Subj : The universe            4
To   : TODD HENSON
From : DAVE OLDRIDGE
Date : Tue Jan 09 2001 03:23 am

TH> > But the concept of cause has no meaning unless it occurs in the
TH> > world of appearance, i.e.  in the universe.  Therefore no
TH> > empirical meaning can be attached to the question "What caused the
TH> > universe to exist?" There is no logically possible way to answer
TH> > such a question.


TH> Yes, it IS logical, because if the universe was created, then something had
TH> to create it.

You miss the point.  If the universe IS created, then something 
(someone?) IS creating it.

TH> > Therefore, the universe did not have a cause.  It had a beginning
TH> > which occurred some 15-20 billion years ago; and that beginning
TH> > was the Big Bang.


TH> And what caused the Big Bang?


TH> > But it had no cause.  It began, simpliciter.

TH> Nonsense.

Not nonsense, just difficult for your mind to grasp because the very
thought processes you are trying to wrap around it are enmeshed in the
entropy that is characteristic of time.  People characteristically have 
the same problems with most non-Euclidean geometries.

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