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"I am plagued by doubts. What if everything is an illusion and nothing is real? In that case I definitely overpaid for my carpet." Woody Allen |
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Shalom is an occasional broadsheet published by Shalom Ministries. These pages feature some of the best articles from the paper. |
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Do you wonder about
how we got here? How anything got here? It’s a question that
has vexed philosophers and thinkers for thousands of years but the good
news is that there are only four basic answers to the question
of existence. Ever fancied yourself as a philosopher? OK, here’s a five
minute crash course in metaphysics that will help you amaze friends,
influence people and (hopefully) change your future. The first possible answer to the question of
existence is that everything is an illusion. Nothing exists. Not these
words. Not this paper. Not even you. “In that case”, says Woody Allen
“I definitely overpaid for my carpet!” Robert Farrar Capon says there
is simple way to answer anyone who says they are not certain of their
own existence - tell them their fly is undone. If they really think
reality is just an illusion why do they always look? The second possible answer to the question of
existence is that Everything came from Nothing. Now very few people
have offered that explanation because it is impossible to explain how
anything - even an atom - could come out of Nothing. To visualise
“Nothing”, imagine a brand new, very black blackboard. Now, in your
mind, draw a circle on it and imagine you can put everything - right
down to the very last molecule in it - and then rub it out. You are
left with Nothing. See why so few thinkers believe it. The third possible answer is that Everything
came from an Impersonal beginning. In the 1970s the writer Jacqucs
Monod put it like this: “Our number came up in a Monte Carlo game”. We
are, he said, a product of “the Impersonal plus Time plus Chance”. This
is a more popular theory but it involves a great problem. If we came
from an impersonal beginning then the Universe can have no meaning, yet
we find it impossible to live without some sense of purpose. But if we
are only here by Chance where does our longing for meaning and purpose
come from? Why do we ask questions about the meaning of Life, the
Universe and Everything? Also how did personality originate if the
force that brought us in to being was impersonal? The fourth possible answer is that the Universe
had a Personal beginning. In other words, a Personal Creator brought
the Cosmos into existence. The strength of this view is that it
provides an explanation for the beauty and amazing complexity of
Creation and for the existence of personality. Certainly we may find it
hard to imagine an almighty and all-wise personal Creator. But the
other choices are much harder to swallow - even if we prefer them. |
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