An Axiom of Existence

[Edgar L. Owen]

THE AXIOM OF EXISTENCE

 

Something rather than nothing exists because only existence can exist. Non-existence or nothingness cannot exist because nothingness is non-existence and only existence can exist. Thus nothingness cannot exist and can never have existed. Only existence exists or has ever existed or can ever exist. Thus there is not and never was and never could or can be a nothingness out of which something came into being. There is and has always been only existence and whatever forms exist within it.

 

There is not even nothing outside of existence, or before or after or beyond existence. There is no outside or before or after or beyond existence. There is only existence and everything that exists is part of that existence.

 

Thus Existence exists, or more concisely just Existence! which implies the necessary existence of existence, is the self-validating self-necessitating fundamental axiom of reality upon which all else depends. This is the ultimate turtle upon which all other turtles stand and the ultimate source of the entire logical structure of reality (Wikipedia, Turtles all the way down). Because the fact of existence is self-evident the axiom is self-evidently true. You would not be reading these words if existence didnt exist.

 

At first this may appear to be a mere sophism or tautology but it accurately expresses the actual logic of reality and is the only possible self-contained explanation for the fundamental fact of existence.

 

One might argue the axiom of existence is circular and of course it is but that is precisely the point since the fundamental axiom of reality must be circular; but it must also be self-evident and meaningfully so. A meaningful circular self-necessitating fundamental axiom is much preferable to a set of axioms that has no underlying logical foundation such as those of Euclidean geometry (Wikipedia, Euclidean geometry).

 

Because there never was a nothingness out of which something was created there is no need for a creator or creation event. All the interminable disputes about creators and the creation of the universe immediately become illogical and meaningless and must be abandoned. The axiom of existence immediately renders much of philosophy and religious doctrine moot and answers the first question of why something rather than nothing exists.

 

Thus the fundamental question becomes not why something exists, but why what exists is what exists. Through this proper self-consistent, self-necessitating definition reality becomes much simpler and illogical questions concerning non-existence disappear.

 

Reality is the existence of what exists, and existence is the manifestation of reality. Reality and existence are different perspectives on the same thing. Thus the only thing that can ever be real and actual is existence and the only thing that can exist is reality.

 

The question of how existence arose out of non-existence is nonsensical and meaningless and should not even be asked. Its based on a misapplication of the logic and language of everyday things where individual things do suddenly appear out of non-existence into existence. But whatever appears always actually appears out of something else, its always a transformation of things rather than a creation out of nothingness. Nothing ever appears out of nothing at all or nothingness. The forms of reality often transform from one thing to another but since reality itself includes everything there is nothing for reality itself to transform from or appear out of.

 

Of course the physical universe as we know it originated in the big bang some 13.8 billion years ago but this was not the beginning of existence as the universe originated not from the absolute absence of anything but from the quantum vacuum which contained the unactualized virtual possibilities of all possible actualities. We must not mistake the apparent beginning of the physical universe and clock time at the big bang for the beginning of existence itself.

 

Thus existence has always existed. By always we mean here that there was never a time in which existence did not exist. In Universal Reality clock time is computed along with all the other processes of the universe and so clock time would only have begun with the big bang. Thus there was no clock time prior to the big bang and properly speaking no before. Nevertheless there was a timeless present moment in which a prior virtual state of formless existence existed and there was never a time this was not true.

 

Existence must exist because non-existence cannot exist. The existence of non-existence is a logical contradiction, and logical contradictions cannot exist in a computational universe, since for the universe to be computational it must follow consistent logical rules that dont generate logical contradictions. Thus the axiom of existence provides a clear and convincing answer to the fundamental question of why something rather than nothing exists. Its simply impossible for nothingness to exist so there was always a something that existed and that was the originally formless substrate of existence itself.

 

From the new book advertising removed

 

Edgar

 

Edited November 29, 2016 by hypervalent_iodine

[studiot]

 

Something rather than nothing exists because only existence can exist. Non-existence or nothingness cannot exist because nothingness is non-existence and only existence can exist. Thus nothingness cannot exist and can never have existed. Only existence exists or has ever existed or can ever exist. Thus there is not and never was and never could or can be a nothingness out of which something came into being. There is and has always been only existence and whatever forms exist within it.

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At first this may appear to be a mere sophism or tautology but it accurately expresses the actual logic of reality and is the only possible self-contained explanation for the fundamental fact of existence.

 

 

Actually I would challenge this claim right from the start.

 

I would claim "Nothing exists as far as anything exists"

 

It is often said that fact is stranger than fiction and here is a case in point.

 

A hole is a simple example of the existence of nothing.

 

 

 

BTW I don't wish to participate in advertising a book, but am happy to offer proper debate on the subject here.

[DrKrettin]

 

 

BTW I don't wish to participate in advertising a book, but am happy to offer proper debate on the subject here.

 

So what exactly is the subject? Whether anything exists?

[StringJunky]

Nothing exists as a state of absence but it is an observer-dependent state. No observer, no nothing (this is not a double negative).

Edited November 29, 2016 by StringJunky