> It is a travesty of conventional Quantum Mechanics [indeed, all of 
> conventional physics] to suggest that an entire universe [highly 
> macroscopic mass-energy] can just appear as a quantum fluctation, *and 
> not be forced to disappear*.
Right.  Here's partly what I've been hung up on during the couse of
discussion.  I can't see how things can /just come into being/.  Perhaps
my brain just isn't configured to handle the idea, as it violates all the
physics I've ever learned.
Drakir