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Fifty Shades of Nothing (The Mystery of Existence - Why is There Anything at all?)
First Things ^ | July 24, 2013 | Edward Feser

Posted on 07/24/2013 2:36:36 PM PDT by NYer

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To: NYer

According to Frisky the wonder tigress, the Great Cat is swishing her tail and bearing her fangs, and we mean mean mean stingy unappreciative two-leggers are going to be sorry sorry sorry we weren’t nice to kitties when we had the chance.


21 posted on 07/24/2013 3:32:07 PM PDT by Standing Wolf
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To: NYer

One word - “fields”.


22 posted on 07/24/2013 3:47:26 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: NYer

apparently nothing ain’t what it used to be.


23 posted on 07/24/2013 3:53:42 PM PDT by farsny
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To: NYer

Ah yes, the universe according to Seinfeld.


24 posted on 07/24/2013 3:54:24 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: I want the USA back

Actually, whether they realize it or not I think they are just restating Aquinas, not disproving him.


25 posted on 07/24/2013 3:56:24 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: NYer

Nothing must be something if you can get something from nothing.


26 posted on 07/24/2013 3:57:51 PM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: NYer

**Why is There Anything at all?**

Because of God!


27 posted on 07/24/2013 4:28:01 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: NYer
Thanks again for posting another interesting article.

I'm currently reading Feser's book, "The Last Superstition". He is really doing a number on Richard Dawkins in that book, and on other atheists of Dawkins ilk. (Feser takes great delight in pointing out the many flaws in Dawkins arguments and understanding, due to his very shallow grasp - or complete lack thereof - of philosophy, including what St. Thomas Aquinas was really saying.)

I started reading that Feser book because "Fr. Mitch Pacwa" has highly recommended it a number of times. For me, it is very slow reading (to try to follow exactly what he is saying at times), but it is very fascinating, once I get at least a slight glimmer of what he is saying.

28 posted on 07/24/2013 4:51:00 PM PDT by Heart-Rest (Good reading ==> | ncregister.com | catholic.com | ewtn.com | newadvent.org |)
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To: blueunicorn6

29 posted on 07/24/2013 5:07:48 PM PDT by Misterioso (The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.)
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To: SampleMan

“Summation.

Infinite time is impossible to explain.
The beginning of time is impossible to explain, except as an isolated finite observer.
Infinite existance of matter is impossible to explain.
The creation of energy or matter from nothing is impossible to explain.

That is the unanswerable paradox of our universe.”

Only when all there is to know is known can it be truthfully said that something is beyond the realm of possibility to explain.

Further, when one reaches what he thinks is the point of being “all-knowing”, he finds that he now knows that he is “all-knowing” and realizes that he knows less than he thought he did, making him only “The Formerly Self-Proclaimed All-Knowing One” due to his realization that he can actually be wrong and thereby NOT know everything there is to know.

Being only the perpetual former omnipotent, he is left with the fact that he was really never omnipotent at all and so could have saved a lot of anguish had he just listened to his wife in the first place, who he now recollects hearing her say “you don’t know everything” several times over the years.


30 posted on 07/24/2013 6:24:58 PM PDT by Let_It_Be_So (Once you see the Truth, you cannot "unsee" it, no matter how hard you may try.)
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To: SampleMan

bttt


31 posted on 07/24/2013 11:29:33 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter (')
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To: Lancey Howard
Any child could answer that question: "Because."

My nephew, when asked the reason for something he did, used to answer, "For.". It was much later when we learned that he probably got this when my sister would ask him, "What did you do that for?". :o> (he was SO cute!)

32 posted on 07/24/2013 11:36:35 PM PDT by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.)
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To: boatbums

When my son was 2 he asked if he could get a pair of glasses. My wife and I knew he had perfectly good eyes, and we asked him why he wanted glasses and he replied, “So I can read.” We were puzzled at first but then we realized that when we gave grandmom and grandpop cards, they always said something like, “Let me put on my glasses so I can read that.”

My 2-year-old son thought, naturally, that if he put on a pair of glasses then he too could read.

Another funny, momentary puzzler happened one Friday night when my young (3-yrs?) son was tired and cranky. I had the TV on and I said, “Hey, wanna watch Miami Vice?” He stomped and replied, “No! I don’t wanna watch Yourami Vice!”


33 posted on 07/24/2013 11:58:42 PM PDT by Lancey Howard (Yeah, I'm old enough to remember Art Linkletter.)
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To: Heart-Rest
For me, it is very slow reading (to try to follow exactly what he is saying at times), but it is very fascinating, once I get at least a slight glimmer of what he is saying.

Kudos on the personal challenge. Just trying to get through this article was an intellectual struggle. I prefer a more visual approach in the style of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, ".... billions and billions of stars". I enjoyed that series.

34 posted on 07/25/2013 2:48:43 AM PDT by NYer ( "Run from places of sin as from the plague."--St John Climacus)
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