Always looking for a more compact/clear way to say things, here’s a current version of what I take to be the only logical possibilities (in no particular order!) for the origin of ‘all things’/’universe’/’multi-verse’/’everything’ (A.T.U.M.E.), with my comments in parentheses.
- A.T.U.M.E. has no origin, because A.T.U.M.E. is an illusion (Thanks to Descartes for his observation — cognito ergo sum — that our act of thinking demonstrates, beyond reasonable doubt, that at least we exist.).
- A.T.U.M.E. has no origin, because A.T.U.M.E. has always existed in some form (This claim is, of course, just as non-empirically verifiable as several others. First Cause argumentation, however, at least postulates a First, super–natural, Cause in relation to — in contrast with — every other, natural, cause.).
- A.T.U.M.E. is self orign-ating (There is significant over-lap between 2 and 3 – the main difference being that 3 postulates some kind of origin/beginning/deriving source.)
- A.T.U.M.E. is ‘other’ origin-ating (This seems to me to be the most logical/reasonable thing to believe, as it seems that explaining reality in terms of the very same reality is to not explain anything – whilst explaining the origin of reality in terms of an ‘other’ is to explain — quite literally — everything.)
2 replies on “origin”
If I may chime in again (sorry)
I reject the question. It is inexorably impossible to ask, and answer. Because our concepts – any of them, all of them – necessarily arrise from within the A.T.U.M.E. Including our notions of ‘origin’ and ‘beginning’.
Sorry, but it’s actually quite easy to ask – so easy that I suppose it’d be quite a task to find people who haven’t asked it in one way or another – and given answers which are at least provisional, logical, reasonable (which is probably as much as anyone could expect). :)
More than that, I could just as easily reject your rejection; and claim that your concept of rejection also arises from within A.T.U.M.E. :)
Note that in the O.P., I never claim some kind of perfect epistemic surety – only that the options were ‘logical’.