ABSTRACT
We need, first, to know what we mean when we use the word “universe.” There are two major uses of the word, one limited to the world of observable fact, the other including everything, known or unknown, knowable or unknowable, past, present, or future, that can be said to have being in some sense. In science the first definition has generally been used; but in recent years a confusion has arisen, that raises the question of which definition is preferable. The confusion appears in at least two fields of research: Big Bang inflation theory and quantum mechanics.
