WHY YOU MATTER Chapter 1: Metaphysics
Science has become convinced that the universe evolved from a phenomenon known to us as the “Big Bang”. It is this cosmological event that has structured our universe and the laws in which it operates. The obvious question is, was this the genesis of the physical realm of matter in motion?
The revolution caused by the discovery and evidence in support of the Big Bang continues to reverberate through the sciences and our society today. The Big Bang had, in a real sense, found God – the Creator of the physical universe. Science had gotten some “ole time religion” and this discovery, along with the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more than anything, ushered in the post-modern age.
The major cosmological competitor of the Big Bang as “creation” seems to continue to be the “Expanding and Contracting Universe” theory or some variation of an Oscillatory Universe. Like Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Eternal Recurrence”, this was a way to explain the metaphysical or cosmological problems of alternative theories that seemed to shake the secular foundations of post-enlightenment learning. Here, life and the physical universe played out infinitely without a beginning and without an end in a never ending loop of repetition. Despite the apparently insurmountable evidence that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing velocity, a scientific community committed to a godless model have kept these ideas on a sort of complicated life-support. By arguing against “creation”, science can avoid bringing an intelligent creator into the mix.
Both the expanding and contracting universe and Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence accounted for the lack of the supernatural through the eternity or infinity of the physical universe. What they fail to account for is how matter in motion defines itself. This is to say both matter and motion are given definition by their very being.
Wait, is this not something not only profound, but obviously apparent? It is the physical universe that we perceive because it is definable and “definite”. What then defines these attributes?
Matter is defined (that is defines itself) as something that occupies space and is therefore limited by space. Matter occupies a measurable amount of space that must necessarily be finite. As we are able to measure any part of matter by the amount of space it must occupy, then matter occupies a limited parcel of space. As any matter is space limited, all matter is finite. Matter is something that occupies space and this space is measurable and in turn limited or finite.
This is how matter has become definite and how it defines itself. That which does not occupy a measurable amount of space is not matter and that which occupies a measurable amount of space is matter.
In the same way, motion is defined by time and is limited by time. Motion is also measurable, and in this case it is measured by time. As matter moves, its motion takes a measurable amount of time to go from point of space to point of space. Motion is something that takes place during a measurable amount of time and so all motion is limited and finite. We are able to measure any part of motion by the time of its movement so that all motion is limited and finite.
The motion of matter through space is how motion is definite and how it defines itself. It is the finitude of time that defines all motion that is the movement of the defined matter through the space it occupies and travels.
These measurable qualities are bound by their finitely defined metrics. Matter has boundaries, and motion must have a beginning and end. As we can measure any part of these, then the whole is measurable and finite. The idea of an “infinite number” of anything is absurd. If we can number them, they are countable or finite qualities.
Time and space then are the measurements of the finite universe of matter in motion. Time is how motion is defined or measured and space is how we define the finitude of matter. The great formula E=Mc2 explains this, or the entire physical universe is matter (M) in motion (c) and this is definable and quantitative. Energy, or the movement of all matter (space time), is measurable. We may agree that the numerical quality if astonishing, but it is finite. This formula demonstrates as much. It is, after all, a mathematical formula that concerns itself with finite and definable qualities and not the infinite.
So the Big Bang makes sense. Time is simply a measurement of motion. The hands of a clock move, the earth rotates and the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. There is the genesis of motion in the creation of matter.
The cosmological or metaphysical questions demand something that is eternal or outside the limitations of time as it defines motion. The idea of Eternal Recurrence or of the eternal motion of matter runs head into this problem. If we are able to use time as a measurement of any amount of motion as matter moves through space, how are we able to support a theory that argues that this motion is somehow circular and without beginning or end? The very observable behavior of our physical universe and the “arrow of time” fail to support a hypothesis that seems to be based on little other than the support of an ancient belief system that denies any existence outside what can be observed. Those who cling to such systems are like Ptolemaists dueling with the mounting evidence in support of Copernicus.
As we begin to understand what time is – that is the measurement of finite movements of matter through space – we begin to understand what eternity is – that is something outside of the limitations of time. This is the infinite that is outside of and that encompasses the finitude of the physical universe.
What then encompasses this finitude? This physical universe was created from nothing in the sense of nothing being “no-thing” of a material composition. The real question then becomes did this thing come from “nothing at all” or can a value come from a non-value? Certainly to get something from nothing is anti-intuitive. Finally, this becomes the argument of the atheist though. Either the physical universe – something finite – is actually not finite but infinite (with an expanding and contracting universe), or this material cosmos came from absolutely nothing at all.
Science, though, pursues truths through the empirical studies of observable phenomena and goes through revolutionary changes which Thomas Kuhn described as the paradigm shift. Modern science is entering its own “post-modern” phase and seems to be converging with the more ancient mystical explorations of the psyche. As we explore the very “borders” of the physical universe with the Big Bang, quantum science and the study of black holes, there are now descriptions of the space time dimension as a sort of holographic reality or a projection of something akin to what a computer program might generate.
Where we were once led to believe that faith in the supernatural was based on the unsound histrionics of an immature and illogical society, we are beginning the find that a faith in science itself can provide evidence of something beyond the perceived “reality” of this physical plane in which we all live.
Life is. This is the inarguable truth that Descartes declared for us all. We exist or “I am”. Our perspective is from this point of consciousness or what we inelegantly term “the mind”. To irrefutably prove anything beyond this seems destined to failure, so it is this existence and consciousness that we know to be real. Self-awareness is the foundation of all “faith” outside this truth which is, indeed, based upon a reflection of something beyond this truth or “I think, therefore I am.” It is really the only truth even the most ardent skeptic can not call into question. A dream may be a dream, but life is.
So instead of a purely material universe that somehow and without purpose creates the consciousness from which we all perceive this physical universe, we have the consciousness itself as the mystical center of reality. The conscious and infinite “mind” or psyche formulates the material not a purely material universe randomly formulating the consciousness that can study this world and conceive of something beyond.
Post originally appeared on the Reveille website (and Ecce Aeon before that) and was published on November 14, 2016.