Am told by a particle physicist that the hottest topic in his area is the unexplained seeming ability of absolute vacuums to spontaneously generate subatomic particles.

One friend commented drily that this property obviates the need for a God-concept. If the universe itself produces matter from nothing, what's left for God to do?

A second friend replied with some disdain that observable "creatio ab nihilo" comes close to actually proving the existence of God working from outside space-time.

Instructive.