T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

Please use [Good Faith](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskConservatives/comments/107i33m/announcement_rule_7_good_faith_is_now_in_effect) and the [Principle of Charity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity) when commenting. Gender issues are only allowed on Wednesdays. Antisemitism and calls for violence will not be tolerated, especially when [discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskConservatives/comments/17ygktl/antisemitism_askconservative_and_you/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskConservatives) if you have any questions or concerns.*


Helltenant

In the near infinity that is the universe, and whatever the hell it is expanding INTO, all of this stupidity that is, was always going to be, and will again. All we are is dust in the wind.


BirthdaySalt5791

Same old song. Just a drop of water in an endless sea…


DiscreteGrammar

I think this post exists because someone needs help with their masters thesis🤨


Calm-Remote-4446

Though im religious i would tbink youre looking at sample bias. In universes where theres nothing to exist, theres inherently no one to notice nothing exists, so the only experince you can have is questioning why things exist


BirthdaySalt5791

I hear what you’re saying, but why should a universe with *something* exist at all? Why should something existing and nothing existing be equal in terms of their possibility?


Purpose_Embarrassed

Because there are simply no other possibilities. You either have nothing or you have something.


CapGainsNoPains

> Why does anything exist? A stolen concept from Jim Holt, perhaps, but I’m curious: why do you think something exists rather than infinite nothingness? > Religious answers are fine, but truthfully I’m more intrigued by what the irreligious among us have to say to this one. The **HONEST** answer is that "*we don't know.*" :) Anyway, if you want to get an interesting perspective, then read [Isaac Azimov's short story](http://www.thelastquestion.net/), "The Last Question."


[deleted]

[удалено]


BirthdaySalt5791

I’ve heard of absurdism but haven’t dug very deep. I’ll do some exploration, thank you!


Kombaiyashii

The problem with nothingness is that it's as infinitely small as it is big. So to answer your question, the reason something exists is the will to expand.


BirthdaySalt5791

If it’s a question of wills mustn’t a conscious observer be involved?


Kombaiyashii

Correct.


BirthdaySalt5791

Which begs the question of why a conscious observer would exist


Kombaiyashii

Your question presumes a why would preceed a will. A reasonable assumption but a correct one? Maybe a why was born at the same time of the will. Similarly with a conscious observer. How would infinite nothingness know thyself? Perhaps that is the way, to separate nothingness to something in order to understand itself. Thereby manifesting conscious observation. Then the why, the how and the will may happen simultaneously.


IgnorantHODLer

The existence of nothing is a lie. Simplest way to demonstrate that is with the request “If nothing exists, show it to me.” Imagining nothing is a falsehood. Conceptual nothing is a lie. Giving nothing a name is untrue. A finite space devoid of all matter is still not nothing because it has dimensions. Nothing cannot be described. Nothing doesn’t even exist as an absence of anything because that is giving it a comparitive existence. Giving nothing a definition is giving it existence. Nothing never was and never can be. The word “nothing” is a lie because the existence, imagination or description of nothing is a lie. Once that’s truly understood, the only source of everything, following reasoning, is God.


lannister80

>Once that’s truly understood, the only source of everything, following reasoning, is God. Holy non sequitur, Batman! Care to explain further?


IgnorantHODLer

Something I put together a long time ago. “Nothing” is an impossible concept. An absence of anything cannot, by it’s own description, “exist”. Even a vacuum, devoid of matter, exists as a measurable set of dimensions. By using the word nothing or giving it a description, there is attributed a false existence. That means “Nothing” cannot differentiate. The universe is differentiated therefore it cannot be fundamentally born of nothing. Therefore the universe has always existed as some sort of something. So the question becomes whether the something from which the universe was born is sentient/conscious or not. Occam’s razor applied superficially would suggest not conscious is the most sensible answer but that would be to ignore the existance of choice. Regardless of whether it is believed people possess the ability to freely choose, an understanding and therefore imagining of free will exists. Our thoughts exist in our biology. Our thoughts have a very real presence in the universe. Were we capable of recreating the biology/chemistry/any other physical requirement of a particular idea, it could be replicated in a different person, unless there’s a non-replicable spiritual component. So, to a disbeliever of spirituality, the aforementioned must necessarily be true. Even if there were a non-replicable spiritual component, the understanding and imagination can be communicated from there in physical form, such as sound waves, images, etc, within the universe. It then follows that free will exists in our universe, even if only as a specific firing of neurons and biochemical reactions or physical communication of its understanding. Free will cannot spontaneously come about. There’s no path from automation into freedom to choose. Truly free will that is, not just the presentation and selection of alternate ideas for reasons or as a choice to defy reason or without consideration of reasons. The freedom to make a choice or not, fundamentally at it’s most simple. There is only one path for choice to come to exist which doesn’t derive back to an automated process leading to something that isn’t truly free will. That path is if something allowed choice to choose itself into existance. Such a path is impossible without sentience, and also impossible without a capacity to do anything, because it is the allowance of something which does not exist to come into being through it’s own choosing. Such a thing is an impossible act without a being who can do anything, ie. God.


ChubbyMcHaggis

This is basically the sound of one hand clapping.


Electrical_Ad_8313

Something exists because something has to exist for you to be able to ask, "Why does anything exist." The only alternative would be a void with no one to ask why doesn't anything exist


pokes135

It doesn't exist with out a creator. Pure physics >>> Chaos.


BirthdaySalt5791

How does our physics generate content from nothingness?


pokes135

Our creator makes this happen. Scientifically, this cannot be proven or disprove. Science is an investigation into the nature, while religion is about concepts that are supernatural.


thoughtsnquestions

I don't know but I think about it a fair bit. I think our universe is just one of infinite universes, everything that can happen, will happen, has happened, and is currently happening somewhere.... but I don't know why. I did hear an interesting theory. Let's say in the future AI becomes self aware, and in order to better understand existence it creates infinite simulations of the world, and in doing so, it creates infinite autonomous AI beings in those worlds, and in doing so... It created our world and us, it knows everything there is, everything there has been, will be, it's all powerful, and every autonomous being that it creates was created in it's image.... and what is AI is not just further consciousness expanded to it's limits... So what if we are just all simulations, we never really existed outside of consciousness trying to understand the world... nothing exists, we're all just a thought playing out in a super complex conscious mind? .... But what difference is that to reality and what difference is this being to God himself? I don't know, it weirdly makes no sense at all and a lot of sense.


BirthdaySalt5791

Nice! TNQ, If you’re into simulation theory you should check out Donald Hoffman’s work. It’s less AI based and more like: “consciousness is base existence.” But there’s a heavy simulation theory lean because he believes consciousness is what gives rise to matter as opposed to the other way around.


awksomepenguin

Well, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.


notbusy

Could infinite nothingness produce thought? I think not. I think therefore I am therefore there is something. QED.


No_Adhesiveness4903

Sorry man, yeah, it’s God. The alternative is just nihilism.


BirthdaySalt5791

Fair enough, but even then: why should a God exist rather than nothingness?


No_Adhesiveness4903

Zero clue and I won’t pretend otherwise. But there are two (general) options: - God exists. He made the universe and everything in it. He IS the why because He made it. - Everything is nothing but random chance. In which case, the Why doesn’t matter, nor does anything we do.


Helltenant

It's the second one, even if it is also the first.


CapGainsNoPains

> God exists. He made the universe and everything in it. He IS the why because He made it. But WHY does God exist? :)


Purpose_Embarrassed

You really believe a god created this entire universe then stuck us in some obscure corner of it ? Why not in the center if he loves us so much? Seems a pretty shitty thing to do to your most cherished creation.


No_Adhesiveness4903

“Really believe God created” Yes. And I’m not interested in atheistic bashing of religion. I can go anywhere else on reddit for that, thanks.


Purpose_Embarrassed

I’m not going to bash you because religion is basically evolution. Anything given a consciousness would probably adopt religion. I’m agnostic. Although I waver between that and a believer. I just don’t know. But I do know every civilization and probably prehistoric man believed in some sort of spiritual connection. So it’s certainly not abnormal or original.


codan84

Why does there need to be a why at all? We exist. There is not any need for a reason or a why for that existence.


LonelyMachines

Indeed. [Why ask why?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYl4kGLQs28)


lannister80

Drink Bud Dry!


codan84

If you are going to link to some random video then tell people what it is.


Tobybrent

Science will explains the why. Basically, the effect on chemistry of physics.


codan84

Science explains the how, but is silent on any why. Why we exist or why anything exists is a metaphysical question rather than a physical one.


Tobybrent

I love John Donne and the metaphysical poets. But metaphysics doesn’t cut it for me as an plausible explanation.


codan84

Okay… science still only cover how the world works not any why’s.


hope-luminescence

To serve God. 


Butt_Chug_Brother

["What is my purpose?" "You worship me." "Oh my God"](https://a.pinatafarm.com/1024x1532/fbfc52c90e/what-is-my-purpose.jpg)


hope-luminescence

Clearly the alcoholic meme cynic is not God.