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I don't see how you can exempt laws of physics from the science of a system origin hypothesis which itself defies the the laws observed within the system.
I'm not, that is the point. I am saying that the law of conservation of energy simply states that the total energy at time 1 is the same as at time 2. Well, even if the universe has only existed for a finite amount of time, there has never been a time when the energy was 0. Time began with the universe and the existence of energy. t=0 (ignoring the quantum and GR complications that cavediver has been trying to point out), we had the universe with the energy content that we see today. But there was no prior time, no t=-1, so there was not time when the energy content was different. Hence, no violation of the conservation of energy.
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I don't see how you can exempt laws of physics from the science of a system origin hypothesis which itself defies the the laws observed within the system.
Because, as I have tried to point out, this involves applying the laws of physics to something that is not the universe, namely the nothing (Chaos, in the original Greek) that existed or didn't exist or whatever the hell I'm trying to say "before" there was a universe. To say, in this case, that conservation of energy has been violated, I would have to compare the energy content of the universe with the energy content in something that is not even the universe. I don't even know what that means.
This is why I feel that "a cause of the universe" is a nonsensical statement. Until the universe exists, there is no stage on which a cause can act.
Talking about "before" the universe when there isn't even any time, or actors when there isn't even any space in which to sit just doesn't make any sense. That is why I say that the universe simply exists. I can't make any sense of anything else.
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The only other alternative is that the Universe is infinite without beginning or end....
By the way, I have no trouble with this concept either; in fact, it's my preferred model. It's just that the evidence seems to indicate otherwise.
This world can take my money and time/ But it sure can't take my soul. -- Joe Ely