Why is there anything at all? (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Thursday, June 19, 2008, 23:59 (6002 days ago) @ Mark

Mark says: ""Why is there anything at all?" It is a big question. For atheists it is the one which won't go away." - As far as I am concerned it has indeed gone away. Mark thinks that a Stenger nothing is not a "proper" nothing! He is wrong. - The "crane" for physics, or part of it, is "symmetry breaking". Here is another Stenger article. See the section "In the Beginning" about half-way down. - http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/stenger_intel.html - Mark: "On the other hand, while God is to us an impenetrable mystery as far as his aseity is concerned, to allow the mystery is to allow that there really is an answer to the question. The fact that we do not know the answer, and that finite human creatures may never have the capacity to comprehend it, doesn't matter." - This is just self-contradictory mysticism. The answer is an impenetrable mystery? That is not an answer at all. - Mark: ""Why is there anything at all?" is, for most people in the world, a very pressing question," - No it isn't. Survival from day to day is the pressing question. This is just a party game for metaphysicians. - Mark answers the second question "What is the purpose for which anything exists?" himself, and as an atheist I agree with him that "such things as love, joy, peace, truth and beauty are lasting goals, not ephemeral creations of the human brain which disappear when you study them" and I see no harm in science studying them.