Question for those with faith and atheists. Existence. No Preaching Please!

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   Peter Leeperposted 11 years ago

   Question for those with faith and atheists.  Existence.  No Preaching Please!
   
   Whether you  beleive in a God or you do not, both arguments would have to explain how something could come to exist from nothing.  For religious people, how did God come to exist?  For Aetheists or big bang theorists, how did the super condensed molecule come to exists to preclude the big bang?  These questions seem unanswerable to me...not unlike what came first, the chicken or the egg?

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   MickSposted 11 years ago

   In these matters, mankind is tied by duality, we have tto be able to conceive of something has always been there will be never be a time when it's  not there.  It's rather like a Zen Koan, a flah of inspiration is needed to unravel it, an escape from that dualistic nature of beginings and endings, a realisation instead of what is.

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      Peter Leeperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed.  I often feel that the only reason religion exist is because humans can't conceive of not existing.

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      krillcoposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well said, Grasshopper.

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      Charluposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It's like a security blanket having to believe in something. Great answer!

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   Georgie Loweryposted 11 years ago

   As an atheist, I am okay with the fact that science cannot yet completely explain how or why we are here. After all, how long was it before the Earth was proved round instead of flat?

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      MilesArmbrusterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Ironically, the proof that the world was round was commonly accepted centuries before the almost non-existent belief that the world was flat. Sailors always knew it was round, you can see it.

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   SirDentposted 11 years ago

   This is an unanswerable question.  It is like asking a baby where his father comes from.  How can they know unless it is told them.

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      Peter Leeperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree but both religion and science claim they have an answer.  I generally side with science because it is at least based on something tangible rather than the "just  because" argument.

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      SirDentposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't recall religion ever having an answer as to where God came from.  The Bible says God is from everlasting to everlasting.

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   Michele Travisposted 11 years ago

   This one is about the Big Bang      I was taught a long time ago ( I am 47) that the universe was created by the big bang.  Now, before the big bang, time did not exist. Before time existed, nothing was moving. If time did not exist, and nothing was moving then how could enough pressure build up to cause the big bang to explode?  If the big band did not explode how could the universe have been created?  I asked that question to the teachers who taught me about the big bang.  The answer was  "Well, we have not found that answer yet, it takes time to learn more about the universe"     So, I believe God created the universe.
   
   As for God,I am not trying to preach only to be honest, my brain is too small to  answer to that question.  I have been taught God has always existed, I believe it, but do not understand it.  I am not trying to preach, only to be honest.

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      Michele Travisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I am not trying preach only to be honest.

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      Peter Leeperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      thanks for your answer.  I don't think you were preaching but have a common dilemma by which you find your answer through faith.  Nothing wrong with that!

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   krillcoposted 11 years ago

   I kinda like the silly sci-fi answer, which is really just kicking the can down the road: our universe is just molecules in a much bigger space...so our universe is contained in some alien kid's booger.
   
   But seriously, as a believer, God has always been and always will be. That is hard for me to conceptualize, though in the depths of contemplative prayer, I can almost reach it. Why almost? Because I am human, and not God.

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   KutterHighwayposted 11 years ago

   The precursor to the "Big Bang", has yet to be discovered. We know only what happened 1/trillionth of a second afterward. This is called Planck time. Trillionths of a second. After Max Planck. With the Large Hadron Collider (Hadrons are types of particles), CERN, and time humanity will crack the mystery. When they do, we will have an evidence backed explanation for "What happened before the big bang" question. Current models suggest there was simply nothing, except a condensed high energy particle approx. the size of a Planck distance. A trillionth of a trillionth of a cm. Crazy tiny. Basically nothingness. No space. No time. Time and space are the same. We return to this state in a trillion or two years, when black holes have eaten every particle in the universe. We come from "nothing", we will return to "nothing". Kinda beautiful and natural.

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      Sheepsquatchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I really don't think science will be able to come up with an answer to this question that will be accepted. It can't be repeated without killing us all. It will come down to a matter of faith for most in my opinion... but what if it was repeatable?

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   feenixposted 11 years ago

   God exists because I say He exists and I have no doubt He exists. It is as simple as that.
   
   I have the faith of a child, brothers and sisters.

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   SidKempposted 11 years ago

   Your question, I think, contains a flaw. it assumes the existence of linear time. It assumes that there is a before, and an after. Yet, on a scientific level, time did not come into existence until after the Big Bang. And, on a religious level, the Eternal has nothing to do with time.
   
   The Buddha's response to questions such as this is that it is actually harmful to waste time asking and answering them. Let us accept that today's reality is here, as it is. And let us work to understand the nature and origins of suffering, and the fact that we can bring suffering to an end. Then, let's get to work in joy and peace, and end suffering!
   
   No philosophical or religious position is provable. Whatever position we choose, if we hold it in a way that helps us eliminate suffering, it is effective. And that which is harmless and effective in ending suffering is a different kind of truth, not about facts or logic.

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      Sheepsquatchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      There are many philosophical questions that are not answerable with the knowledge or abilities we have that people let stop them from living. People can't understand the why or how of something and lose faith/motivation.

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      SidKempposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I hear you, Sheepsquatch. And the Buddha saw it differently. In his view, people asking philosophical questions are asking the wrong ones. Useful questions are those that bring an end to human suffering. On those, lets live, learn, & take action.

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    Charluposted 11 years ago

    It is inconceivable to me that one cannot or does not believe in a power greater than themselves. If that were the case, what would be the need to better ourselves, to have morals or want to do the right thing.
    
    Believing in miracles and watching them happen gives us hope, when all seems lost and hopeless.  When you see someone lift a car off of a spouse for fear of their demise, or physical traumas that have been verified again and again vanish as if they were never there, I have to believe that goes far beyond the scientific theories presented.
    
    Finally, I think that all of us at one time or another have felt a spiritual presence which leaves only one possibility and that is, it exists. That being said it shouldn't matter to others whatever realm we choose to believe and classify it in or in reality how it all began. Truth be told I think those that do know have already left us knowing not only the answer to your question, but peace everlasting.

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       Peter Leeperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       answer to first paragraph... survival...do we do what is right for others of for self preservation?

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       Charluposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I don't think it's survival because then we could all just pretend to be nice and not worry about the end result. Is there a spirit world? Really, and what if none of us had the right answer? Nothing is verifiable, then we would all agree. Scary

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    eternals3ptemberposted 11 years ago

    I look at it like this:
    
    1) The Universe sprang into existence
    
    2) A conscious being sprang into existence and from it the Universe sprang into existence.
    
    I go with number one,
    
    Also:
    
    1) If you believe in God: He created the chicken, so chicken first.
    
    2) If you believe in evolution: Very chicken-like birds mated and one laid an egg containing an organism that was the first chicken, as we would consider it, and that creature may have laid eggs... So, again, chicken.

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    wordoftheworldposted 11 years ago

    Life can come from non-life, and then can self-generate and self-replicate?

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    peeplesposted 11 years ago

    Why spend time worrying about how we got here? Who really cares when it comes down to it? Isn't life about being happy and focusing on making a great future? I am not a scientist and will not pretend to be. I am simply a person who lives life to the fullest without worrying about something that NO ONE will ever have a proven answer to.

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       Peter Leeperposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       I agree but unfortunately people and cultures fight to the death over it and politics and religion fight to teach non-scientific things in science class over it as well....the argument affects us all like it or not i guess.

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    phillippeengelposted 11 years ago

    Our knowledge has boundaries. We cannot step outside of our remit...there are things that are unfathomable. No matter how hard we studied and delved into the subject, the answer we humans have been searching for will always be obscure and vague.
    
    The beginning and the end are inexplicable. These two limits cannot be analyzed nor predicted. We can only know the present, and the present is the main driving force of our lives. The beginning and the end of the world will not be experienced by you.

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