Existence: What the meaning of the word "is" is
There are any number of unanswerable, uncomfortable questions a person can ask, but the first one, the question from which all other questions are descended, is "Why is there an 'is'?" Why is there existence in the first place? In our fascination with life's origin and evolution, we bypass this most fundamental of conundrums. Does the very fact of existence in itself provide proof that some metaphysical non-thing. perhaps even the Godly, some undefined whatever-it-is, produced the physical by transcending it?
If we consider the finite aspects of the world we see around us, the limited nature of the time, space and matter from which we are constructed, the answer is certainly yes. Some non-thing, above or outside of the physical, must have preceded our universe or has our universe imbedded in it.
But what is the material world, that which frames the puzzle of our existence? Why even bother with the existence of empty space, or even time? The basic enigma is not whether we evolved from apes or not, but why is there "being" in the first place? The very existence of existence is mind boggling. Yet we are so much a part of existence that we take it for granted—it's a "given," to use a scientific term. But step back from the subjectivity and think about it. What caused the Big Bang? What caused existence? What is existence?
In his introduction to The Guide For The Perplexed, Moses Maimonides, the great 12th-century Jewish philosopher and codifier, laid the basis for probing these questions:
"We must form a conception of the existence of the Creator according to our capacities; that is, we must have a knowledge of metaphysics (the science of God), which can only be acquired after the study of physics; for the science of physics is closely connected with metaphysics and must even precede it in the course of studies. Therefore, the Almighty commenced the Bible with the description of the creation, that is, with physical science."
One might conceive of a science without religion, but it is an oxymoron to conceive of religion without science. Revelation and nature are the two aspects of one creation. Yet in Maimonides' time, the idea that science might have something to add to our understanding of spirituality was so anathema to the religious establishments that his book was burned by Jews and Christians alike.
Some 250 years ago, a great Jewish saint and mystic, the Gaon of Vilna, taught that when the light of Torah came into the world it split into two parts. Only one part was revealed directly, the prophetic experience The other part was hidden in the wisdoms of nature and the time will come, he said, when those hidden wisdoms will be discovered. revealing aspects of the Torah never before understood. That time has come. The hidden wisdoms of nature and science are being discovered. At the turn of the century, a physics professor would have lost tenure on the spot if caught teaching the concept that matter in all its forms of solids, liquids and gases was actually condensed energy. What hokum it would have seemed! Then came Einstein, relativity and E = mc^2, the theory that matter, m. intrinsically represents a specific amount of energy, E. And the type of matter was immaterial. As bizarre as it seems, a gram of rose petals and a gram of uranium contain identical amounts of energy. The constant in the equation, c^2 is the speed of light squared or multiplied by itself. It is a massive value, telling us that even a tiny amount of matter contains a huge quantity of latent energy. Having personally witnessed the detonation of six nuclear weapons. I suggest that we pray for peace. The fractions of a gram of matter converted into energy during those tests turned the mountain on which I stood into a quivering Jello-like substance.
In 1923, almost a decade after Einstein published his general relativity theory (no longer a theory, of course: now it is a law), the French physicist Louis de Broglie introduced an idea that was even more bizarre in its assertions than Einstein's claim that matter really was a form of energy.
De Broglie claimed that all matter has related to it a wave length and a frequency of that wave, a certain number of wave cycles per second. Not only had humanity learned that matter was not matter, we now had to believe that everything is a wave. Everything—you and I included. Seventy years of experiments have sustained both Einstein's and de Broglie's preposterous, counterintuitive claims.
The floor upon which you stand and the bedrock that supports a skyscraper are 99.999% empty space. What we perceive as solid matter is actually de Broglie's waves separated by open space, made impermeable by invisible, immaterial fields of force that somehow pervade the space. The world simply is not as it seems. A superficial reading of nature finds differentiation and disparate entities — stars and stones and bottled water and even life and death. Reading that same nature at a deeper level reveals that it's all a manifestation of a single underlying unity. I'm on our balcony. The afternoon Jerusalem sun is filtering through the yellow-green finger leaves of a eucalyptus tree planted a century ago to mark the property line. De Broglie tells me the leaves and the light are one. Not poetically — though that also — but physically, they are one.
It took humanity millennia before an Einstein discovered that, as bizarre as it may seem, matter is actually condensed energy. It may take a while longer for us to discover that there is some non-thing even more fundamental than energy that forms the basis of energy. In the words of John Archibald Wheeler, the renowned former president of the American Physical Society, recipient of the Einstein Award and Princeton professor of physics, underlying all existence is an idea, the "bit" of information that gives rise to the "it" of matter.
The substructure of all existence, we suddenly realize, is totally ethereal, an idea, wisdom. Or in Hebrew emet — an all encompassing reality. Emet is the ultimate building block from which all we see and feel is constructed. Just as the secondary substructure of all matter is something as ethereal as energy, as per Einstein's fantastic insight, so, the primary substructure of energy is still more elusive. Existence is the expression of an idea, an eternal consciousness made tangible. We are the idea of God.
If we can discover that idea, we will have ascertained not only the basis for the unity that underlies all existence, but most important, the source of that unity. "We will have encountered the soul of God.
2006-07-13 20:51:48
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answer #1
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answered by Adyghe Ha'Yapheh-Phiyah 6
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Our existence is a gift given to just be who you are. To offer understanding, kindness, to show gratitude, to say encouraging words, positive words, to do good deeds, to be honest, respectful. To help those around you and to love others for who they are.
Earth is our home. It is here where we live. We need to take care of it and keep it clean. Starting from your backyard to the neighborhood to the city, the state, and the country. It's the base of our existence and the future of our children.
Up above our home as far as our eyes can see is the universe. It is full of wonder and mystery that is composed of many other solar systems similar to ours and our home. It could hold other civilizations or life forms. It is endless and vast.
All three have a common cycle. There was a beginning a middle and an end. Our existence has the shortest cycle compared to the others, so for me this is the most important. This is why we need to live our lives to the fullest for ourselves and our loved ones.
2006-07-13 23:47:35
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answer #2
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answered by sakura4eternity 5
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Well you know how you can never really be lost because you always know where you are? It is the other places you want to be that go missing on occasion.
The universe is what we call all the stuff out there that surrounds our small planet like a tiny drop in a huge ocean.
Our existence is a bit vague, but I heard one person encapsulate it well, we were created to love, that is our purpose. Love a man or woman create children and love them for life so they could do the same and you have started your own pyramid scheme that never runs out
2006-07-13 20:51:37
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answer #3
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answered by jsbrads 4
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the earth is near the sun, about 3/4 of the way to the outside of the milky way galaxy, the universe is just a system of countless galaxies that are constantly moving away from eachother, eventually the will stop moving and start contracting and then bam! big bang all over again when they collide, all energy and matter in the universe is dispersed all over again
2006-07-13 20:55:25
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answer #4
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answered by Dorkchop 2
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We are the accidental product of an unthinking natural process taking place on a small rocky planet orbiting a medium sized star in the outer reaches of one of many billions of galaxies that make up the observable universe.
2006-07-13 21:04:04
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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Where is the Earth? In the universe. What is the universe? The container that holds Earth. What is our existence? Flesh and soul.
2006-07-13 20:55:25
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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such issues because the "collision route with Andromeda," black holes, and meteorites are in basic terms a difficulty if the organic international is all there is, yet no difficulty for the Christian who believes that God has promised to make new heavens and a sparkling earth (2 Peter 3:13). we are obviously advised in the Bible that this can be a cursed earth and undesirable issues are meant to ensue.
2016-10-14 11:05:00
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answer #7
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answered by tegtmeier 4
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, were the milky way Galaxy
best guess....universe is the goddesses body in this dimension.
so many dimension and or plains of existence.
whats are existence???why do we exist???
1. to provide food for other animals to eat..[eat or be eaten]
2. to realize that the living being in us [the life force] is god
3. to suffer miserably and die
4. to reproduce
5. to learn
6. to have a few minutes of fun
2006-07-17 19:11:49
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Earth is where we're standing and living on, where human, creature and plants are corlaborating together and create what we call Nature.
Universe is the whole set of many planets like earth , moon, march... and sun.
2006-07-13 20:52:22
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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dare to go within u,ur very heart is the real source to ans. ur querries,since that is the real depth which everybody tends to left unfathomed,hve the courage and discover urself now at this moment thru meditation,i am sure u will gain the right ans.
2006-07-13 20:57:01
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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