Why is there anything? (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 03, 2012, 13:10 (4618 days ago) @ David Turell

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Vhy iss zere somesink razer zan nussink?-Interpreter: He means why does the universe exist rather than not exist.-1st Commentator: Because God made it. -2nd Commentator: What is God? -1st Commentator: The Universal and Eternal Intelligence.-2nd Commentator: So is God something or nothing?-1st Commentator: God is something.-2nd Commentator: So why is there God rather than nothing? Why does God exist rather than not exist?-1st Commentator: First Cause!-2nd Commentator: So why shouldn't the universe be First Cause?-1st Commentator: God is the universe.-2nd Commentator: I thought you said God made the universe.-1st Commentator: God is the universe and he made the universe.-2nd Commentator: So "why does the universe exist?" is the same as asking "why does God exist?"-1st Commentator: Um...yes.-2nd Commentator: So the answer is that both God AND the universe are the first cause.-1st Commentator: Um...yes. Sort of. You see, God and the universe are the same in slightly different aspects.-Resident Ignoramus: So the universe is the first cause, whether God exists or not. Or, to put it another way (as of 02 April at 15.11): "There has never been nothing. There has always been something in the form of energy. Theists believe that the energy has a mind, atheists believe it has no mind, and agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve either theory. Why has there always been energy rather than nothing? Because that's how things are (first cause)." Anyone disagree?-(These characters are fictional, and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.)