2006-06-20 18:15:47 · 27 answers · asked by Jenny 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Bertrand Russell and G.E Moore posed a similar issue many years ago when one of them suggested something like the following: Suppose you were created 5 minutes ago, complete with memories. How would you prove what was real?
This has, of course, given way to many explanations and many theories of epistemology. How do we know anything at all? Is it handed out by a great and powerful God or did matter just gel together and create mankind?
I cannot pretend to be able to answer the question but I will suggest food for thought; in any human endeavor, we believe in something first and discover its efficacy later. That is, we think we see something before our eyes, say as a child, and then we figure out how to reach out and grab it. In this way, babies discover that they can reach their rattles and blankets and Mommy, but they cannot reach the window, the sky or the ceiling fan. As adults, we learn to use the keyboard by pressing buttons and testing the results. However if you wish to suggest that there might not be any keyboards in existence, I would give you a funny look and ask what you meant.
Hence I am suggesting that your question is turned upside down: we do, in fact, each of us, believe that matter exists and has existed for some time. While some believe in God as the prime cause, others believe in some sort of eternal material goo which somehow, and somewhat embarrassingly, developed a spiritual nature that ended up as mankind. In both cases, what gives us comfort in our lives often leads us to our conclusions about beginnings rather than the reverse.
Lastly, when we are angry with the actions of others, we usually take it out on ourselves. As Montaigne suggested, more blood has been spilled in the name of God than by any other cause. Frankly, I don't see how we could blame God for that any more than we can blame him for not giving us the answers we demand. I think His purpose might have been to teach us how ridiculous we are when we act in an immoral way, but judging by the present state of things, perhaps that isn't working all that well. The state of the world today is better explained by the primoridial goo theory and the spirit of human beings? Maybe it's just a terminal case of a bad design flaw. Of course it could just be bad personal behavior and unending greed, but lots of people would have trouble with an absolute morality. By this time, maybe God does too!
Think of this, the next time you get the urge to wonder about something: an atheist is, by definition, someone who denies the existence of something which doesn't exist.
2006-06-20 18:53:58 · answer #1 · answered by Bentley 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
lol, I was about to answer but then I saw that the first answerer Judith R said the same thing I was going to say.
Nothing is nothing and can never become something without intervention of some sort. And if there was nothing to intervene then there is just n o t h i n g. Rather dull.
Speaking of evolution, if there was a big bang, what banged, and where did the atoms come from that caused the bang, etc. etc.? At least with creation you can say there was God, and by definition a god is always there, eternal, doesn't depend on anything for existence, and is perfectly capable of creating whatever He wants because He is God.
2006-06-21 01:50:03 · answer #2 · answered by pug 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no God and there was no creation, so what do you mean"if"?
Energy & matter are the same thing and have always existed. There never was a "nothing" from which anything was created.
2006-06-21 01:18:22 · answer #3 · answered by Left the building 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The verb "was" implies time. We perceive a progression of physical states and call that 'time'. Therefore, "was" only applies to things after the "...to begin with" part you speak of.
A single physical state begs for no concept of 'before' or 'creation'.
The underlying question, "Can something come from nothing?", defies the fact that, in the strictest sense, nothing 'comes' from anything. We perceive a progression in physical states. However, we tend to think that 'physical states progress'.
That we don't make that distinction in our normal activities, makes it no less profound. Indeed something can 'come from' nothing and nothing can 'come from' something.
Do a google search for "vacuum fluctuations"
2006-06-21 01:45:30 · answer #4 · answered by Ethan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No creation, no God = nothingness. But in reality creation does exists, so therefore, there is a creator, God = Life
2006-06-21 01:19:46 · answer #5 · answered by romeo4evernever 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are an abomination! Nobody listen to the "scientists" that try to claim that the law of conservation of mass and energy describes how the universe always existed and did not need a creator. After all, scientists are evil!
2006-06-21 01:22:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There really WAS nothing. And out of that nothing came everything. For example, ZERO is NOTHING, and out of zero can come a postive one and a negative one, that is, 0 = -1 + 1.
2006-06-21 01:24:42 · answer #7 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even i have thought like this many times.If nothing has happened we will not be participating in this yahoo answers.Even if u trust this or not there are seven world like this in tha universe.and there are also peope existing..evidences are there.In future one day we will be communicating all over the universe
2006-06-21 01:21:52 · answer #8 · answered by vedha 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing would exist. Everything would mean nothing here. Nobody wouldn't have been here asking or answering questions.
2006-06-21 01:21:25 · answer #9 · answered by mcoconut 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, if there was no creation, then there would be no anything. Something has to be created to exist.
2006-06-21 01:18:23 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋