Between Randomness and Cause - Lent 2022: Day 19

For John Presland

Why is there a Universe? - could it have just emerged, could it have just happened, without reason or prime cause? Randomly?

Science doesn't currently have one generally accepted theory as to what happened before the Big Bang, let alone how the Big Bang came about. This remains in the territory of belief, albeit beliefs based on a deep understanding of mathematics and physics. The first milliseconds of the Big Bang, held to have happened 13.8 billion years ago, remain the subject of conjecture. The notion of 'inflation', for example, remains controversial. 

Between 10⁻³⁶ and 10⁻³² seconds after the singularity, the inflation theory posits that the Universe expanded from the width of a molecule to 10.6 light years across. (Can one even get one's head around a trillion-trillion-trillionth of a second?) What happened afterwards is generally accepted - the Universe, space and time and matter - emerged from a point of infinite gravity, 13.8 billion years ago. Following the inflationary epoch, the universe continued to expand, but at a slower rate, only to speed up again some 4 billion years ago. 

Competing theories posit that the Big Bang was one of many; whether it was preceded by a Big Crunch (now seen as less likely) or whether it was preceded by the heat-death of a previous Universe, or whether it just came out of nowhere, or that one way or another, universes keep popping into existence all the while. Science might ask the question 'how', but it is philosophy to ask the question 'why'.

Does there need to be a reason why something suddenly appeared out of nothing? Without cause? Has the Universe come into being so that consciousness can be aware of it? Could the Universe even exist were it not for consciousness to be aware of it? This, for me at least, is the most convincing intellectual argument for the non-random nature of the Universe - consciousness is embedded in its fabric for a reason. 

With science in its current state, all we can say is that we don't know for sure - we don't know, but we can intuit. Reach deep down into your consciousness, and ask yourself the question - why does the Cosmos exist? Why do you exist? Do you feel it's all random? I don't.

If you do - then maybe we are co-existing in this particular space and time, but in overlapping universes, one which has cause, and one which did indeed occur randomly.

Proponents of the existence of the universe as a random phenomenon often consider it to be deterministic in nature; more on the determinism vs free-will debate tomorrow.

"Please - accept the mystery."

This time last year:
Meditations upon Meditation

This time two years ago:
Refutation II

This time three years ago:
Young Betjeman by Bevis Hillier

This time five years ago:
The mature mind's power over the instincts

This time ten years ago:
Welcome to spring

This time 11 years ago:
Giving way or standing firm?

This time 12 years ago:
Summerhouses near Okęcie

This time 13 years ago:
A truly British icon

This time 14 years ago:
The meaning of Equinox