| "Oh no, the humans are trying to comprehend the multiverse again!" |
Atheist-materialist Richard Carrier on how our "quasi-infinite multiverse" necessarily follows from a kind of primordial nothing-state, why spacetime is the only "necessary being" (rather than God) and why all cosmological arguments for God´s existence therefore fails.
His perspective is strangely compatible with certain forms of esoteric Eastern religions, in which everything just spontaneously arises from the Void, while our theologians probably aren´t amused. Neither am I.
Not the multiverse I ordered, dude!
OK but a primordial field-state is still a "something." But yes, I like the thought exercise necessary to follow his thread.
ReplyDelete"In this case, when we think of “nothing” existing, semantically we are not saying nothing “whatsoever” exists, but rather, that what exists is a total field-state for all of existence all of whose values are at zero." This is a fantastic idea, I thank you for the link...
DeleteYes, and in that case the "nothing" is really a kind of creation-field, but what guarantees does Carrier have that this creation will be purely "material" or "naturalistic"? After all, the creation-field can apparently give rise to matter which in its turn generates consciousness, so what if it can also generate, say, pure consciousness floating around somewhere in hyper-space? I always get the impression that Carrier´s materialism at some point becomes crypto-pantheism, even without him realizing it. He´s a former Taoist, so who knows?
ReplyDeleteHere´s another thought: if the values are at zero, doesn´t that mean that the values somehow exist? At least as a potential? But if so...fill in the blank! So do Meaning, Love and Consciousness exist as potentials in the primordial field-state? Hmmm...sounds more and more like some kind of god...
ReplyDeleteIt´s almost as if materialism is incoherent and every attempt to make it so ends in pantheism!
So the manifest universe(s) and all its extensions, including life-forms, could exist solely in the consciousness of one immeasurable *being*. Yes values at nothing still exist in potentiality, but again wherein does all this take place? Consciousness would have no limit but rather just *is*.
DeletePS: I realized you're always 7 hours ahead of me Haa Haa!
DeleteAn idea could be a manifest *object* in one's own consciousness. I have a thought, I see it, and may or may not react or attempt to express its potentiality. But the question one never asks is "Who is seeing it?" So what we're really after is "Who is seeing the totality of potential and manifested realities?" And then if we ask, we seek to somehow attach ourselves to that, as in religare, to be bonded. Along with that comes (in some views) moral obligation.
DeleteExactly. But to me, there must be something more "above" this, since the World Soul or whatever we should call it also "sees" a lot of negativity and suffering. That something more (Cosmic Love?) is something to bond with...
ReplyDeleteYes, who can know *God* and not have love toward brother and sister.
ReplyDeleteI wish to remember Love.
We have migrants bussed here from Texas, occasionally standing near the grocery chain store, begging for food. My gal and I took a man and his 8yr old son into the store and told them to buy whatever they needed, no strings attached. We barely speak any Spanish. I think he bought food for a week.
In Catholic tradition the Sacred Heart of Jesus may attempt to personify "something more."