference between science and most people, we need to know what they mean by nothing.

The reason we speak of nothingness is that in the absence of something, that information may be more difficult to come by.

Instead of “nothing”, the scientific community should use the term “nothingness” more often.

And then there is also the basis that science specifically talks of energy and potential, from where, how, and why it came out.

The truth is that there is no concrete reason for the creation of energy or potential. It was just there.

The Big Bang might have been a random event, but can an event happen without a cause? Well, again I ask why do we say “nothing”? Only you can answer this question for yourself.

Today with a rooftop telescope you can see, hear and speak to the Universe. You can even see the billions of galaxies, the million nebulae, and the planet Pluto. You’d never know that nothingness was out there in deep space though!

Science’s incomplete explanations

You say that there is an energy that makes up our universe, but you fail to see what gave it this energy in the first place. (Nor can I)

You say that there is a raw material for the universe, but you cannot explain how this raw material came into existence. (Nor can I)

If science knows what came out of nothing; why can’t it explain how this raw material and energy forms into a universe? If we’re just talking about probabilities, then the probabilities certainly favor one outcome over another.

For example in a box containing three rubbers: It is likely that one will be red and two will be blue, however, there is exactly an equal chance for all three rubbers to be red. You have not seen them yet…and therefore the rubbers do not exist at all.

Is it random? In a box of three rubbers with equal probabilities, they could all have been red or all three of them could have been blue. The outcomes were dependent on what was already there and how it happened. This can be called “random” but not truly “nothing”.

Nothing is the state of being when something has not existed yet.

What existed before everything?

When you say “everything“, you include time in it. Therefore it’s not that nothing existed before everything, but that there was no such thing as “before” in the first place.

The state before the start of our universe is not exactly “nothingness” but an incipient state, an indeterminate state.

In the beginning there was nothing. There was no space, time or anything at all. It’s not that nothing existed…but that everything was yet to exist. The big bang was coming. It’s not that the Big Bang came out of nothing.

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Some random school of thought says that the “nothing” was actually a kind of temperature. The temperatures were so high that they formed the particles and atoms. However, the universe was still not complete, which is why everything formed from raw materials.

I am not saying that the state of nothingness means “temperature”; it’s far more unimaginable than “temperature” being the state of nothingness.

Why nothing is not “darkness”?

“Nothing” is not a state of darkness, as most think. Darkness is very simple to define. Darkness is the absence of light. You can see nothing if there’s no light, but you cannot see the darkness itself. The word “nothing” simply has nothing to do with our eyes’ ability to see.

“I know nothing“, “There is nothing on the Table”, “I can see nothing”, and “There was nothing before the creation of the Universe” is different kinds of “nothings”.

The human mind defines “nothing” by using phenomena outside itself to understand. By being unable to measure energy at a single point in space, scientists are unable to define something that cannot be described by their senses.

Why do we say “nothing”?

There are a lot of reasons why we say “nothing”. We use the word in different ways, depending on the context.

We say “nothing” because it is a noun, which is the first part of an object which you can possess. Being able to specify objects in terms of masses, volumes, and locations implies that nothing is something.

Nothing shall be equal to thirty miles to the South of my house. Nothing shall be equal to a sum of ten pounds and forty-five pence. And, nothing shall be equal to a number X, which is not equal to zero but is equal to another number Z.

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We say “nothing” because we assume that it’s better for something to be something than for it not to exist at all. But this can only be true if nothing had a positive value in the first place, and there’s no evidence that nothing had any value at all.

Since nothing is the void state that exists between things or events, this means that when one event stops happening (like an explosion), then another event starts happening (like light traveling through space).

So finally, what existed before the creation of the Universe?

I’ve mentioned it already. If you have not read the article carefully, please read it again. You may find something else special, other than the fact there was no such thing as “before”-before or whatever-the creation of spacetime.

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