Alan Watts on "Ex nihilo nihil fit"

[godnotgod]

The volume of an atom actually occupied with the matter component (ie electrons, protons and neutrons)is minuscule compared the volume an atom occupies. Atoms are 99.99999999999999999999% totally void, but we can still have force carriers eg photons present in through these voids, unless we are in a part of space, where the first photons etc from the expansion have not yet reached.

So is nothing, nothing, is a vacuum, a vacuum, and if so since we are 99.999999999999% nothing can we really exist?
Of course we can, such is the beauty of physics and chemistry.

....and of nothing, for without it, that 99.xxxxxxxxxxxx% could also not exist. But you are defning nothing in terms of physics, where nothing is a vacuum. A vacuum is always defined in terms of what is solid, and vice versa. So you are not speaking about nothing, but emptiness. Nothing is absolute emptiness. It cannot be measured via of physics, nor by logic, nor by analysis. All attempts to see nothing via the rational mind's workings will fail since it cannot be contained in any concept or idea.

 

[godnotgod]

No you do not need a background of nothingness in order to get something to exist. That is PURE and utter nonsense. You need a spaciousness.

That is a circular argument, since spaciousness (emptiness) cannot exist without solidity, and vice versa. Space and solid are essential one to the other. They must exist together against some background, or you would not be able to distinguish them for what they are. What is that background?

I am describing nothingness in terms related to something because that is the only thing it is possible to do. ...Absolute Nothingness does not exist at all. So how else can I describe Absolute Nothingness except in relation to that which exists.

If it is Absolute, you cannot define it at all, and if you define it in relation to that which exists, then you are speaking of relative nothingness. Absolute Nothingness cannot be defined.

It is not Nothing that is required in order for Existence to be. Absolute Nothingness cannot give rise to anything. You all know this. It takes something more than nothingness to give rise to anything. Absolute Nothingness has no traits at all. So in order for there to be anything at all something other than Absolute Nothingness must be invoked. If Reality has a "beginning" then something which transcends reality must be invoked.

Define this "something" to which you refer, and how you are able to determine its "somethingness".
*****

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends...
We turn clay to make a vessel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.
Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.

Lao Tzu
*****

'In the beginningless beginning, there was nothing, which exploded.'
Unknown Source

 

[godnotgod]

Please take some time to read the following essay

found here:

Nothing is Sacred; Or, The Concept of Nothing in Zen by Alan Gullette