"In the beginning was the Will – the Will for there to be Something, rather than Nothing."
Science elegantly postulates the beginning of space and time as being the Big Bang. But what caused the Big Bang? A cyclical universe is one possible explanation offered by physicists and cosmologists, though a prime mover is still needed to jumpstart the process.
And here materialist science falls back on belief – the unfalsifiable belief that no belief in Belief is required to explain the existence of existence.
"It just is." "It just was." "It always was."
Is that the best that materialism can do? You may be satisfied with those answers, you might be comfortable living a meaningless existence in a random universe – but I'm not.
Have you considered the alternative – that the Universe was willed into existence – that will being an manifestation of consciousness?
If we're looking for first principles, I would posit the need for a purpose for there to be something rather than nothing. And here, consciousness is key. A grand awareness. The Big 'C' Consciousness that is the fundamental property of the universe, preceding space, time, matter and energy. And not a byproduct of biological evolution.
There are only two ways of looking at existence, both of them unfalsifiable. One way requires a higher purpose, a reason; the second way denies that reason.
An alternative way is not to consider existence at all, to ignore the big questions, and to plod on through life as a człowiek, który się nie zastanawia – the person who contemplates not. "Philosophising about these questions changes nothing," they will say. Oh, but it does. It brings purpose to your life, which in turn brings about existential joy.
So – here we are at the start of Lent, once again I am eschewing drink and meat, and writing daily blog posts of a spiritual nature, my contemplations on the meaning of life and the universe, and what it's all about. The Big Questions. Is there a God? Is there life after death? How should we live our lives?
As Lent begins, so I consider the Beginning. Two points of view, two narratives – the spiritual and the physicalist. [Reminder: physicalism posits that everything in the universe is composed of matter, of atoms, and the phenomenon we call 'consciousness' is merely the byproduct of biological evolution, notions of 'soul' or 'spirit' being merely stories we told each other in the days before science.]
The spiritual creation story requires a prime mover. There's one in every religion. Christianity has its creation story in the Old Testament (Genesis chapters 1-3), created by Jews, adopted by Christians. As stories go, it was as good an explanation as any up to about the 18th-19th centuries, when the Enlightenment and the scientific method – geology, biology, cosmology – began shedding new light on the beginnings of life on Earth. Physicalism's creation story is the Big Bang – just don't ask what came before. Stephen Hawking's answer is "it's as irrelevant as asking 'what's north of the North Pole'?". An unsatisfactory answer. Cosmologists may postulate a cyclical cosmos of an infinite number of Big Bangs (each preceded by a Big Crunch or else a heat-death of the previous universe). But that still doesn't answer the question "why is there Something rather than Nothing".
Here we need to dive into three philosophical concepts: Ontology – the study of the nature of existence and of reality; what is? Then we have epistemology – the study of knowledge; how do we know what we know? And finally teleology – the study of purpose or goals; the idea that things have a final aim or destination; what is it all for?
I need an ontology that is based on an epistemology based on both scientific and spiritual ways of looking at reality and truth, and this calls for a narrative arc that sweeps upward from Zero to One, an end-point of final unification, of our individual small-'c' consciousnesses merging into the Large 'C' Consciousness, the Will, the Purpose, the Awareness of All.
How all of this affects the way we live our lives, how this gives joy and peace of mind – more over the next 45 days!
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