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Nothing is essentially a linguistic concept anyway.



I agree. But you either have to believe the universe came from absolutely nothing (thanks to thermodynamics, which simultaneously makes the idea of a creation from nothing sound stupid).

Or you can believe that an unobservable, theoretical, and unimaginable (and apparently infinite) something exists outside of and beyond our universe that created the universe (in some cases these are membranes)....Which is what some scientists believe.

Hm...that last one sounds pretty familiar.



Yes, but it's pure arrogance to assume that
A) such an infinite higher plane is in any way connected to our minds (souls)
B) that this unimaginable existance is in any way sentient, or able to communicate to human beings.
C) ancient writers were totally aware of it's nature.

In addition, since such an unimaginable infinite plane has been admitted to be a possibility, having no source (since it is infinite) then one can just as easily state the possibility of:
A) An infinite universe in all dimensions - the 'big bang' being a tiny, perhaps commonplace natural event with a cause from many many quadrillion lightyears away. (OR perhaps that we are incorrect in the nature of the universe as we see it, redshift and all that may have a different explanation than expansion)
B)Since it is previously accepted that something can be without cause, the big bang could just as plausibly be the beginning of an infinite universe. Why must time be infinite in both directions? It is equally infinite if it goes forward forever.
In the end, we are in an intermediary stage between accepted universal genesis theories at the moment, due to the fact that the mathematics are so advanced that very few can cope enough to refute eachother or find errors. Thus, since no-one here can understand the proofs of different theories, we could just as easily argue as I did in the start of this that the universe came from a string of ridiculous dieties who eventually created an anthromorphic diety such as yaweh (god).