Neri » May 26th, 2019, 9:35 am
DF and Others,
The simple logic is this:
(1) If “anything” at all exists, then “everything” (the world) necessarily exists, for there will always be the sum of all that exists.
(2) The world cannot be bounded by “nothing,” for the latter is that which does not exist and as such cannot serve as a boundary.
(3) To say that “nothing” bounds the world is to say that it is boundless.
(4) Nor can “anything” serve as a boundary of the world; for “anything,” no matter what, will always be included in the world and hence can only serve to expand and not limit it.
Therefore, the world is unlimited, has always existed and will always exist.
If asked why, one can only say, “why not?
This sort of logic presumes that there are “things that exist,” each of which is by its nature “something” and “not anything else.”
Lets try a simple analogy,
The room begins in silence, an infinite dimension of nothingness, a void of emptiness. Then you speak a word, each word, a simply vibration, arises from the silence, containing both a beginning and an end, a particle of sound as it were. Does a word exist, of course, or does it. When we speak of existence we refer to reality, what is real. The senses of our bodies, those gates through which we see, hear, observe the universe, are not attuned to the silence, we cannot hear silence, but when we hear a word, to that we apply reality.
A "word" is a "THING", it exists, but only as a finite interruption of the silence, with a breath it becomes and then disappears. Yet the silence remains, logically then, which condition holds the greatest reality, the sound, a momentary ripple, of the silence in which all sound must eventually dissolve.
Every "thing" in this universe, from complex forms to such parts as they are made up from, atoms, subatomic particles, etc. and nothing more than vibrations. We live in the midst of a symphony of vibrations, finite sounds interlacing, overlapping, resonating, harmonizing, but every part is as finite as a single word. Overcome by the sheer multiplicity and the noise we are conditioned to think of them all as real.
As silence is the greater reality than sound, its inherent infinity of nothing, and each word bound within it, "Nothingness" is the reality behind all things we perceive as existing. it may seem like the sun will always rise, but we know it is finite, colliding galaxies create sound throughout the cosmos, no different than the words spoken by all the people who have lived or will live on this planet, but it all will cease. The only thing which can be said to truly exist is nothing.
However, if one takes Parmenides’ view (as Einstein did), time is completely left out and with it all Happening. [Einstein treated time as an anisotropic space coordinate.] As such, the world is reduced to an impenetrable, immoveable and never-changing geometric object.
But surely this view is preposterous, for it leaves out thought. Indeed, nothing can make a greater claim to reality than our own thoughts. Yet thinking is a dynamic process. If it were frozen without one thought following or preceding another, it would not exist in the first place.
Einstein's treatment of "time" as a static dimension such as space, was not a theoretical model, it was an observation of the nature of time and space, DESPITE our intuitive observation which makes it seem like the universe is actually aging. Thus the reality emerges as a "Block Universe" where everything, in space and time is existing at once.
Our intuitive experience, derived from our consciousness, whereby it appears time is actually moving, is an ILLUSION.
In order for us, to experience a sense of self, we must occupy a mere pinpoint of space, as well as time, if we experienced the block universe, the whole universe at once, all time at once, there would be no more us, no "I am", there would merely be the universe. Our individuality is contingent upon us riding a wave on the ocean of consciousness as it were. But the fact that we are limited to merely riding this wave, so that we might experience within ourselves a sense of self, does not change the nature of the universe.
For example, you are moving through space, and so your view is constantly changing, this change actually communicates to you that you are in motion, if you were traveling a hundred MPH in between galaxies, you would have to reference to even know if you were actually moving at all, they would be too vast.
Likewise as we move through time, consciously, our thought changing like the scenery, so we experience a sense of self. Time thus is just as static as is space, the intuitive illusion that the universe itself is aging is merely a projection of your own experience as a conscious being.