Against nothingness

Next time someone asks you "oh yeah, well why something rather than nothing!?"


1- something exists (we know this for certain, based on experience, and the fact that in order to make a statement like "something exists" then logically something must exist to make that statement).

2- because something exists it is not the case that nothing exists.

3- principle of sufficient reason (PSR).

4- because of PSR it is not the case that something can come from nothing.

5- by combining (1) and (4) we get that it is not the case that nothing has ever been the case

6- ergo, something has always been the case

I go through that fairly regularly with my Buddhist friends.

The conclusion is obvious (to me) that things exist. I generally use my chair as an example. If it didn't exist my butt would right now be on the floor.

The sad thing is, the Buddhists, and others, have a misunderstanding of their own teachings. The Buddha never said things don't exist. He said things don't exist permanently (all things pass) and things do not exist (functionally) independent of other things.

A similar discussion is that of "emptiness". I always argue on the side of "fullness".

This is interesting. Is something always better than nothing? For those of us who don't believe in heaven and hell, there is nothing waiting for us.

It is the fear of nothingness that drives people to believe in false God(s). Why is nothingness so difficult to accept?

Drops_Of_Jupiter wrote:

This is interesting. Is something always better than nothing? For those of us who don't believe in heaven and hell, there is nothing waiting for us.

It is the fear of nothingness that drives people to believe in false God(s). Why is nothingness so difficult to accept?

For me, it depends on what "nothingness" we are talking about. The physical (manifest) universe exists. The Ten Thousand Things (all things in the universe) exist until they no longer exist. And true, at some point in time they did not exist.

Same with the human body. At one point it did not yet exist, it was born (creation), lived for a while and then died (destruction). It is a cycle that is ongoing since the manifestation of the first "thing" (I call it the Big Bang).

It's really a very simple process. We see it all the time with plants in our gardens.

And as the Buddhists say: First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

Or modifying the process, first there was no mountain, then there was a mountain, then there was no mountain.