There could never have been a time at which nothing existed. If there was never a time at which nothing existed, then it's not the case that "once there was nothing, and then there was something". Atheists are not forced to explain how something can come from nothing, because nothing never existed.
After browsing YouTube a bit, I found a video with an impressive 2 million views that claimed that dice show that God must exist. Naturally I was very sceptical of this claim, but I decided to give it a watch anyway. The video presented a version of the "fine-tuning" argument, but made a number of mistakes and logical fallacies along the way.
Virtual particles are often cited as evidence that things can come into existence from nothing, since they pop into existence out of the quantum vacuum. But do they even exist?
It seems many religious apologists are obsessed with the BGV Theorem, seemingly convinced that it provides irrefutable evidence that physical reality has an absolute beginning at the Big Bang. But does the BGV Theorem really show that the universe definitely began to exist?
I've been quite interested in the physics behind the apparent "fine-tuning" of the universe recently, so I decided to invest in what appears to be a well-regarded review of the subject.
Carroll explores what our intuitive understanding of time is, and how physics in the form of relativity and thermodynamics offer a deeper understanding of how time's arrow arises. Beginning with the simple observation that eggs can be made into omelettes but omelettes can't easily be made into eggs, Carroll takes us on a scientific roller-coaster all the way to the multiverse.
This book is a collection of Hawking's thoughts and reflections on ten "Big Questions" touching on the existence of God, the origins of the universe, and the future of the human race. Not everyone will agree with Hawking's conclusions, but his engaging prose and novel ideas are certainly worth the read.
Here is one of my recent articles in a nice, condensed visual form. While baryon asymmetry is an intriguing unsolved problem in modern cosmology, it does not endanger the Big Bang theory in any significant way.
While it's always healthy to be sceptical about things and to re-examine the evidence supporting your science, it seems a worrying number of people are taking this far too far. The bottom line is that there is a wealth of evidence that supports the Big Bang theory which no other known theory can explain.
This is why I say that the universe must contain time. The universe is best thought of as a static 4-dimensional shape of which slices are all we can perceive. What really bites is that we all perceive different slices of this 4-dimensional shape, and how would that be possible if the universe were only 3D?
The Platonic Realm 