the REALLY big questions

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

•Why does anything exist at all?
•Why this existence and not another?
•Is existence infinite?
•If infinite, what does that mean?
•Or, instead, was existence created?
•If created, by what or by whom?
•If created, out of what—nothing at all?
•If so, what can that possibly mean?
•Is there a teleological “purpose” behind existence?
•What happens after we die?

And, of course: where do you and I fit into all this?!

It would seem that, once you go that far out on the metaphysical limb, rational thought itself simply implodes into the philosophical equivalent of a Black Hole. Logic may go in but what exactly comes out?

Out there is right around the corner from God, I suppose. And, in contemplating mysteries that profound, if you don’t feel something of a “mystical” sense of reality you simply aren’t going out far enough.

Consider:

You and I are but two minds on a planet of 6,600,000,000 additional minds on this tiny little planet in this tiny little solar system in this humdrum galaxy in a universe of billions of additional galaxies in what may or may not be one of an infinite number of parallel universes.

In turn, it is said that, if you put a single grain of sand in the world’s largest cathedral, there would be more volume of sand in that church than there are stars in the entire universe. In fact I was just reading a book on astonomy that showed a picture [from Hubble] of these two gigantic galaxies containing billions and billions of stars that had just collided with each other. But the authors noted there is so much space between stars, they doubt there would be even a single collision!

When push comes to shove, we are analogous to tiny little bugs living out our entire lives on the body of the world’s hairiest dog. Each morning we get up and start in on arguing about What The Dog Is. Meanwhile we are completely oblivious to everything “outside the dog”. We’re like the folks in Flatland calculating the Meaning Of Life when they have only the vaguest of clues regarding the third dimension we live in.

And what other dimensions might there be? Brian Greene in The Elegant Universe speculates there are [I believe] 13 additional dimensions given the “nature” of string theory.

Or, as the Moody Blues once lyrically proposed:

don’t you feel small?/it happens to us all

2

I think most of those are genuinely answerable.

I think you missed out how something as opposed to nothing at all exists, I’ve never heard an even slightly convincing argument for such a puzzlement.

Also, could you post that picture of the two galaxies please?

3

I think most of them no one has come close to answering. Indeed, every year or so on Nova or the Science Channel there is some new startling discovery [like dark matte or…recently…a tripling of the number of stars] that changes how astronomers and astro-physicists view the universe.

And do you really believe that a 100 or a 1000 years from now there won’t have been additional discoveries we cannot even imagine today?

And no one can rationally explain why there is something rather than nothing. Especially considering that many scientists believe the universe itself came into existence out of nothing at all.

As for the book, two problems.

1] I have no clue how to post photos on the internet—I’m quite illiterate in that respect.

2] It was from a library book I have since returned. The book is an attempt to give readers a 365 day snapshot of the universe. Each day there is a new photograph. Try google.

4

I did the google search myself:

The book is entitled, Universe: 365 days. It was put together by Jerry T. Bonnell and Robert J. Nemiroff.

You can purchase it at Amazon new for twenty cents! The catch? The book was published in 1994, so the photos are dated. I’m surprised the library still had a copy.

5

Hold on there cowboy. Did the universe come into existence out of nothing at all? I have always had my doubts about that and so do some scientists such as Professor Roger Penrose. His colleague Professor Hawking did try to explain how the universe could come into existence from nothing at all.

6

What did Penrose and Hawking come up with?

7

Out of the ones you’ve posted, I reckon 2, 4, 9 and 10 are answerable with a bit of close examination, the other 6 a lot harder.

Yupyup, agreed, agreed.

Oh, it was a book? I didn’t realise, no worries.

8

Yeah cowboy, that was kinda my point really, we know so little about it.

9

I’m reading Hawking’s "A Brief[er]History of Time but I haven’t gotten to that part yet. I would be very interested to know how it might be possible how all of this came from nothing. That might also take care of the concept of a god having had no beginning nor nor end. "Nothing’ would have to be redefined, I thnk, in terms that are beyond our capacity, and I don’t think our brains have the ability to comprehend that, honestly. It does indeed boggle the mind and makes it thirst for more…and more…and more…and more…

10

In a nutshell cos I ain’t no physicist Penrose that something came before and Hawking that something didn’t or rather that something can come from nothing without the need for the big cheese in the sky.

11

It’s not in history of time its in this:

In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.

12

We may know little but we can think big, old chap!

13

maryshelley

Yes, Dawkins also helped that along :laughing: but the theory of ‘spontaneous creation’ doesn’t really explain how there could actually be such a thing as spontaneous creation, does it? That’s like defining a word by using the same word to define it.

Do you have a hyperlink somewhere about the gravity thing? I can sort of, in a really hazy way, see how perhaps the law of gravity and attraction prevents desruction (but who knows one day :mrgreen: ), prevent worlds from colliding with other worlds and galaxies, but how does gravity actually create out of nothing? There is a school of thought which says that this universe was not actually the first one, that ours is not the Cause (unless indeed there is some form of energy or thought that caused it) but that this universe may be the effect of another universe that met its demise…and onward backwards…backwards, backwards…backwards… god, it is all so interesting…what i know i can fill a spoon with but little by little i hope to fill a cup.

14

I agree wholeheartedly. It seems beyond comprehension [my comprehension, anyway] that something can burst into existence out of nothing at all. And, alas, most of us are simply not educated enough to grasp this much beyond the most rudimentary levels of understanding. But what has always fascinated me listening to those who are educated enough to offer a truly informed point of view, is how their calculations about the big bang at the beginning have proven to be right on the money regarding the way the universe is today.

But how can something exist forever or come into existence out of nothing at all? Either way it is mind boggling.

15

We sure do, old bean!

16

i don’t think any of those questions are really big questions. they’re really interesting questions at best.

also, i think this was an inaccurate way of stating it. what i think you mean is that the ratio of the volume of sand to the volume of the cathedral is bigger than the ratio of volume of stars to the volume of the universe.

17

2 Why this existence and not another.

What would your answer be? And how would one go about answering it without, in turn, knowing the answers to all the other questions? They all probe existence from different angles.

18

I agree. When you really think about the relationship between everything, one thing in particular and nothing at all, the mind doesn’t know where to begin in connecting the dots.

And if someone thinks their own mind does then, again, they simply aren’t going out far enough on the metaphysical limb. And we can’t just assume that our minds are capable of answering questions like this. Maybe our brain has to evolve over the millenia in order to reach the point it can begin to grasp the answers.

19

What questions could possibly be bigger than those that probe the very meaning or nature of existence itself?

I mean aside from, “Who will win the Super Bowl?” ; o )

20

what question can be more important than a question whose answer is completely useless? well, there’s a lot of things. i’m sure you can think of some.