• kill jepetto
    66
    We query whether God existed before the big bang, but this thread is about other life existing before the big bang.

    I think it's better to stand undecided on the matter than to simply claim "nothing happened".

    I think it's more probable that life existed prior rather than nothing; this universe is pretty complex - a more simple existence likely happened prior.

    I wanted to discuss:

    • How we can tell if a universe or simulation existed prior?
    • What prior existences imply?
    • Why universes are created?
    • Who determines what universes are created?
    • When was our universe created?
    • Where is our universe in disposition to others?
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    When there's no evidence for something, no particular reason to believe it over alternatives, I don't believe it. So my answer is, "No."

    If someone wants to provide evidence or good reasons to believe otherwise, it would be possible to change my mind, but they'd have to actually do that work.
  • kill jepetto
    66

    I don't think that "No" is a sensible answer, "I don't know" is sensible.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    People think different things, obviously.
  • kill jepetto
    66
    Yeah, but how do you come to the conclusion "No"?

    If there is no/little evidence, you cannot provide a definite answer.

    "No", is a definite answer.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    Did I just provide a definite answer?
  • kill jepetto
    66
    e's noTerrapin Station

    Yeah, you said "No".
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    So then it would seem that one can, indeed, provide a definite answer.
  • kill jepetto
    66
    Hmm.

    I suppose I'm saying "probably"... And you're saying "no", but we both have no/little evidence.

    I don't see how something as complex as this universe comes prior to other, simpler universes/simulations.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    How would you be quantifying complexity first off?
  • kill jepetto
    66
    Using my senses; it seems big, vast, abundant with space phenomenon, creates animals, etc.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    That doesn't seem like a very good quantification method for something like complexity.

    I would think that first we should define how we're even using "complexity" (versus "simplicity")
  • kill jepetto
    66


    Well, why not just create animals in simulate conditions?

    If there is heaven, why aren't we all in it? What's the catch, desire for power/knowledge? I suppose, not everything can be simulated pre-knowledge of a certain concept.

    Perhaps in heaven is the potential for evil, which leads to people going to hell in the first place; there is a continuum where people are being evil and good, living in heaven or hell. Life is a very complex thing in this universe, you can be a murderer, you can harm others and mass extinct the environment. This is the spiritual reason I have for other kinds of life, this universe clearly restricts the mind in physical principles; dreams are due to the wound of mind not being in it's suited space - where we would not be restricted.

    We need to learn; creators need to learn, so some hell's are manifest of desire for knowledge

    If this IS a learning curve, which it might be, then this universe's capacity is to present a certain angle that we can observe from to improve the greater mind, which would, if simpler lives exist/existed, help make better simulations.

    A simulation happening before is an entirely beneficent prospect.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    Well, why not just create animals in simulate conditions?kill jepetto

    No one was saying to not create simulated whatevers.

    If there is heaven, why aren't we all in it?kill jepetto

    I'm an atheist. I don't believe any religious claims. I don't believe in anything "spiritual." I don't buy teleology, etc.
  • kill jepetto
    66
    any religious claims is bigotry of a sort because some sentences are expressed in the bible hold weight, such as good and evil.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    I'm a subjectivist on value judgments like good/evil.
  • kill jepetto
    66
    Ok but on the question on whether there are previous existences to our universe, you think "No" or "I don't know"?
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    No, with no possibility otherwise on that one. But that's simply because I use the word "universe" to refer to "everything extant (present and past)." Hence there can't exist something prior to everything extant/everything that has ever existed.
  • kill jepetto
    66


    it can because you don't know if this universe isn't contained from other universes; when you say everything existent, how do you know this universe isn't a species of many?
    Reveal
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    it can because you don't know if this universe isn't contained from other universes;kill jepetto

    The way I know that is because of the way that I use the word "universe." There can't be multiple universes. Whatever exists is the universe. I'm not saying anything other than "if x exists in any manner whatsoever, whatever its nature, whatever its relation to anything else, x is (part of) the universe (because that's what I call it)."
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