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THE CONCEPT OF NOTHING. I really do not get this myself. I simply cannot imagine "nothing." Let's suppose you open a door to a bare room and you think you see nothing. The room is bare and not furnished but you still see something. How can there be nothing? Can your mind grasp or picture just how "nothing" would look? I don't think so.

Scientists claim our universe came out of "nothing" but they admit there is a lot of "something" in dark matter that we just do not see. That is why it is called dark matter. We keep trying to see it but nothing is working out so far. Believers claim that it is god coming forth out of nothing and creating everything from nothing. They totally miss the point.

Can you imagine "nothing" and how do you explain "nothing?" I have no known references to do so.

DenoPenno 9 Oct 20
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53 comments (26 - 50)

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1

Some scientists are morons - the Universe has always been here. It did not come from nothing.

gater Level 7 Oct 20, 2019
1

I think that something must have existed for an eternal past. How could something come from nothing? It can't. There must be matter and energy for anything to exist. It can change form, but cannot just emerge from nothing.

1

Christians falsely claim the universe started from "nothing." Scientists know that matter and energy have always existed.

Good succinct answer.

1

There's always something in the room. Light? Does the room you're looking in contain light? Darkness? Even darkness is something. Did you open the dark room from within a lighted area? You provided light to the area. Molecules that make up atoms, both are everywhere. Our body puts out light. There's always something in the room.

@William_Mary Our body puts out light? Have you ever noticed anyone glowing in a dark room?

@Stephanie99 [livescience.com]

@William_Mary Cool, thanks. I thought you were nuts. I guess not.

1

"Nothing" is a metaphysical construct, same as abstract concepts like purpose, freedom, or existence. You can't imagine nothing because by definition it is the lack of anything.

Nothing is that which doesn't exist, and you can interpret that two ways without losing any meaning.

1

I can imagine a time when our universe did not exist: no time, no space, no matter--nothing; but, there had to be energy. As I understand Lawrence Krauss's "A Universe From Nothing" he is showing that "nothing" powers the universe (no god necessary) and not that there was "nothing" prior to the big bang--as there had to be energy existing in empty space.

[newscientist.com]

Yes, but what does "nothing" look like? Even if we are talking energy does that energy have an appearance? Imagine you open a door and you find no appearance of anything. If it is "nothing" how would you know it was there?

He also argued that sum total of all positive/negative charges/energies is zero -- to support his "from nothing" claim.

@TheMiddleWay Yes, this is reminiscent of the old question, "If a tree falls where no one can hear, does it make a sound?" with it's delightful corollary "If a man speaks where a no woman can hear is he still wrong?"

1

“We keep trying to see it but nothing is working out so far.” 🙂

skado Level 9 Oct 20, 2019
1

It is impossible to understand true nothingness since a mind is necessary for understanding. The existence of the mind definitively contradicts nothingness (i.e. absolute non-existence).

palex Level 6 Oct 20, 2019
1

Do you sleep and wake up sometimes not remembering any dreams?

If I had to put money on it, that's where I'd put it on life after death.

It's depressing and most people can't handle that, so they invent religions and other assorted fairy tales to deal with it.

It’s the opposite for me - once every few years I wake up an remember a dream🤔

@Haemish1 Me too, I seldom remember my dreams,

I'm beginning to believe I always dream when I sleep. But I only remember the dreams if the waking process occurs a certain way, like an interruption. Otherwise it seems my mind deletes all memory of any dreams during the waking process. Too bad, many of the ones I do remember are very entertaining and sometimes educational.

I remember at least one dream a night. It's actually pretty awesome. I'm sorry to anyone who dreams about stuff like work, or doesn't remember any at all. I find that mine are fun, it's like having an internal holodeck.

1

I think that concept has been haunting mankind since forever. Thus birthed religion and science. Great question, if "can we explain nothing". I can't. But now it'll be buzzing around in my head for the future. Thank you very much.

0

There must be somewhere in the universe where there is nothing. A place where there is no matter, light or entropy... but it's like Schroedingers cat... As soon as you observe nothing, what every you observed it with causes it to cease existing... As nothing... It becomes something the second that you observe it

0

When I died, there was definitely "nothing" in a weird way.

0

I Am Nothing

Stillborn children. Saturn's children the living dead
We have created this abyss, darkness, surrounding us
Raise the flag of hate against this human race
Rise and kill & wipe them all away....
I Am Nothing
I Mean Nothing
I See Nothing
I Feel Nothing...as I kill you
We the Old Ones did not forget
We are the Supercoven, we wait with bated breath
They think themselves as Gods ..now are they free?
Mindless slaves to their lusts and technology
I Am Nothing
I Mean Nothing
I See Nothing
I Feel Nothing....as I kill you
I Am Nothing
I Feel Nothing
I Am Nothing
You Are Nothing....
To Me...
Nothing...
Nothing...
I Feel Nothing as I kill you
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Clayton Burgess / Jus Osborn / Liz Buckingham
I Am Nothing lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

0

Space is the absence of matter - empty space - that's the closest thing to nothing.

gater Level 7 Oct 22, 2019

And yet, space/time IS SOMETHING.

@Rodatheist space is one thing - time is another

@gater From Wikipedia: In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects such as why different observers perceive where and when events occur differently.

@Rodatheist yeah, I know - the scientific community is wrong about so much. space and time are independent.

@gater 😳

0

nothing...

0
0

If I’m in a dark room I see nothing because there are too few photons of light striking my retina and it sends no signals my brain will interpret as light.

0

Really it is an infinite regress of denial which is a philosophical idea. If you think of no-thing rather than nothing it helps get the head around it.

Look up Apophatic Theology in Wikipedia or Negative Theology which are both the theory of emptiness and give you an idea of what is being spoken of.

Texts such as The Cloud Of Unknowing in the Western Tradition and by Nāgārjuna in Buddhist tradition give an example of how it is approached and discussed.

I hope that helps but on first inspection it does seem a bit of a conundrum.

0

It is a mind bender. I think it’s mostly because it runs against the definitive fact that something does exist.

0

It is false that scientists claim that the universe came out of nothing. Even when there is "no thing" or no mass particles (fermions) there are quantum fields and the inherent energy of quantum fields. Anything beyond the Big Bang (not before the Big Bang since speaking of the time before time existed makes no sense) we simply have no knowledge of, and that's all that scientists really say, not that the universe came out of nothing.
On the contrary, it is modern theists who claim that God created the universe out of nothing, or creation ex nihilo. Early Greek philosophers, and all ancient mythologies that we know of, routinely believed that the earth was created out of some sort of pre-existing stuff or matter, not out of nothing. This is because they felt it was inherently illogical for something to come out of nothing. Nothing comes from nothing. (Even Shakespeare's King Lear says this.) Something can only come from something. Creation ex nihilo is a second-century theological development of Roman Catholic theologians as a way of saying, "our God is greater than your God because he can even create something out of nothing." Theists recognize this is an illogical claim, even for God, so they simply say that this is a miracle that cannot be understood.

0

I think I may go and make myself a cup of tea and a cake to go with it.

0

Here's a hint... NOBODY KNOWS!

The Big Bang... Yeah, I have an issue with it too. Something from nothing? A little slight of hand?

This is why a lot of scientific stuff has a last name. That name is THEORY!

Better than GUESS or MAYBE... Theory may have some facts in there mixing around... But still is not total FACT.

(Grin.) Something from nothing is a big sleight of mind.

The last name of a lot of scientific stuff is, as you say, THEORY. The last name of even more scientific stuff is HYPOTHESIS.

@yvilletom I'm hip. But we are just children that have had electricity and indoor plumbing for a little over 100 years. We'll know more (if we are still around) at the 1,000 year mark!

0

When we use the word nothing, we usually mean "not one thing."

(Grin) Are two things, or three things, etc, not one thing?

0

I think your comments exemplify an issue that may have controbuted to the concepts of an afterlife or a place like heaven/hell, hades, sheol, etc. The idea that someone who dies no longer exists - becomes nothingness except for memories - is too difficult to understand. The concept that they move onto some other unseen world where they can do whatever they loved in life is much more satisfying and solve the problem of their inability to conceive of nothingness.

0

A singularity.an incredibly hot dense particle is not nothing.

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