The Three Hard Questions

Something from Nothing? 

t is difficult to think of something, anything, coming from Nothing. Actually, it is impossible to conceive of Nothing. The mind keeps bouncing around to "void" or "space" or "vacuum". But in reality, each of those is a definable something. About the only way to describe Nothing is by stating what it is not. Nothing is the lack of anything, the absence of everything. However, saying that does not bring a vision to mind, only more questions. And "empty" does not work because something has to be "empty" to be so. "Nothingness" as a concept of an entity composed of Nothing is redundant and merely a softening that adds nothing to the definition. The question then becomes, is there a Nothing? Or can we even ask that question because to do infers that Nothing is a something? Nothing does not provably exist.

Scientists have devoted endless hours to determining how the seeable universe began yet is stymied as to what came before or what is beyond, even if there is a beyond. Was there always something? Ah, enter the God or gods, or supreme being, or intelligent designer, or cosmic consciousness, or a set of laws of nature, or laws of physics, or whatever. So now, in the beginning, whatever the case, we have a chief or chiefs of nothing which is something. The logical conclusion is simply that there has to be and has to have been something that always was. Could that something has been a Mother Universe, infinite and eternal consisting of the properties necessary to create Children Universes?

What is Time?

We don't have a clue. It just is. We see its results all around us in the form of entropy. The farther down the arrow of time we go, the greater the disorder. Scientists theorize that time began with the Big Bang. Since time comprises the past, present, and future, there could not have been a "before the Big Bang" simply because there was no time and "before" is in the past. If there is a "before" and time did not begin with the Big Bang then it follows that the time before the Big Bang was static and a basic element of the Mother Universe. Could the eternal, infinite Mother Universe contain all time from which our puny universe was granted a tine forward-moving slice? Within the "before" there is no arrow of time. Just Time with a capital T. That arrow in our universe came about with the Big Bang. None of this is of any help in discerning what is time. But that should be of little concern. When anything in the known universe is broken down into its most basic form, say the quark, we can go no further. And we can't define it. We can say what it is part of but not what it is. 

I Know I Exist

 How do I know that I exist? The proof of my existence is my consciousness, my awareness of self, and other forms of life and stuff. I know, circular. And awareness is not proof. So, how am I aware? How am I conscious. Could it be that I am imagining it all? Like a very long dream? We know that everybody and everything is made up of atoms, yet through our lenses, the atoms are formed into beings and objects. The atoms are no longer visible. We have constructed the world around us. Have we also constructed our existence? 

The concept that consciousness is a basic ingredient of the universe, intrinsic, part of the universe's design coming out of the Mother Universe, and that it would exist even without there being beings I find ridiculously hubristic. As far as we know, we humans are alone in the universe and possess the highest level of sentience possible. Given how insignificant we are relative to our universe much less to the Mother Universe, I doubt that consciousness would have been another of the basic elements preexisting the Big Bang. And we know that life on Earth did not begin with the Big Bang and that consciousness only seems to have value to life so I conclude that consciousness is evolutionary. The why of consciousness remains in question as I do not certain what value consciousness provides to the living.

A great discussion regarding the types of consciousness we humans possess is in an article, 'If a Robot Is Conscious, Is It Alright to Turn It Off?' at If a Robot Is Conscious, Is It OK to Turn It Off? | RealClearScience