TNorthover

I think it has fairly little effect on that discussion really.

We don't have a good theory on how the universe began yet, and I don't see a huge difference between one where the total energy turns out to be 0, and one where a process violating energy conservation is discovered.

lpetrich

The problem with the question of the origin of the Universe is that it runs into strong quantum-gravity effects, and we do not have a good theory of quantum gravity, especially one that also accounts for the Universe's nongravitational physics. The closest we've come to date is string theory, but it's been rather difficult to get our kind of Universe out of it.

ETA: There are additional problems, like if the Universe had been caused by outside entity (or entities) X, does that tell us very much about X? Especially when X isn't exactly unambiguously apparent in the Universe we live in.

And if the Universe must have had a cause, that cause must also have had a cause, ad infinitum.

hackbackwards

Conservation of mass and energy. If the universe has a total energy of zero, then whatever it came from had to have had the same energy. Since mass and energy are the same, then whatever the universe came from had zero mass and zero energy. So, nothing.
Well, this realization gives some credence to a materialistic creation, in my opinion. Like I said before, one of the biggest arguments made by theists against a materialistic creation is the law of conservation of mass and energy. They say that this law proves that the universe could not have arisen on its own. Since the universe is so full of energy, no known process can make something come from nothing. So, God had to have created our universe.

But, with this realization, now we see that the theists are right, in a way. No known process can make something come from nothing. But we can make nothing from nothing. And if the total energy of the universe shows that it is, in fact, nothing, then it came from nothing.

This destroys one of the largest arguments theists have for a supernatural creation. Since science can now show that the universe can have gone through a materialistc creation without violating any known laws of physics, then it is more likely that the universe created itself, as opposed to being created by God or a God.
You're right, which is why I'm not saying "This is how the universe was created!" I'm just saying it's possible to create our universe from nothing, without the involvment of God.

Unless something causeless created something with cause.