Nothingness in mathematics is an issue and a problem. Proof by contradiction was at one time controversial. That the empty set is unique is an axiom in some versions of set theory.
An operational definition of nothingness is that you apply a sensing operation to something, and if the sensing operation does not succeed, the thing being sensed is a nothingness. Nothingness is defined by the sensing operation. This resolves some, but not all, of the problems.
The other side of this is "what is a something"? That's what led Democritus to invent atoms as a philosophical primitive. Everything bigger than an atom is a grouping of atoms and is defined by some abstraction over the primitives. Straightforward. Then came subatomic physics.
The article contains a theological discussion which is just the first cause argument for God. The answer to "who created God" is usually "shut up, kid". That argument hasn't had much traction in recent centuries.
(I once took "Epistemological problems in artificial intelligence" from John McCarthy. People were serious about this stuff when the logicians ruled AI. Today, not so much.)
An operational definition of nothingness is that you apply a sensing operation to something, and if the sensing operation does not succeed, the thing being sensed is a nothingness. Nothingness is defined by the sensing operation. This resolves some, but not all, of the problems.
The other side of this is "what is a something"? That's what led Democritus to invent atoms as a philosophical primitive. Everything bigger than an atom is a grouping of atoms and is defined by some abstraction over the primitives. Straightforward. Then came subatomic physics.
The article contains a theological discussion which is just the first cause argument for God. The answer to "who created God" is usually "shut up, kid". That argument hasn't had much traction in recent centuries.
(I once took "Epistemological problems in artificial intelligence" from John McCarthy. People were serious about this stuff when the logicians ruled AI. Today, not so much.)