- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Since we're posting our thoughts on the universe, here's one I wrote a while ago:
What can be real? Is there another basis for reality? Is this, observable world, the only one there is? Can we find out what’s real.
Perhaps. We can find out what’s real by consistencies in this world. Things here are physical, and they interact with other physical things.
- But no.
This world doesn’t need to be “physical.” When we touch something we are not touching the universe, rather we are the universe touching itself. Our only means to observe the universe is the universe itself – a piece of an entity observing the larger parts of its whole, judging if they are “real” or not. This physical is only physical according to the physical world.
The abstraction is observed real by the abstraction itself.
Analogy: Math. 1+1=2
Does 1 exist? Can one be touched, tasted, seen, or heard? No. One is a concept, a system of measurement – an abstraction. It exists in the mind.
Yet, despite this thing being nothing but a concept, it doesn’t make it any less real than the universe itself. This thing, not actually existing in reality, has rules applied to it. This thing, added to its identical counterpart abstraction, makes a third abstraction – a “2.”
Just because it’s abstract doesn’t mean it cannot possess laws. Where do these laws come from? They come from beings, bound in a “real” world. How do they know this world is real, how do they think that it is the basis of reality?
They think it is the basis of reality because it possesses laws – it is predictable; consistent.
Isn’t math, also, predictable and consistent?
Yes.
Then isn’t math also a reality? Is it any less real?
Perhaps.
Now to apply the analogy back to the universe: What would make this universe real, if it could just be concepts created by the mind of God?
Answer: If it wasn’t created by God.