From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 06 2002 - 13:47:55 MST
gts wrote:
> It is about whether the question itself has meaning,
> i.e., does it make sense to ask what caused the
> universe to exist given that we cannot even conceive
> of its non-existence? I think the answer to that
> question is no.
>
### Now, there might be some thinkers for whom it is in fact impossible to
conceive of the universe's non-existence, I however do not belong to this
group. Say, imagine the visible universe was cut roughly in half, and
spliced in on itself - conceivable, if not easily, isn't it? Imagine slicing
off little pieces of the universe, and little pieces of the sensory and
intellectual experience that makes our lives. No single step needs to strain
imagination, yet at the end there is nothing left. Why didn't it happen
today? Why is the universe as it is (as Hal noted) is just as valid a
question as inquiring why it exists in the first place.
Just as Hal does I subscribe to the notion that the universe exists in the
same way as numbers and other mathematical entities do, and this is all the
answer I need, when somebody asks what caused the universe to exist.
Rafal
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