>From Religion without God: "Here is an ancient philosophical problem. Is there a way the universe just is? Not for any reason but just because that is the way it happens to be? Not for any reason but just because that is the way it happens to be? Will theoretical physics one day hit a wall that means there is just nothing more for it to learn? Will it end just in pointing a finger at what just happens to be?
"The philosopher Gottfried Leibniz thought that a just-happens-to-be solution like that makes no sense. Nothing happens, he said, unless there is a "sufficient reason" for its happening. God made the universe and so it is a sufficient reason for the universe being the way it is that God wanted it that way. "Bertrand Russell declared that "the universe is just there, and that's all." Richard Feynman, who is often called the most important physicist since Einstein, said that he could hope to explain how things work but not why they work that way. We must just accept, he said, "Nature as She is-- absurd." Dworkin, Ronald (2013-10-01). Religion without God (p. 77). Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition. Dan comments: I notice that Robert Pirsig asks much the same questions in Lila: "Metaphysics is what Aristotle called the First Philosophy. It's a collection of the most general statements of a hierarchical structure of thought. On one of his slips he had copied a definition of it as "that part of philosophy which deals with the nature and structure of reality." It asks such questions as, "Are the objects we perceive real or illusory? Does the external world exist apart from our consciousness of it? Is reality ultimately reducible to a single underlying substance? If so, is it essentially spiritual or material? Is the universe intelligible and orderly or incomprehensible and chaotic?" I think he answers the questions much like Richard Feynman. He explains the how by ordering unfolding experience into four static quality levels while simultaneously suggesting the why is beyond explanation. Thoughts? Dan http://www.danglover.com Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
