Sunday 16 March 2008

Death, Life- More of it

The Life-its-absence-and-presence post has drawn huge worldwide interest, and as a consequence some more words which should be of interest to the intellectually hungry hordes. I wrote: "Many humans have pondered the nature of life and death, each being apparently the absence of the other, but my definition is assuredly an improvement on all previous efforts in this noble art-form." I thought that some of these previous efforts might be worth displaying in their own right, and so below will follow some of same.

Death/Life Thoughts

Death is that which is there when life isn't, which is to say that when life is there, death isn't. Life is the presence of that which we call life, while death is the absence of this presence. Though if we were within that which we call death, we might find it to contain the presence rather than the absence of life, and within that death, that which we consider life might, in ignorance, be considered to be death.

Death is that which isn't. Therefore, death doesn't exist.

In a pure world of cause and effect, the non-existence of life is the cause of the existence of life.
Attempting to solve the apparent quandary of the above led to the following:
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so the universe came into existence to fill the void of its absence. The meaning of life is prevention of the vacuum.

Why does nature abhor a vacuum? In the vacuum is the non-existence of nature. Nature abhors a vacuum because existence abhors its own non-existence. For the same reason, the vacuum abhors nature: the cosmological struggle.
A vacuum does exist. Nothing exists within a vacuum. Therefore a vacuum doesn't exist.
A vacuum is the absence of existence. It is the non-existence of existence surrounded by the non-existence of existence's absence, which is to say existence's presence.
The vacuum requires existence within which to not exist.

10 comments:

Gar said...

A good vacuum abhors things natural (dust, dirt etc)

Andrew said...

Things become very subtle there. Once a vacuum is filled with the things of existence, it is no longer a pure vacuum. SO the vacuum's hatred of existence by which it seeks to conquer them, leads to it contradicting its own nature. "If Satan's kingdom is divided against itself, how shall Satan's kingdom stand?"

Gar said...

I was referring to vacuum cleaners

Andrew said...

Why would a vacuum need to be cleaned? It is literally spotless.

Andrew said...

Though these vacuum cleaners are only pseudo-vacuums. Pretenders to the throne of non-existence.

Gar said...

Vacuous point surely

Gar said...

perhaps nature's (natural) abhorence is best summed up b ythe dictate, "avoid devoid void"

Andrew said...

Not sure which point was vacuous, but not entirely vacuous, you'll admit.

Anonymous said...

Have you read much Jewish mysticism? Your contrast of existence and absence reminds me very much of the "vessel" and the "shells" of the Kabbalah ....

Anonymous said...

Not sure if somehow your comment got a bit messed up in the system, NA, so I just pasted it from my email. But the simple answer is, no, I don't think I've really read any Jewish mysticism at all.