I'm Not Sure If There Is A Higher Power Or Not.

[Noggy]

There is another subtle point here that was somewhat brought up... the metric expansion of space (regarding what space is expanding 'into') is very much dependent on the overall shape of the universe. If the universe has a positive curvature similar to a sphere and were closed, we would expect that the surface area of the sphere itself is expanding. In this universe there is no 'edge' since going around the entire topology of the universe will bring you back to your starting point. This is similar to what Vacuumflux was describing.

 

The other two possible scenarios are that the universe is flat and open (no curvature), or hyperbolic and open (negative curvature), similar to what Noggy/mwc described. The first scenario is what is most backed by observation, in this case space would be expanding and cooling into a void of some kind (albeit accelerating). The second scenario has the same consequence in that it would be expanding into the void, but if space were expanding at an accelerated rate it would theoretically be impossible for light to travel from one 'edge' to another 'edge', though this depends on how fast space is expanding (also, this might be true for a flat universe but I may be incorrect).

 

As far as the nature of the void itself, I would assume it to be very similar to intergalactic space only with even less matter (theoretically the quantum void has no matter, no photons, and is at a ground energy state). Quantum fluctuations would dominate as particle-antiparticle pairs spontaneously generate then annihilate as long as they obey the time-energy uncertainty principle ΔE*Δt <= hbar and that on average the ground energy state is maintained.

 

But space IS expanding and it is IS expanding faster than the speed of light, so light cannot travel from edge to edge. And I really don't like the idea of quatnum fluctuations happening at points where no "points" (because the space is dimensionless) exist.

[ilovemybrain]

I don't think it matters because if there is a creator, and he wanted us to act any certain way, he would have created us to act that way, or would have told us ALL, very clearly, how he wanted us to act. And if he was gonna just fry most of us anyway, he's a dick and doesn't deserve our worship while we have this one short life to live. And there wouldn't be much we could do to stop him anyway.