Do we have to understand 'nothing' before we understand life??

There is somethin about nthing that humans cant seem to get their heads round. People belive in an afterlife or reincarnation because they just cant imagine there being 'nothing'. Similaly with the creation of the universe, before the universe came about, there was apprently nothing. But how can there be 'nothing'? What is nothing, like truely nothing. Nothing as we know it at the moment, is a space with nothing in it, an empty room for xample or an empty piece of land, but technically that isnt 'nothing' an empty room is still a room. Even if you were in the depths of space lightyears away from anything, that still wouldnt be nothing, you are still 'in' space.

Once we can understand, or even re create nothing and exactly what it is I think we can realy start piecing together just what the (snip) happened back then. IMO its not the big bang itself thats the most intriguing, its whatever was going on before and the best picture we could get of that would be to see whats byond this universe, which we know is virtually impossible.



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As for "nothingness" ... Nothing is EVERYTHING and still nothing. That's metaphysics and not science though.

As for Science's nothingness; if I have a platter full of "nothing" and I serve all the guests a big helping of "nothing" ... did they have "anything" or even "something" on their plates?

Well, they had the metaphysical somethings; but, science/mathematic principals tell us they had "nothing".

So, what is CERN searching for in the LHC? Not exactly "nothing" ... but, 2 of those not exactly "nothing"s colliding together might make a nothing. So, something plus something can be "nothing" as well.

I'll take off my sillyness cap now and go do "something".

I think it boils down to how abstract the word is, the same with infinity. It helps in the surface to describe certain situations but we forget that we don't know everything and we start using it to try and understand the universe when your are already making a mistake by believing that it is a valid observation. In the end nothing is just a word meaning its just a symbol it has no effect on whatever you decide to place it on. Although it has merit since it can be describe something that is void of particular elements but again since we don't know everything we have to be careful how we use it.

CERN are actually colliding things together though, you cant collide nothing together, and a plate of nothing would still be a plate. The 'nothing' as we know it on earth is not true 'nothing' because there will always be something there.

No, a platter or plate of nothing is a platter or plate of "NO-Thing". You forgot the "of" in the sentence. The platter and plates are there, they are empty.

I didn't say CERN was colliding nothing, I said they are colliding

Not exactly "nothing"

which is SOMETHING.

But, if their hypothesis holds up; then, 2 of those

Not exactly "nothing"

will make a NOTHING.

Originally posted by CesarO
I think it boils down to how abstract the word is, the same with infinity. It helps in the surface to describe certain situations but we forget that we don't know everything and we start using it to try and understand the universe when your are already making a mistake by believing that it is a valid observation. In the end nothing is just a word meaning its just a symbol it has no effect on whatever you decide to place it on. Although it has merit since it can be describe something that is void of particular elements but again since we don't know everything we have to be careful how we use it.

Thats what I mean when I say we have to understand that 'version' of nothing, im not concentrating on the actual word but more on the concept of true nothing. As you say its just a symbol to represent something, but at this moment in time its the only symbol we have.

If you delve deep enough into quantum mechanics, you know the dreams stuff is made of, nothing is basically everything. The "nothing" before the big bang is what "everything" is made of. If we could get a glimpse of "nothing" we would understand everything. Nothing has enough power to rip the universe to shreds, but it doesn't, and we don't understand why. By some scientists calculations the whole universe should just just suffer sudden cataclysmic existence failure yet it doesn't because "nothing" keeps it from happening. "Nothing" is an extremely deep, and interesting subject.

The idea of something vs. nothing is a fairly Aristotelean way of looking at it, and it can be determined with a little thought that in fact it's probably a bit of both.

The Big Bang theory merely implies nothing may have been present before the big bang, it doesn't assert with conviction. Stephen Hawking said, perhaps rightly, that whatever happened before the big bang is unexplainable and thus irrelevant to physics (very bad paraphrasing). This leaves a lot of room to wonder and derive theories from our own imagination.

That being said, it's my interpretation that nothing is impossible. There always seems to be something.

"You say there is the void; therefore the void is not nothing; therefore it is not the void."
– Parmenides

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Fragmented thinker here, thinking out loud

Nothing last forever, but somethings must come to an end.

Nothing has always been. Everything that is something will end and become nothing.

In the beginning the world was void, formless, empty, nothing
God created light (something) and separated the light (something) from the darkness (nothing).

The light that God created was His solution to nothing. Jesus says he is the way and the light, the eternal something.

Sorry this doesn't make sense. I just had to put something out there.

Originally posted by Observationalist
reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

 

Sorry this doesn't make sense. I just had to put something out there.

Better than nothing I suppose.

I don't think we can understand life because it's infinite and our current awareness is finite. However we can still have an growing understanding of it while enjoying the benefits of our progression.

Also having worked with math for many years I understand nothing as 0. It's something and it's nothing at the same time. As a quantity it's something (a point), as a measurement it's nothing (a line of length 0). Like infinity it's immeasurable and timeless. It wasn't created, it's always present. We have this presence within us. Some call it a soul.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


I think nothing is very easy to understand. If you have ever been under general anesthetic you will know what i mean. For the most people they get the injection and its like you just blinked your eye and then you are waking up. Theres nothing inbetween.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


I believe nothing can exist in the mind, and with this comes understanding of the nothing that existed before we created this universe.

Originally posted by Idonthaveabeard
There is somethin about nthing that humans cant seem to get their heads round. People belive in an afterlife or reincarnation because they just cant imagine there being 'nothing'. Similaly with the creation of the universe, before the universe came about, there was apprently nothing. But how can there be 'nothing'? What is nothing, like truely nothing. Nothing as we know it at the moment, is a space with nothing in it, an empty room for xample or an empty piece of land, but technically that isnt 'nothing' an empty room is still a room. Even if you were in the depths of space lightyears away from anything, that still wouldnt be nothing, you are still 'in' space.

Once we can understand, or even re create nothing and exactly what it is I think we can realy start piecing together just what the (snip) happened back then. IMO its not the big bang itself thats the most intriguing, its whatever was going on before and the best picture we could get of that would be to see whats byond this universe, which we know is virtually impossible.

 

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edit on 6-7-2012 by Ahabstar because: (no reason given)

Maybe the big bang never began and never quit.

What does this thread have to do with understanding life?

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Give me an example of nothing and I will believe in it, there isn't a place anywhere where nothing exists. There isn't a single place on earth where " Nothing " can truly be found, there isn't any other planet where " Nothing " can be found, because the planet itself is something, and it is composed of things, and so on. Space is composed of more material than anyone human can begin to imagine, or understand. Space is not an empty vastness as many believe, there is oxygen, as well as other gasses, dust, minerals, atoms, and immense amounts of energy. Just because you can not see something does not mean nothing is there. For instance, look at the space above and below my writing. In my post, what do you see? It's certainly not nothing, this very post is composed of letters, words and sentences, the area around it contains light projected towards your eyes, and just because it appears as an empty space does not mean it is empty. Nothing, is a false ideology, and the sooner people get over the idea there is such a thing we will all grow to a new level of understanding. God, no god, Big bang or not, there is no such thing as nothing.

Our ability to grasp and hold the consciousness of "nothing" and remain a kinetic consciousness is the offering to the Omniscience the one stone too heavy It cannot lift. Surrender this on your alter of offering.

Originally posted by Ilyich
reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

 

Give me an example of nothing and I will believe in it, there isn't a place anywhere where nothing exists. There isn't a single place on earth where " Nothing " can truly be found, there isn't any other planet where " Nothing " can be found, because the planet itself is something, and it is composed of things, and so on. Space is composed of more material than anyone human can begin to imagine, or understand. Space is not an empty vastness as many believe, there is oxygen, as well as other gasses, dust, minerals, atoms, and immense amounts of energy. Just because you can not see something does not mean nothing is there. For instance, look at the space above and below my writing. In my post, what do you see? It's certainly not nothing, this very post is composed of letters, words and sentences, the area around it contains light projected towards your eyes, and just because it appears as an empty space does not mean it is empty. Nothing, is a false ideology, and the sooner people get over the idea there is such a thing we will all grow to a new level of understanding. God, no god, Big bang or not, there is no such thing as nothing.

You mean absolute non-existence. It is self-annihilating the instant any consciousness directs itself toward it. Which makes "it" a type of existence, therefore not a pure non-existence, since it exists. This is the problem Omniscience faced when It required upon Itself to be Omnipresent. To be true to that Self definition, It must exist even inside of absolute non-existence. So a non-existence that could be entered into by proxies was put together. That is space and time filled with finites that are Its proxies to accomplish this feat. Us. The tools.