The absurdity of science

I suppose I take the risk of letting the title of this post get taken out of context, but the title appears to fit when scientists blurt out things like the following:

"The Big Bang could've occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there," said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. "With the laws of physics, you can get universes."

I suppose I shold give Filippenko the benefit of the doubt that he can coherently explain himself given sufficient time.  But his statement, at least on its face, qualifies as absurd.

What are the laws of physics?

The laws of physics are the descriptions of the behavioral properties of physical, observable things (that is, somethings rather than nothings).  Absent physical, observable things, as would be the case with a state of nothingness, what possible law of physics could exist?

One cannot take the laws of physics for granted in the absence of the phenomena those laws describe.