Why is there anything? (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Friday, March 30, 2012, 22:35 (4622 days ago) @ dhw

Mr. Giobran completely agrees with dhw, btw. -He's finally building into his arguments surrounding "nothing."-First: We conflate nothing with nonexistence. This is a problem. When we normally use the word "nothing," it's almost exclusively in regards to some object. "Nothing is in the fridge." False. Air is in the fridge. -"Nothing is in deep space."-False. On the quantum level we've demonstrated that there is a "fabric" of reality and that it exists everywhere.-Nonexistence, is literally "non-being" which is where the real dilemma begins. The short of it is: "Being" is the only possible state of the universe. -When you bring God into it--as David does--this complicates things. A panentheistic God literally IS the universe, because at a minimum, the universe is contained within it. But that means that for the universe to exist... God must exist, and these two things *cannot* be separate. -This is (partly) why Christian/Jewish tradition posits a being *entirely separate and distinct from the universe.* This just shifts the question. -In other words: If God created the universe (either panentheistically or as an act of "special creation" than by definition--the universe came from something. Something from nothing is impossible, even when you invoke a deity. -My deeper analysis?-I'm starting to believe in a static universe again. The big bang is *only* the beginning of the observable universe. For the purposes of humanity, it is Time = 0. -But clearly... forces we are as yet unaware of have to be at play.

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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.\"