Kim Jones wrote:
> Lurking, lurking...
>
>
> This thread started I believe with Tom's 3 magnificent questions,
> aeons ago on my birthday last year.
>
> Thankee, Tom
>
> A little refresher now:
>
>
> On 31/12/2006, at 8:25 AM, Tom Caylor wrote:
>
>> Besides the question of how meaning relates to this List, the question
>> of meaning itself can be asked at several different levels, so I'll
>> list a few:
>>
>> 1) Why does the universe exist? Why is there something rather than
>> nothing?
>> 2) Why do human beings in general exist?
>> 3) Why do I exist?
>>
>> The purpose of listing these three questions is not to deal with
>> all of
>> them on this thread necessarily, but to show that the question of the
>> meaning of life really is connected to the universal questions that
>> this list tries to address. One's answer to any one of these
>> questions
>> can affect his/her answer to the other questions.
>>
>> It seems that we all have to eventually come to the question of the
>> end
>> of our lives. (Even if immortality, quantum or other kinds, is a
>> reality, the question of the end of our lives is a topic addressed
>> even
>> on this List.) So as one man on United Flight 93 said before giving
>> his life to save others, "Let's roll!"
>>
>> Tom
>
>
>
> It was a touching moment when Bruno and John 'buried the hatchet'
> yesterday ;)
>
> I just want to say that this has been the most magnificent and
> compelling thread I have contributed nothing to that I have ever
> contributed nothing to
>
> nevertheless
>
> I think we need more on question 1
>
> Questions 2 and 3 appear to have answers of sorts
>
> Kim Jones
What kind of statement would you regard as an answer to why there is something rather than nothing? For example here are some possible answers:
1. What is there? Everything! What isn't there? Nothing!
2. Nothing is unstable (Frank Wilczek, Nobelist physics)
3. Why should Nothing be the default and Something need an explanation?
4. The universe is just Nothing rearranged (Vic Stenger, Yonatan Fishman)
I think it's one of those questions that seems as if it should have answer because it is so simple and clear, but which on reflection you find isn't clear at all. What is Nothing? Can you conceive of Nothing? Is absolute Nothing a coherent concept or is Nothing just absence of matter, i.e. empty space.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Wed Mar 14 2007 - 02:59:57 PDT