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The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 17:56
by musketjr
why is there something instead of nothing?

carrying over from the free will thread, the question is simply this: given that there is something, from what did it come? what pre-exists something? what caused something?

in the free will thread, one person said that the big bang is indisputable, one person said the opposite. both are missing the point, to repeat - whatever origin story you subscribe to, what CAUSED that?

here's a perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmhx0MiUgYs

by his logic, since something exists, infinite regress can't be applied. if we could regress the cause of existence infinitely, nothing would exist, in the same way that his great bus analogy works. if he gets home via the bus, the line of people who ask for ?1 cannot be infinite.

does this apply directly to the universe, or existence? and what exactly does it imply? eternal existence? what does that mean? from our frame of reference, to our lizard brains (chuckle), that idea is essentially meaningless yet what alternative is there?

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 20:05
by Filippos
when i think of this... jeez

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 21:43
by Goodspeed
neuron wrote:Quantum fluctuations in the quantum vacuum might be the answer, depending on whether you can call quantum vacuum nothing.
Why would you? All of the previous times we seemed to observe "nothing" it turned out to be totally not nothing. Why would this time be any different?

How about nothing doesn''t exist, by definition. After all the word nothing is how you define non-existence. Why would it ever be in any way relevant within the scope of existence?

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 22:53
by giveuanxiety
Musket man lay off the weed a little.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 22:56
by Goodspeed
"Anyone who says that needs to smoke more."
- Albert Einstein

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 22:58
by bugattivitesse
The Big bang solves how, not why the universe is here. Science cannot answer the why question, just the how.

Anyone who rejects the big bang is like someone who rejects evolution' its generally because of lack of exposure or just plain ignorance.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cro ... n-nothing/

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 23:09
by Goodspeed
bugattivitesse wrote:The Big bang solves how,
Not entirely... The big bang itself still needs a cause, and so will its cause. All kinds of things could''ve been happening on a tiny, possibly even a large scale way before the big bang.

Trying to answer the question how existence came to be is like trying to find the smallest particle. You (as humanity) always think you''re almost there but then it turns out you just aren''t, at all.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 29 Apr 2015, 23:17
by _venox_
Maybe god took a big dump and forgot to flush it down, thus life came into existence.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 00:03
by deleted_user0
bugattivitesse wrote:The Big bang solves how, not why the universe is here. Science cannot answer the why question, just the how.

Anyone who rejects the big bang is like someone who rejects evolution' its generally because of lack of exposure or just plain ignorance.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cro ... n-nothing/



You can easily rephrase the question to how is it possible that there is something and not nothing.

At the core both the books and the bb come down to, there was nothing, and then there was something. The answer that you cant ask what caused the bb because causal relations imply time and time was only created in the bb seems cheap and unsatisfying. Could just say i dunno and be done with it.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 00:06
by deleted_user0
drlegend wrote:It is self-evident that the world was created by a supernatural force and did not create itself. It is fairly irrational to believe otherwise. There are some who say that the current laws of the universe, such as the fact that something can''t come from nothing, could have not existed at the time of the creation of the universe, but if this is the truth then it is also possible that a spiritual being whose nature violates the current laws of the material world existed at the time or still exists to this day.

Personally I believe we shouldn''t think of this as a singular issue. The belief that God doesn''t exist, or a god is not necessary for the existence of the material world, is all part of a concerted effort to destroy the concept of personal responsibility and to allow society to degenerate to the point that people are little more than semi-intelligent apes whose sole purpose is gratification and reproduction, which would allow a small group of self-appointed elites to easily be able to control and rule over them, which is essential replacement of God with a government, but I digress.



Communist elites right?

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 00:44
by Mr. Pecksniff
deleted_user wrote:
drlegend wrote:It is self-evident that the world was created by a supernatural force and did not create itself. It is fairly irrational to believe otherwise.
I mean, I dont think anyone knows enough about this to declare whether it is irrational or not.


drlegend wrote:Personally I believe we shouldnt think of this as a singular issue. The belief that God doesnt exist, or a god is not necessary for the existence of the material world, is all part of a concerted effort to destroy the concept of personal responsibility and to allow society to degenerate to the point that people are little more than semi-intelligent apes whose sole purpose is gratification and reproduction, which would allow a small group of self-appointed elites to easily be able to control and rule over them, which is essential replacement of God with a government, but I digress.
wut





You should hear his stance on climate change

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 01:38
by lemmings121
musketjr wrote:why is there something instead of nothing?



Based on what I''ve seen today, this one looks like a very simple question that shouldn''t be a problem here.

Compared to balance in water maps, everything looks easy.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 01:47
by Jaeger
Maybe this question has no answer

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 02:43
by benj89
Dr.legend Nietzsche would kill you if he was still alive haha. what u describe is some sort of nihilism, which was related to religion by nietzsche ("god is dead")
basically, he uses the same arguments but against religion -->' cf the overman.
(btw you should read him musket he has many answer to your questions, or some interesting ideas at least. always a good idea to refer to the geniuses)
about the small elites who control? its already the case, think abt which lobbies really have influence in the political world/the market?
also, check who controls the bilderberg group, i could keep going for hours.. but got sleep now

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 03:15
by deleted_user0
Pandora's box just opened...

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 03:16
by Mr. Pecksniff
Image

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 04:42
by Metis
I think from the viewpoint of physics, something exists because the state of something is more stable than the state of nothing. We can see this on a macro level in the case of matter. You can reword the question to ask why energy should form matter? The answer essentially boils down to stability, which is described in the conservation laws.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 05:06
by deleted_user0
That sounds interesting, can you explain a bit further?

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 06:21
by Mr. Pecksniff
metis wrote:I think from the viewpoint of physics, something exists because the state of something is more stable than the state of nothing. We can see this on a macro level in the case of matter. You can reword the question to ask why energy should form matter? The answer essentially boils down to stability, which is described in the conservation laws.
Surely ''nothing'' can''t have a state without losing it''s nothingness.

The how does anything exist thread

Posted: 30 Apr 2015, 06:40
by Mr. Pecksniff
The US Constitution