"Nothing" is a concept being embraced by modern scientists.
Prof. Peter Atkins is one of the new breed of Oxford atheist that examines:
• What actually happened at the beginning?
• Could absolutely nothing have the potency to become something?
• Was an agent needed to trigger cosmogenesis? and
• Why is there a universe?
http://www.bethinking.org/does-science-disprove-god/on-being-the-scientism-of-peter-atkins
I think what the paradox I have illustrated above demonstrates is that far from being antiquated or unimportant; examining the concept of nothing and nothingness is fundamental to understanding everything.
