Originally Posted By: ImagingGeek
Sorry, this doesn't pass the basic science test. We both know that time had a beginning (at the big bang), and we know that quantum fluctuations can result in the production of matter from, literally, nothing (i.e. vacuum -> matter).


No need to be sorry, you don't have to apologise for your beliefs.
Time, in our Universe, began at the Big Bang, although even the BB is not a scientifically proven fact. As far as I am aware we don't know if time existed before the BB.
We are told that quantum fluctuations can result in the production of matter, but then we have to ask: fluctuations of what? Surely you are not asking me to believe in fluctuations of nothing!
Of course; fluctuations of the vacuum, silly me! There was a time when we thought the vacuum was nothing, but we are not supposed to think that in the 21st century, are we?
Is there a difference between "literally nothing" and "actually nothing"?


There never was nothing.