It means zero NET energy. So there is no conservation law that prevents the formation of such a universe. In quantum mechanics if something is not forbidden by conservation laws, then it necessarily happens with some non-zero probability. So a closed universe can spontaneously appear - through the laws of quantum mechanics - out of nothing. And in fact there is an elegant mathematical description which describes this process and shows that a tiny closed universe having very high energy can spontaneously pop into existence and immediately start to expand and cool. In this description, the same laws that describe the evolution of the universe also describe the appearance of the universe which means that the laws were in place before the universe itself.
Isn't Vilenkin the guy Dr. William Lane Craig thrashed for his beliefs in infinite multiverses and that universe had a beginning but no cause?
Probably. I reach a different conclusion than Vilenkin on what it means that the laws of nature were in place before space and time.
Did Vilenkin state there was no cause? Or did he say the same laws that describe the evolution of the universe also describe the appearance of the universe which means that the laws were in place before the universe itself?
How is that not a cause?
First, let's close our God is not in our universe discussion. Do you have any intuition of the Holy Spirit?
I think Vilenkin said the first premise of KCA is wrong and that there isn't a cause -- "Everything that begins to exist has a cause to its existence."
He applies that to the universe that there was no cause before it and then starts making up his rules of quantum mechanics as to the cause.
I think it's all to avoid the third statement -- Therefore, the universe has a cause of its beginning.
That is best explained by God. Not quantum mechanics as it does not have a source of near infinite energy such as EMS.
No. Let's not. You are so far afield of most everything that it serves no logical purpose to discuss these things with you. There's no value in it for me.
So you admit you and your boy Vilenkin lost. Do you believe in multiverses, too? Where did
that infinite energy come from

?
And I thought you said it was a singularity, i.e. one time occurrence? What kind of liar is Vilenkin anyway?
The LIE of the atheist scientists' big bang singularity (only one big bang) is infinite temperature. They didn't want to say to say infinite heat, which is the energy that causes rise in temperature, because that would mean they would have to explain how the heat was created. And it would have to be infinite heat which we know cannot exist unless it was supernatural. Later, they explain this as dark energy. Dark energy may as well be God. That's evidence for God to the weak minded.
It's just like you who makes up stuff about God in your head.
You skip so many steps it's impossible to actually have an honest discussion with you.
Then why are you asking me questions about God? I mean you believe the atheist science, but don't believe what God said.
What you know about your Catholic God is conceptual just like what you know about atheist science. Just the concepts. You didn't answer my religious question to you whether the Holy Spirit has a intuitive affect on you?
I don't know what you mean when you don't explain and just copy paste. I asked you if you believed im multiverses? You can't answer that.
There is no singularity with the arguments I'm hearing between you and
edthecynic . It could mean you are just arguing about who knows more about quantum mechanics and its differences with the laws of physics such as quantum entanglement vs action at a distance or something from nothing vs an universe from nothing.
The nothing that people want to describe as the universe just can't happen from "nothing," i.e. no spacetime. One has to have the fourth dimension of spacetime and the the three dimensions as nothing is created. Today, we there are things in the nothing, but that's another topic. Before that we had to have the fourth dimension of spacetime to represent the beginning.