Why is there something rather than nothing? (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, April 03, 2011, 18:30 (4982 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: The reason the concept of nothing is so hard to fathom is because it is an impossible state. 'Nothing', much like 'Time', 'Darkness', and the 'color black', is an intellectual construct that has no place in reality other than as an abstract to help us understand 'something'. Binary thinking is dangerous in that way. It allows us to create a concept that does not really exist and try to use it as if it does exist.
> 
> Please put me out of my philosophical misery and 1) define what you mean by "reality", and 2) give me three examples of things that are "real".-There's plenty of things that we think are real, but I think Balance's greater point is simply that there is no objective reality. Even science to a great extent is ultimately a consensus on what we think is real. Yes, empiricism makes it strong, but not canonical. The difference is between deductive and inductive logic. Science works primarily through inductive logic. The problem for logicians in the late 1800's early 1900's was establishing a proof for inductive logic; to date, all attempts have failed. -If our most "objective" tool is based upon "making the strongest case," then it stands to reason science rests more on rhetoric than we would like to admit. -An experiment necessarily works only under certain circumstances... not always the same circumstances as what happens "in the wild." -To answer your question to Balance more fully: Everything is subjective. My "Precious few truths of science" incarnate.

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"