Passing this one on – because it is terrific.
Now available for download!
Many have inquired about obtaining a copy of the last message that George Markey gave at the mission’s conference. It was given a little more than a month before he passed away. Much of his message is a summary of his life, as well as lessons he learned as a pastor both in the U.S. and overseas. The mp3 audio recording can now be found here.
The letter to the church in Laodicea: Picture yourself in the ballroom of the Titanic. The surroundings are elegant. The people are elegant. The entertainment, the music, the food – all elegant. But nobody in that ballroom knew the end of the story as we do today. On its maiden voyage in April of 1912, the ship hit an iceberg. Within hours the ship was underwater and most of its passengers died.
Passing the last one on.
(I promise, this is the last one!)
So by this time, I was thinking breakfast should have happened a long time ago, but my river path had morphed into a worn-ish trail across the edge of fields, and it just kept being beautiful!
Eventually I just had to make up my mind to turn around (partly because I had no idea how long I’d been walking, and after all I had an essay to write). So with that, it was back along the river . . .
through the mist, and Middle Earth . . .
And to my cozy flat and breakfast.
The end. =]
I just bought the bestseller Why Does the World Exist: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt (New York, Liveright, 2012). The book looks great, but I haven’t read very far into it just yet. On page 1, the Prologue offers what is dubbed:
“A Quick Proof That There Must Be Something Rather Than Nothing, for Modern People Who Lead Busy Lives.”
Here is the proof:
Suppose there were nothing. Then there would be no laws; for laws, after all, are something. If there were no laws, then everything would be permitted. If everything were permitted, then nothing would be forbidden. So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. Thus nothing is self-forbidding.
Therefore, there must be something. QED.
Again, I’ve yet to read beyond this page, but a quick glance revealed no immediate refutation of this proof. My daughter, a sophomore at a non-elite university, saw through the it immediately, pointing out that it employed equivocation on the word “nothing.” This does seem to be one way to describe what is wrong with the proof. With a few minutes to think and type I shall quickly attempt to explain.
Suppose there were nothing. OK, fair enough.
Then there would be no laws; for laws, after all, are something. Still good.
If there were no laws, then everything would be permitted. This no longer works, for in a state of total “nothingness” there would be no “everything” and no such thing as “permission.”
If everything were permitted, then nothing would be forbidden. Whatever. See the next line.
So if there were nothing, nothing would be forbidden. This sounds suspiciously like a prohibition or a law, which we have already been told, correctly, do not exist in a condition of absolute nothingness.
Thus nothing is self-forbidding. Wrong.
Therefore, there must be something. QED. Sorry. As explained, it doesn’t follow.
So, with all due respects to Jim Holt, whose book I intend to thoroghly enjoy, and with a quiet hope that he offers a similar refutation somewhere beyond page 1, I offer this alternative.
“An Even Quicker Proof That There Might Nothing Rather Than Something, for Modern People Whose Lives Are Still Busy”
Suppose there were nothing. Then nothing would exist, not even a prohibition against nothingness. Thus, there would truly be nothing, i.e., nothing at all. QED.
[Update on Nov 18, 2012: I’m very happy to say that the author goes far beyond such “proofs” as this. The book is very satisfying for those who like to read such things. The Quck Proof is a mere tongue-in-cheek introduction to an entertainingly written discussion of a long and serious subject.]
Central Reflections 