Existence of things is self-evident. "Creation of things" is begging the question so I'll ignore your phrasing.
Time is not so deeply ingrained in us that we lack the ability to comprehend (or imagine) things outside of time. See the wacky world of relativity. Time is a component of reality, just like space, and it obeys certain laws. Nobody knows why, but oh well.
You ask how we'd justify the creation of something from nothing if God does not exist. I'd ask what evidence do you have that anything was ever "created" (or less leadingly, came into existence from non-existence) and how this event has anything to do with this "God" fellow and how he somehow escapes this notion of having to exist to cause something. Sure, it's a mindfuck to entertain the idea that there may be something that has always existed and always will, or that our linear concept of time isn't correct and it in fact is a loop or a space or some other unimaginable construct, and you can call that abstract persistence "God" if you want to, but I really doubt that's what you mean, and anyway it'd be a misleading way of communicating if you did.
Regarding the creation of the "universe" (which is a vague term), scientists have evidence for the age of the OBSERVABLE universe, that is, the part of the universe whose light (information) has had sufficient time to reach our observation point. We don't know how big the universe is, and we don't know the state of it before the big bang, whether the big bang was some blip event which is part of some much larger construct, or time extends back and this has happened over and over... who knows? We simply don't have any evidence for these things because we cannot observe them or any information about them which cannot have reached us. You can speculate for fun if you want to, but it's unlikely we'll discover a way to perceive outside the observable universe anytime soon, if ever.
You ask what the universe was born of. Again, a very linear way of thinking as far as time is concerned, assuming there must be this "born" moment, and perhaps incorrect. We just don't know, but I'm sure you can imagine some creative ideas and don't have to be limited by very human ideas of beginnings and ends (and "born", lol).
You say there must have been a time when nothing existed. Why must this be so? And wouldn't the passage of time during this time mean that time existed at this time? By "nothing" do you just mean physical matter? Yes we know ages of a lot of things... kind of. Matter is very mutable. It can change form one form to another. Perhaps we only know the "age" of a thing as it has existed in a particular form, or dated from a particular event, such as the big bang. There's no reason to necessarily believe the big bang was the beginning of all matter, or even to believe that matter has some beginning in the time sense of the word. A mindfuck yes, but we just don't have evidence to suggest in any direction.
When you die, yes you will be a complete lack of consciousness. It's very easily comprehendable. Imagine how you were before you were born, or to a lesser extent how you are when you're asleep. You have no perception, no thoughts, no feelings. The very idea of "you" won't even make sense anymore because the brain structures that define all of your experiences, reactions, memories, thoughts, etc. etc. etc. will be destroyed. You won't sense time, you won't sense anything. Unless by "you" you're talking about the subjective experience of consciousness which I believe is shared by all living things, which means yes, "you" get to experience all the joys and sufferings of every living thing forever and ever... a fate worse than death if you ask me. Another mindfuck. I'm glad my own brain gets to have some rest at the end of things in any case! My brain is like a nice little shield isolating me from experiencing the pain of others while I'm here in this body.
(LMAO, LiveJournal has a text character limit, splitting up this message...)
Existence of things is self-evident. "Creation of things" is begging the question so I'll ignore your phrasing.
Time is not so deeply ingrained in us that we lack the ability to comprehend (or imagine) things outside of time. See the wacky world of relativity. Time is a component of reality, just like space, and it obeys certain laws. Nobody knows why, but oh well.
You ask how we'd justify the creation of something from nothing if God does not exist. I'd ask what evidence do you have that anything was ever "created" (or less leadingly, came into existence from non-existence) and how this event has anything to do with this "God" fellow and how he somehow escapes this notion of having to exist to cause something. Sure, it's a mindfuck to entertain the idea that there may be something that has always existed and always will, or that our linear concept of time isn't correct and it in fact is a loop or a space or some other unimaginable construct, and you can call that abstract persistence "God" if you want to, but I really doubt that's what you mean, and anyway it'd be a misleading way of communicating if you did.
Regarding the creation of the "universe" (which is a vague term), scientists have evidence for the age of the OBSERVABLE universe, that is, the part of the universe whose light (information) has had sufficient time to reach our observation point. We don't know how big the universe is, and we don't know the state of it before the big bang, whether the big bang was some blip event which is part of some much larger construct, or time extends back and this has happened over and over... who knows? We simply don't have any evidence for these things because we cannot observe them or any information about them which cannot have reached us. You can speculate for fun if you want to, but it's unlikely we'll discover a way to perceive outside the observable universe anytime soon, if ever.
You ask what the universe was born of. Again, a very linear way of thinking as far as time is concerned, assuming there must be this "born" moment, and perhaps incorrect. We just don't know, but I'm sure you can imagine some creative ideas and don't have to be limited by very human ideas of beginnings and ends (and "born", lol).
You say there must have been a time when nothing existed. Why must this be so? And wouldn't the passage of time during this time mean that time existed at this time? By "nothing" do you just mean physical matter? Yes we know ages of a lot of things... kind of. Matter is very mutable. It can change form one form to another. Perhaps we only know the "age" of a thing as it has existed in a particular form, or dated from a particular event, such as the big bang. There's no reason to necessarily believe the big bang was the beginning of all matter, or even to believe that matter has some beginning in the time sense of the word. A mindfuck yes, but we just don't have evidence to suggest in any direction.
When you die, yes you will be a complete lack of consciousness. It's very easily comprehendable. Imagine how you were before you were born, or to a lesser extent how you are when you're asleep. You have no perception, no thoughts, no feelings. The very idea of "you" won't even make sense anymore because the brain structures that define all of your experiences, reactions, memories, thoughts, etc. etc. etc. will be destroyed. You won't sense time, you won't sense anything. Unless by "you" you're talking about the subjective experience of consciousness which I believe is shared by all living things, which means yes, "you" get to experience all the joys and sufferings of every living thing forever and ever... a fate worse than death if you ask me. Another mindfuck. I'm glad my own brain gets to have some rest at the end of things in any case! My brain is like a nice little shield isolating me from experiencing the pain of others while I'm here in this body.
(LMAO, LiveJournal has a text character limit, splitting up this message...)
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