Why is there anything at all? (Introduction)

by Mark , Friday, June 27, 2008, 11:52 (5992 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George: "Mark thinks that a Stenger nothing is not a "proper" nothing! He is wrong... Here is another Stenger article... " - I have read that as well. Again, for Stenger, the quantum science and quantum fields are givens. They are there at his origin for the universe. Therefore his origin is not a nothing. If you can clearly see that I'm missing something here you'll have to work harder at explaining it.
 
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."
George: "This is just self-contradictory mysticism. The answer is an impenetrable mystery? That is not an answer at all."

George, please point out the self-contradiction which you claim to see.
 
George: "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." - I see no harm in using science to study them. I just don't believe that science could ever explain them. A materialist must say that they disappear when studied and understood (I should have said 'understood') since in this view matter is all there is. Perhaps you are an atheist but not a materialist?