nothing

Here it is, don't shoot the messenger. I can't even remember where I cound it because I copied the link and then I copied the text it looks like and for some fucking reason I can't find it i n my history. Maybe you googlers will have more luck sober.

I might have been searching ILX for all the fuck I know. Sorry about lack of source material.

The mindblowing relveltory text follows thusly....

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What is the universe? I define the universe as a name for the set of all existents--as in a set in mathematics. Every individual existent belongs to the set called the "universe." The universe consists of everything (the same as every thing), every existent. One can describe the universe only by describing the nature of one or more existents, and the way the existents interact. The universe does not have a nature apart from the nature of its individual members and their interactions.

All things exist. It follows that no thing does not exist. That is clear, as any thing is an existent, as defined above. So "nothing" has never existed, or, there is no such thing as "nothing." By the definition of existence, the last statement says: There exists no such existent as a nonexistent. This boils down to a simple statement: Nonexistence does not exist. Nothing does not exist.

Time is a measurement, a relationship between entities (note the plural), e.g., the earth's motion around the sun. The progression of motion gives us the concept of "time." Nothing can be said to move except in relation to something else. The term "eternal" is meaningless without the existence of physical entities. "Time" is within the universe; the universe is not within time.

It has been asserted that the universe has no end, no edges, no finality. They claim that there is "nothing" beyond the universe. They say that if we could wander to the universe's extremities, we, by our presence there, would create more space; therefore, we would perpetuate the expansion of the universe.

There is no creator of the universe because there was no creation of the universe or creation of existence. The phenomenon of existence was not created. To prove that it is possible for existence not to exist, one must posit that nonexistence can exist.

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking has proposed a scientific approach to ending the cause question. He envisages a quantum universe where space-time would be curved back on itself like the surface of a sphere, and thus would have no beginning or end:

"The quantum theory of gravity has opened up a new possibility, in which there would be no boundary to space time. . . There would be no singularities at which the laws of science broke down and no edge of space-time at which one would have to appeal to God or some new law to set the boundary conditions for space-time. . . The universe would be completely self-contained and not affected by anything outside itself. It would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE. . . What place, then, for a creator?"
--Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam Press, 1988.

A similar sphericity or circularity might result if the universe had enough mass to be closed - that is, to recollapse on itself in a "big crunch," which in turn might be followed by another "big bang." In that case the end of one cycle would be the cause of the beginning of the next.

You can't start out with absolutely zero / nothing and expect to arrive at something. O. Divide, multiply, etc.

We are able to see intelligence in the supposed non-intelligent minutia of cosmic reality, which leads many to believe it was designed by a creator. Surely some force of intelligence must be acting upon the universe.

I believe the universe IS intelligence, a form of "energy" for lack of a better word which is the building blocks of all else. It could be the dark matter, the Qi, the Tao, the cause of evolution, etc. Intelligence is the will that directs the universe, just as your intelligence directs your hands (matter) via the nervous system (energy) to type at your keyboard. Just as an inventor thinks up new ideas and then creates these ideas in reality out of matter. I believe that thought has the power to literally materialize. That is what magick is all about! (And I think everyone should watch the movie "Solaris," by the way.)

While people take the idea that "man was made in God's image" to mean he is somehow similar to God, I take it to mean, quite literally that man is WITHIN the image of "God". Think of "God"/Universe as a painting and you have been included within it-- literally within the "image" of God.

Just some ideas I cobbled together from the internet via trusty Google and copy/paste. Try them on and see if they fit.