Saturday, April 23, 2011

Possibilianism

That nothing exist is the logically more stable state of being. Nothing needs anything further and ought to be unchangingly nothing. That there be something requires a departure from nothing, requires explanation. I.e., nothing should be being.

But we are, and the universe is. We don't know anything about what preceded the Big Bang, what dark matter and dark energy are and mean, what consciousness is, where it comes from, or where it may go. It may be that we will never know. It may be that as St Thomas Aquinas suggested, when reason can take us no further, that is the finger pointing to God. In any case, we know too little to rule out what science cannot explain and too much to believe much of what we take for certain.

An adherent of possibilianism is called a possibilian. The possibilian perspective is distinguished from agnosticism in that it consists of an active exploration of novel possibilities and an emphasis on the necessity of holding multiple positions at once if there is no available data to privilege one over the others. Possibilianism reflects the scientific temperament of creativity, testing, and tolerance for multiple ideas.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Eternal

To be eternal is to exist no where, in no time.