Instead, the explanation for the universe must be both “non-physical and immaterial” as the video below states. The First Existent exnihilated energy/matter (this eventually led to us now) and annihilated itself. What does consciousness have to do with our understanding of the universe? 2. In first grade, we were taught the faith from The Penny Catechism. The universe does exist, but to affirm such is a generalization. Your email address will not be published. 13 No. This prior knowledge may be due to revelation or to going through the line of philosophical reasoning previously, perhaps implicitly. Either the First Existent has continued to exist (and exists now), or there has been a contiguous succession of Existents (and the First Existent maybe no longer exists). The first line of the common declaration of the Catholic Faith is: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and of earth.” The initiating question is, “What explains the existence of this material entity?” Of course, the answer cannot be, “Another material entity which does not explain its own existence.”. "[1] This question does seem to possess a profound existential force, which has been felt by some of mankind's greatest thinkers. That’s the big question we’re asking in this week’s show. We experience the existence of this dog. Thank you! The below video created by Reasonable Faith, the apologetics ministry of William Lane Craig, explains this important apologetic argument for God’s existence in just over 5 minutes. So, then, why is there something rather than nothing? The form of existence is “contingent”, the energy/matter is “necessary”. Why there is Something Rather than Nothing, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bob Drury is retired. My purpose is to make it simple and clear. In the human mind, it is a mental concept. Sorry if that isn’t satisfactory. Instead, it uses the very existence of the universe as a means to show that there must be an un-caused cause of all things. The First Existent had the capability to exnihilate [ to exnihilate – to cause to come into being, from nothing. ] Or imagine how incredulous you would be if you were being told that Mount Rushmore was simply discovered rather than intentionally carved! It suffices that the result is invarian… It has real existence. “The first question that should rightly be asked is, ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?'”. The First Existent can be energy/matter that has always existed. The Yogi Berra-ism holds true: “You can’t get there from here!”, where “there” is the existence of a being whose nature is identical to its existence and “here” is the positing of the existence of a doubly abstract, doubly generic “some thing.” To be at a “here” starting at which one can rationally get to “there,” one must reverse the two eccentric abstractions from existence to get back to the actual human experience of existence, which is the experience of the existence of a particular material entity, a this dog. cit., para. Derek Parfit, a contemporary philosopher, declares that "No question is more sublime than why there is a Universe: why there is anything rather than nothing." The word “God” is undefined. The first question was, “Who made you?”, the answer to which was, “God made me.” From childhood and throughout adult life, we have identified God as creator and almighty, and thereby a unique being. 8 Ontology Studies 9, 2009 Adolf Grünbaum 1. Certainly everyone would agree that the universe exists, so at least we are safe with point number 3. And if the universe has a cause, it follows that the cause cannot be a part of the universe. Leibniz, is "Why is there something rather than nothing? is the act of existing alone.” It is an addendum to state: This being we call God. (St. Thomas Aquinas, On Being and Essence, tr. To that, many apologists would reply that for the universe to be that which exists necessarily it would have to be eternal. In a word: God. The universe as such is neither an entity nor an object within the scope of human experience. It is eccentric. Practically speaking, we usually already understand the concept of God and affirm His existence prior to a formal and explicit delineation of the philosophical rationale and its conclusion. That doesn ’ t have something come from nothing. the explanation of its.! My premise 2: the existence of things within the scope of our of... 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