Philosophy Now Forum

The purpose of this thread is not to approach the question as to where mass and energy, and spacetime came from.

The purpose here is to address, mostly, the configuration of matter in the present universe. For shorthand, let the word "fact" be a placeholder for a "configuration of matter". We want to get at questions regarding the causal history of current "facts" of our daily lives and our planet.

(Be careful with the next paragraph. It is a syllogism of the form If X, then Y. watch out).

If the universe is both causally-closed, and totally determined, then we must conclude that every fact of your daily life, your name, your location, your family members, your house, the location of trees in a forest, and every grain of sand on a beach. All these things can be explained as being a direct causal result of the initial conditions of the universe.

Is quantum indeterminacy truly real in the physical sense?

Does quantum indeterminacy at planck scales leak into the macroscopic world, even if rarely?

What is the current, mainstream atheist story for the Big Bang?

What is the scientific consensus on the Big Bang?

If we cannot establish one, is there no consensus?

K: The present universe cannot be considered causally closed. Aside from quantum indeterminacy at Planck scale, there is the indeterminacy of higher-order animal behavior. These animals, including humans, think about their environment before acting. Their decisions are somewhat random and arbitrary. They even choose what to think about. To use Sartre's terms, they are condemned to freedom, i.e., not strictly bound by external causes. - CW