Second Coming the novel: Extending the Entertainment

Why is there something rather than nothing?

In the novel, Paul Genet tells his story to the abbot of a monastery he seeks to join. After Paul finishes, the abbot asks Paul questions to further help decide whether to admit him or not. Here, Paul answers the mother of all questions. —Editor

Abbot: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Paul: There are only two possible ways to view a balanced universe: as One or as Many. View the world as One—all at once—and you see nothing because everything, balanced by everything else, cancels out like a mathematical equation. View the world as Many, that is, as separate things with unique individual identities, and the conventional real world of space-time is manifest.

Something and nothing are the same thing viewed from different perspectives.

Does this mean the universe does not exist? Yes and No. A balanced universe both exists and does not exist. According to Aristotle, and classical physics, this is not possible.¹ However, something-nothing duality is no different than wave-particle duality in quantum physics where the wave (particle) exists and does not exist depending on how you look at it.²

Wittgenstein's rabbit-duck drawing helped me understand the paradox of both existing and not existing. (Hint: the rabbit's ears are the duck's beak.) The rabbit (duck) exists and does not exist.³

Sensory data do not come to us directly. Data are filtered through the mind, and the mind's job is to interpret. When it comes to why there is something rather than nothing, a conscious mind is the key. Actually, I prefer the term “self-awareness” rather than consciousness. Granted, there is probably a spectrum of self-awareness: higher primates as well as humans can recognize their reflection in a mirror. Yet, only humans have a capacity that rises to the level of subject-object split. When humans use this capacity, the seamless relationships of a balanced universe manifest as separate objects with unique identities. Without the division of self from other, only unseparated One—no-thing—exists.

My friend Preacher John explains this with his unique version of the Biblical story of Adam. “In the beginning, every creature lived in the Kingdom of God and enjoyed paradise—the ‘beatific’ vision of all things as One. Then one creature, Adam, broke the symmetry of balance and created the universe by dividing self from other. Immediately, Adam became ‘self-conscious’ and realized he was naked. Immediately, Adam feared death (the loss of self), and with the fear of death came the knowledge of good and evil (what preserves self is good and what threatens self is evil).”⁴

Preacher John calls this first subject-object split the Original Sin because the binary opposition of self-other in humans is the source of pride, hatred, greed, envy, and all the rest.

Why, then, is there something rather than nothing? Because creatures like you and I, with the capacity for subject-object split, cling to self. We love the local universe of classical physics where objects are separate and have unique identities—and we exist. We hate the non-local universe of quantum physics where separate objects, ourselves included, do not exist.⁵

The binary nature of existence in Paul’s balanced quantum universe

Balance as the operating principle of the universe | Balance as the non-local hidden variable of quantum physics

‘Second Coming’ protagonist, Paul Genet, answers questions about his universe:

What is time?

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?

Will there ever be a coherent theory of quantum gravity?

Is the universe a computer?

Are superstrings the theory of everything?

Is Schrödinger's cat both alive and dead in a balanced quantum universe?

Does God exist in the balanced universe of Paul Genet?

What is the true nature of existence?

What is the origin of language?

¹ Aristotle's principle of non-contradiction is contextual. It is only valid within classical physics which assumes a subject-object split that does not exist in quantum physics. (more here) —Editor

² Using a step-by-step thought experiment, Nobel laureate Werner Heisenberg demonstrated that a photon could manifest as both a wave and a particle. He showed how one setting of an electron microscope would yield wave (One) characteristic, and another setting would yield particle (Many) characteristics. Heisenberg's mentor, fellow Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, recognized that, while wave-particle descriptions of a single photon were inconsistent, incompatible and contradictory, both were necessary for a complete description of nature. —Editor

³ Gestalt psychologist Joseph Jastrow first used the perceptually ambiguous rabbit-duck drawing in 1900. In philosophy, it is an illustration of aspect perception. Ludwig Wittgenstein used it in Philosophical Investigations (1953). —Editor

⁴ “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die,” Genesis, 2:18.

⁵ Non-local in quantum physics means instant connections across the universe as if time and space did not exist. Scientific experiments since 1982 have verified non-local connections which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.” Of course, instant connections are not spooky at all if you view all things as One through balance. —Editor

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