• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Does Nothing Exist?

Potentially, we could say that outside the universe there is nothing, but that is not even a valid statement because "outside the universe" does not exist.
Click to expand...

So something cannot be outside the universe, is what you're saying?
If so, why are we able to calculate the approximate diameter of the universe? Do you mean space?
 
Azrienoch said:
So something cannot be outside the universe, is what you're saying?
If so, why are we able to calculate the approximate diameter of the universe? Do you mean space?
Click to expand...
It's pretty much by definition that nothing can be outside the universe. The universe is commonly held to be everything that exists--time, space, twinkies, you name it. Assuming anyone ever found anything "outside the universe," their finding it would immediately define it as being part of the univere anyway.
 
Azrienoch said:

This is a question I've just been pondering for a while, and wanted to see what others thought;

Does nothing (noun, as zero) exist? (not to be read as, "Doesn't anything exist?")
If it does exist, isn't it contradicting it's own definition, what it represents?
If it doesn't exist, how is the concept available to our understanding?

edited for clarification
Click to expand...
In and of itself, no it never did. It is possible however, to have nothing in relation to something.

Have you seen the thread on Who Created God? by the way?
 
Re: Re: Does Nothing Exist?

Iacchus said:
Have you seen the thread on Who Created God? by the way?
Click to expand...
But of course, God doesn't exist, or you might correctly say "God is nothing". Yet, many people worship this nothingness. This of course raises the question
Wait for it
.
.
.
.

Is Nothing sacred?
 
That was pretty wretched, Tricky.

(Puss: You're just jealous you didn't think of it, boy.
MdC: Bugger off, cat.)
 
I prefer this following answer to the question:

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

--Wallace Stevens
Click to expand...
 
thaiboxerken
But if that space is shielded from light and radiation, then there is nothing in it. Right?
Click to expand...
bugger! [clutching at straw] what about neutrinos? You could still have the shielded space being penetrated by neutrinos. [/clutching at straw] . Think I lost this one.
 
Using the example of the cat in the steel box; Just because we cannot observe space, time, or even the cat, doesn't mean it's not there...It simply cannot be proven until the box is opened. So, simply because we cannot observe Nothing, doesn't automatically mean it doesn't exist.
 
Re: Re: Does Nothing Exist?

Piscivore said:
How is the concept of "Frodo" available to our understanding?
Click to expand...

"Frodo" is only "available to our understanding" to the extent that you want to talk about his known and accepted qualities. If the question were "Does Frodo have a mole on his butt", we would be just as much at a loss as "Does nothing exist".
 
KING LEAR

To thee and thine hereditary ever
Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;
No less in space, validity, and pleasure,
Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interess'd; what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.

KING LEAR

Nothing!

CORDELIA

Nothing.

KING LEAR

Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.

CORDELIA

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty
According to my bond; nor more nor less.
Click to expand...
Or the more loaded "nothing"...
HAMLET_ Lady, shall I lie in your lap? _
_ [Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]
OPHELIA_ No, my lord. _
HAMLET_ I mean, my head upon your lap? _
OPHELIA_ Ay, my lord. _
HAMLET_ Do you think I meant country matters? _
OPHELIA_ I think nothing, my lord. _
HAMLET_ That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. _
OPHELIA_ What is, my lord? _
HAMLET_ Nothing.
Click to expand...
There have been volumes written on "Shakespeare's nothing", but such discussion might be more appropriate for the 'cuneiform' thread.
 
Iacchus said:
Ah, nothing is at last sacred ... but the integrity of your own mind??? :p
Click to expand...
Remarkable....roughly 400 years apart...tremendous advances in science, changing the very face of the world as we know it...but still Shakespeare has more to say about "nothing" than Iacchus does.
 
Azrienoch said:
Using the example of the cat in the steel box; Just because we cannot observe space, time, or even the cat, doesn't mean it's not there...It simply cannot be proven until the box is opened. So, simply because we cannot observe Nothing, doesn't automatically mean it doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

Welcome and I was wondering about Cosmos sphere too. If it was possible for it to contain not one bit. We would not know its there and is our awareness necessary for nothings existance?

Was also thinking about the tree in the forest although thats more a sound thing, but maybe it could apply here to. Even if we cant hear or know about the tree, its still there.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Is it not true that nothing is not nonexistant? True or false.
Click to expand...

Ooh ooh, let me try.

I discard the first not, as it is colloquially saying the same thing as "is it true."

I take nothing in the sense of "no thing."

Not non-existant = existant...

De-obfuscated - "Do no things exist."

And this is false by my own axiom of personal existance. False (for my interpretation).

:-P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom