breadnbutter said:
theres plenty of things in this world, that prove it was made for our pleasure, as they say the best things in life are free
(My italics) No argument there. So explain, if you can, why so many of you (religious) types have put so much effort over the centuries into trying to deprive the rest of us of one of them?
PS: For what it's worth, I could come up with a half-decent theory - but it relies on evolution so I won't bore you with the details.
Meanwhile, back at the dawn of time:
The universe is the ultimate free lunch.
In his book, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking proposed the theory that the energy in a gravitational field, being negative, might exactly balance the (positive) mass that is the source of that field. Consequently, the total mass/energy in the universe was - and still is - zero.
It's a neat theory if you can get your head around the concept of negative energy.
The reasoning behind the existence of that negative energy is mathematical. If a hollow sphere of mass is allowed to collapse, mechanical energy is released and can be used elsewhere. At the same time, the gravitational field outside the sphere goes up. The obvious conclusion is that negative energy was added to the field. The alternative theory is that positive energy was added to the field but the mass of the sphere went down in the process.
It's a problem that's crying out for experimental testing. And if you can reliably detect - or disprove - the mass change in a hollow sphere as it collapses under its own gravity, I can confidently predict that your Nobel Prize will be in the post.