The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #110662 Message #2868823
Posted By: Bill D
21-Mar-10 - 05:14 PM
Thread Name: BS: Theology question
Subject: RE: BS: Theology question
Martin Heidegger points out asserts that the only genuine philosophical question is "why there is something rather than nothing.
The subject of 'nothing' has been struggled with from many directions, and we speak of 'creation' as if we can conceive of what it would be like BEFORE 'creation'. We can define it..."sure, it's the absence of everything" .. and other various formulations, but everything we do, see, and use 'exists', and there is real doubt that it even makes sense to suppose that we can imagine 'nothingness'.
What astronomers and physicists do is try to understand as much as possible about 'what IS', and some of them think they have both data & theory to suppose that 'it' all started 14 billion 'years' ago with a 'big bang'. What went 'bang', and where THAT came from is pure speculation, and theological answers are just a way to avoid dealing with Heidegger's basic question and to satisfy those who just emotionally/psychologically NEED an answer. "God made it" is a nice answer, but *shrug*, this just removers the question one more level back..."why was there a 'god'?" ... It is a real nuisance in many ways to be so 'advanced' that we can ask such questions. ☺
For whatever reason, I can enjoy those images Hubble has brought us and be awed without needing an 'ultimate answer'.....and obviously, from my perspective, attempts to provide ultimate answers or speculate about types & realms of 'existence' beyond what we deal with every day must be viewed with suspicion.
(I have mentioned many times that I hold to the view that 'having a name for something' does NOT automatically confer on that concept....except AS a linguistic concept.)
What this means to me is....that *IF* any of the various theological/metaphysical assertions ARE, in fact, true, ... it is in spite of our thinking and reasoning on the matter...not because of our knowledge. There are just too many theological versions of the supposed 'truth', and when analyzed carefully, they cannot all be true. Generalized abstractions about 'true for me' simply miss the point.... no law against harboring them, but they are useful only in groups where others also use those locutions and agree among themselves that they LIKE the same ideas. When subjected to analysis, they are like metaphysical cotton candy...(which, obviously, can be very tasty at times.)
So.... I am awed by many things that are "beyond us", but I sorta think it's interesting NOT being able to answer all the questions....what would we DO if we figgered it all out?