A.P. Lawrence Home Page
A.P. Lawrence Home

Personal Writings Philosophy and Religion Recreation Humor Books Main Site



Tony Lawrence: Creation Ex Nihilo

More Philosophy and Religion



I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning thinking about this.



What came to my sleepy head was the realization that it doesn't matter even if something as complex as a god could spring out of nothingness.

There is one thing to be said about nothingness: there has to be (or at least has to have been) plenty of it.

We are not, of course, talking about the "nothingness" between galaxies. That's not nothingness; it's part of our universe, under the control of our physics. No, we're talking about true nothingness, and there has to be (or has to have been) an infinite supply of it.

That's an interesting thought in itself. We usually think of infinity only in the abstract: the infinite set of integers, for example. When we speak of the Infinite Universe, we wince on it a bit, and qualify it with curved space-time, and even if we really think it might be infinite, we aren't at all sure of it.

But true nothingness? It has to be infinite. Or at least had to be.

I keep qualifying that because if stuff pops out of nothingness as a natural process, then maybe all the nothingness has already popped into somethingness :-)

Anyway :-)

If a complex, sentient being can pop out of that nothingness, then what's to stop it from happening again, especially with all that nothingness around?

Heck, there should be complex beings popping out all over the place! Infinite nothingness, infinite possibilities. There should be lots of other things, too. Five hundred foot long Bengal tigers materializing in the Nothingness (and, unfortunately, immediately perishing for lack of a supporting environment), Royal Electric Typewriters, Wyse 60 keyboards, even complete Universes!

And gods! My god, there would be gods! Thor, Loki, Qetzlcoatl, man, you name it, we got it. Thousands of 'em. Millions! Billions! Sagans!

A lot of them would be weak, though. Insufficient potency, equipped with lightning bolts and a few other tricks, but they really couldn't compete with the Omni-Gods.

The Omni-gods would be a pretty rare event, I'm sure. But remember, we've got an infinite supply of nothingness, so we're bound to get a few. More than a few, of course: an infinite selection!

And, of course, some would be Omni-good, and some would be Omni-bad, and some would make their own little universe and populate it with adoring little sycophants, and some would go around smashing universes like the little boy at the beach who has to kick over everyone else's sand castle, and some would want to play Lone Ranger and try to stop the Universe smashers, and some would just sit in a corner and sulk.

There will be Male Gods and Female Gods, and God knows what that will lead to!

I suppose there will be God Wars, too, with Death and Destruction, and incredible Special Effects, and all manner of disintegration, nullification, and quantum-twisting inversions. Not a pretty sight, and from time to time we could see one God rise to ascendancy.

But our infinitely fertile nothingness will just produce something else to challenge his throne. Oh, on Tuesday it might just be a four thousand pound duck, easily dispatched in a flurry of cosmic feathers. But Wednesday morning might bring Yet Another Omni-Dude, replete with the usual bag of tricks. Then these two can battle it out, hurling Megabolts across the MetaUniverse.

And while they are distracted, our Infinite Womb will be busily churning out more.


Comments /Personal/Philosophy/creation.html


Add your comments