What would exist if nothing existed?

[Zenx]

Does anything exist? I mean, is it not possible, nay, likely that our entire existance is just a complete lie, a simulation, a dream? Have you ever stopped and thought "Am I really awake right now?"... I have, and I believe that my entire being counld not exist at all. I mean... can any thing really "exist" because in another reality, nothing you know may have ever have been real. Does this post exist? Does this fourm exist? Does the Internet exist? I mean, you can't TOUCH the internet, can you? So in that matter, does everything we are doing "exist"? I say nay! The whole theory of existance is ridiculous.

End lecture that really proved nothing at all.

[prototypetetra]

There will always be something that exists, Alarix; Even in an immaterial point of view, emptiness or in this case "nothingness" is an existence by itself. Thus, "Nothing" is not the right answer, in my opinion. There is no correct answer for this question, I believe it is so because the question is faulty.

[jtj]

well nothing would exist, but we would not know that nothing existed because we would not be there because we don't exist. :P

[Sanosuke23]

It's funny you used christianity and Eris in the same sentence without any negative connotation surrounding "Christianity".

There were brackets involved.


----------------------------

I can't believe this is a question. There is no known point of "Nothingness," and so it is quite impossible to even truly fathom it.

[Akihiko Yamamoto Hozagaki]

Ugh... this thread confuses me utterly. It's like how I'll choose the oddest times to dwell on why I'm alive >_<. It also reminds me when I was like... nine and wondering what the "Nothingness" was in "The Neverending Story". Oh god, those were confusing times XD!

[Fetal Fetish]

This is basically a pointless question. The question answers itself. "If nothing existed." Nothing exists. Time, space, all of it is gone.

[TheAsterisk!]

Does anything exist? I mean, is it not possible, nay, likely that our entire existance is just a complete lie, a simulation, a dream? Have you ever stopped and thought "Am I really awake right now?"... I have, and I believe that my entire being counld not exist at all. I mean... can any thing really "exist" because in another reality, nothing you know may have ever have been real. Does this post exist? Does this fourm exist? Does the Internet exist? I mean, you can't TOUCH the internet, can you? So in that matter, does everything we are doing "exist"? I say nay! The whole theory of existance is ridiculous.

End lecture that really proved nothing at all.

Bertrand Russell once said that sometimes one wishes that [armchair] philosophers who question reality would get into a car and drive into a wall at a speed proportional to their disbelief in the existence of said wall.
I do believe I share his sentiments concerning this particular matter.
Since percieved reality is the only way we can view our surroundings, why bother to ask if it's accurate? It's all we can know.

[Eris]

Since percieved reality is the only way we can view our surroundings, why bother to ask if it's accurate? It's all we can know.

There is a very important reason for doing it: Logic. Logic requires true premises. If a premise is false, any conclusion can be drawn from it. If all arguments and premises are sound, logic is never wrong. That is a tremendously powerful tool, so it's only logical (pun sort of intended) that we must scrutinize our premises.

Though, this must take constructive forms. Simply professing "the world doesn't exist!" does not add anything.

[Clawdia]

Cheese.

Cheese always exists.

[gaburieru]

It's called vacuum.

[Eris]

It's called vacuum.

Not really. Vacuum is still something. It has spacial dimensions, etc. It's possible for less to exist than vacuum; therefore it is not nothing.

[Knuffle Bunny]

Let me rephrase myself then. = 3=

According to religion God has always been there, so therefore there has always been something. And there cannot be nothing becasue God is always there.


As for the Big Bang, it's only a theory. There could have been something before, there could have not.

[omniking3]

"Existence" is a human perception. If there was nothing, there would be nothing for us to percieve, and vice versa. This is just feedback loop, there is no logical solution. I've tried p => q logic also.

[Knuffle Bunny]

This is just feedback loop, there is no logical solution. I've tried p => q logic also.

Human logic is extremely flexible. It's like how people solve math problems differently. Based on what you already know, and what you already believe in, your logic can be affected substantially.

If you were christian, you'd say that there could never truly be "nothing" because God is always there, and therefore, definately not a feedback loop.

"Existence" is a human perception. If there was nothing, there would be nothing for us to percieve, and vice versa.

Think about it this way. Let's say the human race didn't exist. We couldn't percieve anything because we don't exist, but that doesn't mean that nothing else exists

[~RiOtFoRpHoEnIx~]

*Tilts head* Is it me or is this going to be one of those threads that just keeps going around and around in circles? Plus, I'm definitely confused here seeing as how can someone try and comprehend nothing existing, because my mind just keeps coming to the answer that if nothing existed, would we even exist and if that is the case, then how can we try and gather an answer to what exists then... bleh ... I made no sense at all then I think. In other words, if nothing exists .. would we even exist? and if not ... how in the heck should I know what exists when I don't.

[Eris]

As for the Big Bang, it's only a theory. There could have been something before, there could have not.

But theory in science does not mean the same as theory in colloquial English. In science, a theory is a model explaining experimental data. In colloquial English, a theory is a hunch. The colloquial meaning can not be applied to scientific theories.

[luvtoshikun]

if there isn't anything then this conversation wouldn't happen and we would't exist so we wouldn't know what it would be like. If it was possible I think it would be unbarrible...confuzled

[Zenx]

Cheese.

Cheese always exists.

Is there proof cheese EVER existed? Can you prove it does? I realize that I can't prove that it doesn't, but their is always doubt that our reality is non-existant.

In a non-existant world where things exist only because the existing things that want the non-existant world to exsit, which may be ours, if a non-existing person where to drive his or her non-existing car into a non-existing wall, it would result in a non-existing crash. This would never prove what exists or not in a world where nothing exists. It like a dream. Just because something dies in a dream, doesn't mean that it actually died. But that disproves itself in the sence that if you created a world in your dreams, the dream person, who does not exist, would die <_<.

[Sanosuke23]

Zenx is on drugs. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

If we are dreaming, then the dream exists as long as we believe in it. Once we disbelieve it(DC 22) we know we're dreaming. However, the dream is still going, and those still dreaming will think you're insane. Or on drugs. Really, they mean it in the nicest possible way, though.

[genericusername2]

Idiots like yourself.

[TheAsterisk!]

Idiots like yourself.

Says the user with Sgurd Ekoms as a name.
Your new username would be "Gnihton" if there were nothing, right? Or would it be "Gnihton Ekoms?" Or maybe "Lawardhtiw" seeing as there'd be nothing to "ekoms."

[onigiri princess]

dust xD tiny specs of dust in dark dark space, but i guess nothing would exist without the sun ^-^' (i gonna get nightmares after this)

[Vendetta]

Ah, this reminds me of a long debate on the bus :P

Nothing is abstract, therefor nothing doesn't exist. Even in space there are microparticals which create something. Theoretically <b>if</b> nothing existed we would have a neverending vacuum or something similar to space prior to the big bang. There has been no place found in which 'nothing' exists.

[Knuffle Bunny]

But theory in science does not mean the same as theory in colloquial English. In science, a theory is a model explaining experimental data. In colloquial English, a theory is a hunch. The colloquial meaning can not be applied to scientific theories.

In science, a theory is an idea that has no proof. Some evidence to suggest it, but no solid proof.

[TheAsterisk!]

In science, a theory is an idea that has no proof. Some evidence to suggest it, but no solid proof.

...No...those are hypotheses, possible, untested explanations.
A scientific theory is a model used to explain the natural world based off of observations and deductions. A hypothesis doesn't become a theory unless it's well supported and fits the natural world and new observations of it.