“If you start with perfection, you might be able to explain what you see . . . but you still haven’t answered the question: Why must the universe start out perfect?” Linde says. Steinhardt answers back, “Flat plus flat equals flat.” In other words, you have to assume that the membranes started out in the lowest energy state of being flat.
The deeper question is "Why do the membranes exist at all? How did they form?" It is interesting that this objection is considered laugably fatal to theism, but not to membranes.
