Why Does The Universe Exist?

[Jayson1]

I agree. Even when people say nothing exists before the universe i don't see how that is possible. Even nothing is something. It's like looking at a empty box and saying nothing is inside it. But you do have something. You have space and existence happening inside it. Just because it can't be observed or if no humans were around to define it, it would still exist.


Jason

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

You can't have something from nothing, something has to fill in the gaps to make the something. Chicken and egg kind of problem.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

No reason whatsoever. It is because it is. If it wasn't, nothing would be. We exist because not existing is not an experience.

 

[Santaman]

Mweh, if you ask me our universe is just a really small local event in a much larger realm/universe/whatever, nothing too important.

 

[Jedi Marso]

My personal opinion on 'why' is that it's a schoolhouse for the soul. As to 'how', that one's above my paygrade.

 

[Jayson1]

No reason whatsoever. It is because it is. If it wasn't, nothing would be. We exist because not existing is not an experience.

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But when I die someday my body is going to continue to have a kind of depressing experience even if my self-awareness won't be around to experience the experience. For me I sort of see it as how everything has a beginning and everything has a ending but one ending is just something else's beginning. The idea of nothing being a real thing seems about as magical as the concept of a God and frankly only something like a God that is somehow above all the basic rules of nature could create such a thing. I know that brings up the qurestion of how God was created and the only answer I can think is God created God. Heck maybe existence itself IS God and which means we are all basically just like cells or organs that make up what God is and that also goes for the universe and anything in it.

Jason

 

[Gavin70]

I agree. Even when people say nothing exists before the universe i don't see how that is possible. Even nothing is something. It's like looking at a empty box and saying nothing is inside it. But you do have something. You have space and existence happening inside it. Just because it can't be observed or if no humans were around to define it, it would still exist.
Jason

I think that the challenge is that whatever existed before the universe is that there is no way to define it. Everything we understand and describe is predicated on the laws of physic within this universe. Whatever was before that would have operated on complete different laws which would probably be beyond our understanding and certainly inhospitable to life as we understand it. How would you go about describing a universe where matter / energy / time / etc. did not exist?

There's also the question of whether our universe is everything that exists, and it's creation destroyed (or overwrote) what came before, or if its just one of many self-contained universes in a multiverse (however that might work)?

 

[Qonundrum]

The universe exists so that you can ask the question?

"Do multiverses exist?" is a harder question. Quantum theory and cosmology imply strongly that they do but it's on the boundary of metaphysical speculation. Will we ever have direct evidence?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23831840-200-how-to-think-about-the-multiverse/ (full article behind paywall).

Why as a physical, metaphysical, spiritual, or other level?

Science can help out with the physical level, but science also contradicts and changes itself at times.

The other reality is that a sufficient quantity of evidence might not exist, at which point one must therefore turn to belief to accept it?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Why as a physical, metaphysical, spiritual, or other level?

Science can help out with the physical level, but science also contradicts and changes itself at times.

The other reality is that a sufficient quantity of evidence might not exist, at which point one must therefore turn to belief to accept it?

There are experiments that have been proposed to test for the existence of parallel universes and even to communicate with those universes. I haven't researched any of those proposals so I can't comment on their practicality. If experimental evidence is not forthcoming, speculations about parallel universes will remain metaphysical (beyond physics) by definition.

 

[Dryson]

No reason whatsoever. It is because it is. If it wasn't, nothing would be. We exist because not existing is not an experience.

The term "It is what it is" is term that means conformity to something that is factual that the speaker cannot explain.

Such as we know why the sky is blue.

The Is person will only say "It is what it is" when asked to explain why the sky is blue.

I think that the challenge is that whatever existed before the universe is that there is no way to define it.

That's why challenges exist. To discover and explain the unexplainable.

There is no such thing as it is what it is except in the mind of someone who hates change but more importantly someone who who just accepts what they are told because lack any courage to explore and find the truth.

 

[Butters]

Maybe we’re not supposed to know. Maybe it’s a kind of magic, and like any magic, it only works when you don’t know how it works. When you figure it out, the illusion crumbles, and you end up in an asylum. Your madness ostracising you, shielding everyone else from learning the truth that you’ve uncovered.

This may be the way to wake from the matrix.

 

[Jayson1]

Maybe we’re not supposed to know. Maybe it’s a kind of magic, and like any magic, it only works when you don’t know how it works. When you figure it out, the illusion crumbles, and you end up in an asylum. Your madness ostracising you, shielding everyone else from learning the truth that you’ve uncovered.

This may be the way to wake from the matrix.

I kind of like this idea. It reminds about how people can be in denial about themselves and not really realize their own flaws or how even though we are afraid of death and know it is coming still have the ability to push it out of our minds a great deal. Ignorance might not only be bliss in some cases but also necessary to help keep the human machine that is humanity keep on going.

Jason

 

[TrickyDickie]

self-contained universes in a multiverse (however that might work)?

I think it's a kind of 'layering' and ones that are 'near each other' may 'interfere' with each other, much like radio stations that interfere with each other.

 

[Butters]

I think it's a kind of 'layering' and ones that are 'near each other' may 'interfere' with each other, much like radio stations that interfere with each other.

French radio gets everywhere.

This does remind me though of a mock-up of the CMB image I saw in a documentary, with a bubble universe imprinted on the CMB as a circular cold spot.

One cosmological theory I can’t get my head around is the holographic principle. I do think though, that what’s perceivable to us, is just a tiny part of what there actually is.

 

[TrickyDickie]

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour"

 

[Dryson]

Maybe we’re not supposed to know. Maybe it’s a kind of magic, and like any magic, it only works when you don’t know how it works. When you figure it out, the illusion crumbles, and you end up in an asylum. Your madness ostracising you, shielding everyone else from learning the truth that you’ve uncovered.

This may be the way to wake from the matrix.

Magic had already been proven to be fake.

The premise of humanity not being allowed to know is based on egotistical men who use mere words to say that they who, men created the Universe.

Such men conspire to keep science down so that reality is never affirmed. The main reason for their ego is that man will never know what the processes are like that involve creating life in the womb, like the female will.

They hate being made to feel belittled because they bigge4 and stronger than the female and seemingly more knowledgeable but they can't even prove that they spark of life came from them.

There is no such thing as being allowed to know knowledge. They who deny knowledge are the same small brain T-rex that will be consumed by the Velociraptor....tap...tap...tap..

 

[Jayson1]

Magic had already been proven to be fake.

The premise of humanity not being allowed to know is based on egotistical men who use mere words to say that they who, men created the Universe.

Such men conspire to keep science down so that reality is never affirmed. The main reason for their ego is that man will never know what the processes are like that involve creating life in the womb, like the female will.

They hate being made to feel belittled because they bigge4 and stronger than the female and seemingly more knowledgeable but they can't even prove that they spark of life came from them.

There is no such thing as being allowed to know knowledge. They who deny knowledge are the same small brain T-rex that will be consumed by the Velociraptor....tap...tap...tap..

What are you saying? Curiosity is sexism? That doesn't sound right. Hate to think of what this means for anyone who has ever looked through a telescope and wonder what is going on out their in space.

Jason

 

[TrickyDickie]

'Magic' is a subjective term.

 

[Dryson]

Lots of replies that I am trying to keep up with.


tetragrammaton-invictusou - You can't have something from nothing, something has to fill in the gaps to make the something. Chicken and egg kind of problem.

That is the base of the whole question. How can you have thought in the Universe without having thought before the Universe? How can a need exist after the Big Bang took place if that same need didn't exist prior to the Big Bang?

Could a Universe parallel to our Universe have created the Big Bang to seed life from that Universe into ours?

Jayson1 - What are you saying? Curiosity is sexism? That doesn't sound right. Hate to think of what this means for anyone who has ever looked through a telescope and wonder what is going on out their in space.

Curiosity isn't sexism. The act of keeping either of the sexes in the dark about knowledge so that you can say that your sex is the reason for life, is sexism.

Butters -
One cosmological theory I can’t get my head around is the holographic principle. I do think though, that what’s perceivable to us, is just a tiny part of what there actually is.

I think the whole holographic principle is just another fancy term for a multi-verse. If the holographic principle of the Universe was real we would be able to see the points in space where the holograph was being projected from.

The shear magnitude of the power and arrays needed to generate our Universe as a holographic would be more inconceivable than FTL travel.

Gavin70 - There's also the question of whether our universe is everything that exists, and it's creation destroyed (or overwrote) what came before, or if its just one of many self-contained universes in a multiverse (however that might work)?

Maybe something in another Universe simply caused all of the planets and suns to instantly explode. Maybe Quantum Gravity simply ceased to exist that caused extreme fluctuations in normal gravity that then caused a sudden explosion or maybe that the entire Universe did a side ways shift to another orbital in the Quantum Gravity realm in order to survive.

Going back to Butter's holographic principle comment. Perhaps something in another Universe took place that caused the other Universe to split into two Universes. One being ours and one being theirs.

Time has a funny way of constricting the grains of sand and then projecting them into the lower part of the hour glass with the same precision as the upper portion of the hour glass.

Cutie McWhiskers - Why as a physical, metaphysical, spiritual, or other level?

Science can help out with the physical level, but science also contradicts and changes itself at times.

The other reality is that a sufficient quantity of evidence might not exist, at which point one must therefore turn to belief to accept it?

You could turn to belief to try and accept it or you could continue, like the building blocks of life, to collect new aspects of yourself to build a new and better you from.


TrickyDicky - think it's a kind of 'layering' and ones that are 'near each other' may 'interfere' with each other, much like radio stations that interfere with each other.

Sorta like a radio program bleeding into another radio program seamlessly where you are like "WTF!" and then both programs return to their normal layer? That would be interesting to say the least if two layers prior to the Big Bang seamlessly merged together, then created the Big Bang and then returned to their normal orbital pattern.

But what would have caused both of their space time to bend together, rather what would have caused their wavelength form to move close together and or merge? Is the space and time prior to the Big Bang set on a up and down movement?

Santaman - Mweh, if you ask me our universe is just a really small local event in a much larger realm/universe/whatever, nothing too important.

The event that created the Big Bang had to be somewhat important seeing as how we are here observing the Universe trying to put meaning and reason to it all.

Jedi Marso - My personal opinion on 'why' is that it's a schoolhouse for the soul. As to 'how', that one's above my pay grade.

The how is never above anyone's pay grade because you have to leave the schoolhouse someday and jump to the next higher orbital of function to apply what you have learned in order to learn more and then apply it again.

 

[Butters]

Magic had already been proven to be fake.

The premise of humanity not being allowed to know is based on egotistical men who use mere words to say that they who, men created the Universe.

Such men conspire to keep science down so that reality is never affirmed. The main reason for their ego is that man will never know what the processes are like that involve creating life in the womb, like the female will.

They hate being made to feel belittled because they bigge4 and stronger than the female and seemingly more knowledgeable but they can't even prove that they spark of life came from them.

There is no such thing as being allowed to know knowledge. They who deny knowledge are the same small brain T-rex that will be consumed by the Velociraptor....tap...tap...tap..

You’ve miss understood my point. I was using magic as a simile.

String theory suggests that there are many more dimensions to explain things like gravity. If there are more dimensions making up the universe than the four we do perceive, that doesn’t mean we don’t also exist in them. Who knows what inputs our brains are receiving in the unknown dimensions, and which, like the magician’s slight of hand, is imperceivable to us.

I’m not suggesting we’re limited in our understanding by some religious edict or EU directive, but that there are hardwired physiological limitations to what we can know, because beyond them, the brain can’t function.

Butters -
One cosmological theory I can’t get my head around is the holographicprinciple. I do think though, that what’s perceivable to us, is just a tiny part of what there actually is.

I think the whole holographicprinciple is just another fancy term for a multi-verse. If the holographic principle of the Universe was real we would be able to see the points inspace where the holograph was being projected from.

The shear magnitude of the powerand arrays needed to generate ourUniverse as a holographic would bemore inconceivable than FTL travel.

That’s not the holographic principle I’ve been trying to wrap my head around.