A Rational Cosmology: The Universe Cannot Be Created

Essay VI

This is Essay VI of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

In "What the Universe is and is Not," I defined the universe as "everything that exists," a convenient shorthand for every entity that is.

If it is true that the universe is "everything that exists," and it could be created, then, whatever entity could create the universe, would be outside that universe. It follows, then, that such an entity would be outside "everything that exists." An entity "outside" existence does not exist! A non-existent entity cannot do anything. Creation is an action that an entity must perform; it cannot be performed if the entity that would perform it does not exist!

It is instructive to note that this principle automatically refutes both the theory that "God created the universe," as will be shown here, and that "the Big Bang created the universe," as will be shown subsequently.

Even if it were possible that all currently known entities were intelligently designed, they could not have been designed by a being that is somehow "beyond existence."

Rather, this being would need to be a delimited entity in its own right, with its own peculiar attributes (qualities) and capacities for action (relationships with other entities). Let the reader recall that everything which is or happens must in some manner involve some entity or entities. There are no such things as "pure" qualities, "pure" relationships, or "pure" creation, apart from the entities that exhibit, relate, and create.

Any Creator of other entities would thus need to exist and be a part of the universe, and it would need to relate to other entities in some manner, as a human creator relates to the entity, "brick," when he constructs the new entity, "building". The Creator would not be able to create the universe, the latter being a contradiction in terms.