Why Is There Anything, Rather Than Nothing?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Patriot, Oct 14, 2004.

  1. Satyr Banned Banned

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    Because there's someone there to wonder.
     
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  3. kgv2182 Registered Member

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    "I think therefore I am is am" is an obvious statement.

    We do exist, at least I do.

    But the question is why?

    I like the theory on existence as movement. But what does this say about light? Why can light only travel the speed of light. What makes light so special?
     
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  5. Non-Logical-Idea-Guy Fat people can't smile. Registered Senior Member

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    there are a few one line answers that people may give you - the most prudent of which is -

    how can u know anything exists?

    or that

    - the point of nothing is to aspire to become something (this one is a mediocre one)
     
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  7. MrBuster96 Registered Member

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    Why is there anything vs. there being nothing?

    If your still there Patriot, I don't think anyone has really grasped your question quite right. I think it is a beautiful and relevant question. I think the question is incomprehensible. Why does anything exist vs. there being nothing. I think it is unanswerable with our limited ability to reason. It may be an indication of our place in the universe. Much like being a fish in a fish tank. The fish has no idea what the wall is to there tank, let alone reason what is on the other side. Realizing this, I find it very disconcerting that I am incapable of understanding it. Almost a mental claustrophobia. Even if you arrive at the idea that there is some sort of omniscient force that has created matter, physics, dna, it is still precluded by this question.
     
  8. Nin' Registered Member

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    Why is there a God, instead of nothing?
     
  9. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    Asking: "why does the universe exist?", presumes there is a reason for it to (and so a reason to ask why it exists, because the question has an answer).

    If you presume the question: "why doesn't the universe exist?", exists, then there is no reason for the universe not to (because the question has no answer - the universe certainly does exist, QED).
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2008
  10. Simon Anders Valued Senior Member

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    To me the question is more rhetorical, a challenge. There is something about current rationalist viewpoints that make it seem more likely there would be nothing. There is something rather excessive about...well, all this. The question is rubbing on that spot.
     
  11. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Because even nothing is something.....isn't it. :itold:
     
  12. Simon Anders Valued Senior Member

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    We couldn't know. No one has come across nothing. So it would be wild speculation to say.
     
  13. swarm Registered Senior Member

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    Because.
     
  14. laladopi time for change. Registered Senior Member

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    say this: hm this laptop is nothing, but im the kind that created it.
    hm we hold a little something, but that something can only be grasped if you feel that there is nothing but it has to be something. animals have ancestors but they dont record it us humans do because we are beginning to find something, or was it nothing all along. then why do disagree, our personalities are surely more than just instincts.
     
  15. laladopi time for change. Registered Senior Member

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    to add to your scattered brain already, patriot thats you.
     
  16. laladopi time for change. Registered Senior Member

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    dont hate the playa hate the game, but which came first the player or the game.
    skill gained and followed or instincts about nothing anyways, cuz nothing matters.
    because there are no matters.
     
  17. laladopi time for change. Registered Senior Member

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    really, deep down inside that your lazy heart cant even contrive
    whats been pressed apon your shoulder
    i should really look older for my words are the ones that do not smolden over any fire.
     
  18. fess Registered Senior Member

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    It amazes me that there is existence. It would seem so much simpler and cleaner if there was just nothing. Athough, I guess for each one of us, that will become the case at some point.
     
  19. alaska1976 Registered Member

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    Why Is There Anything, Rather Than Nothing?

    What isn't shall come to be and what is shall change to what shall not be. Matter/energy always has been but not as we appreciate it and neither as we presently understand it.
     
  20. scorpius a realist Valued Senior Member

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    Why Is There Anything, Rather Than Nothing?
    whats a legit answer?
    why not?
    and if that was true,why do you ask? :shrug:
    btw
    Jesus is a corpse

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  21. swarm Registered Senior Member

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    Not eveything has a "why?"
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    That's as good a way to put it as any. It's a manifestation of the Heisenberg Principle: by observing something we influence its behavior. In this case, by observing the universe, we influence it so that it exists. I don't know if Heisenberg would have thought of it that way, but it's a tautology that you can't observe something that doesn't exist. Hmm, I guess you also can't observe something if you don't exist.

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    Perhaps. In any case, since this is the only state of the universe in which it contains matter and energy, this is the only state in which it could possibly contain creatures capable of observing it.

    I guess this is what you are all referring to as the Anthropic Principle.
    Indeed. Astrophysicists are now telling us with a straight face that the space between the stars is expanding. That's how they get around the paradox that some stars are farther away from us than they could have traveled at lightspeed during the existence of the universe. If space can expand, then it can't be "nothing." Otherwise they'd be saying "nothing has expanded," which would leave them with the original question to answer: How did those stars get so far away without violating relativity?
     
  23. Iamhere Banned Banned

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    something/nothing?
    If one were to look at it, all matter is made up of positive and negative particles, technically all matter is just a solid form of energy. If we know anyhting about energy, we know there is an opposite. perhaps there is a nothing, that exists with the something, without one the other cannot exist. perhaps ther is an inverted demention hovering just below our own in which solid matter makes up energy, eg a demention where there is a "nothing" made up of "somethings"...
     

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