The universe's energy can't come from nothing (Talk.Origins)
Claim CF101:
- The first law of thermodynamics says matter/energy cannot come from nothing. Therefore, the universe itself could not have formed naturally.
Source:
- Brown, Walt, 1995. In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood. Phoenix, AZ: Center for Scientific Creation, p. 21.
CreationWiki response:
(Talk Origins quotes in blue)
1. Formation of the universe from nothing need not violate conservation of energy. The gravitational potential energy of a gravitational field is a negative energy. When all the gravitational potential energy is added to all the other energy in the universe, it might sum to zero.
This response is seriously flawed. Mathematically energy is:
E = fd
E = energy.
f = force.
d = distance over which the force acts over.
If the force is negative then mass is pushed in a negative direction.
E = (-f)(-d) = fd
The result is that the energy is still positive. For energy to be negative the force would have to push the mass in the opposite direction from which it is applied.
E = f (-d)
The result is that negative energy makes no mathematical sense.
The force of gravity is negative as a vector since it is always pulling a mass down. So the formula for gravitational force can best be written as:
g = gravitational force.
= mass 1.
= mass 2.
r = distance between the center of each mass.
G = the gravitational constant.
The potential energy (P) of a gravitational field is obtained by integrating the force of gravity over the distance from 
to 
.
= radius of gravitating body.
= infinity.
Such that:
Since G, , and are all positive, P is also positive. Since P = potential energy, the potential energy of a gravitational field is positive and not negative as the response claims. This falsifies Talk.Origins' response. Furthermore, work as been done on the effects of negative energy, showing that it would produce some effects that have not been observed in gravity.
The final nail in the coffin of the notion that the total amount of energy in the universe is zero is that theoretically negative energy must be followed by a larger amount of positive energy so the positive energy must always be larger than negative energy. As a result the total energy of the universe must be > 0.
- Reference: Negative Energy, Wormholes and Warp Drive
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