Thread: If matter cant be created or destroyed, where did all this stuff come from?

Originally Posted by Xei

If you both define the meaning of the word 'exists' precisely enough, you'll find your disagreement vanishes into a tautological agreement.

Not really.

The statement that things happen in order "from our perspective" does not lead in any logical way to the conclusion that "therefore time is an observable phenomenon, and thus 'something.'" The "something being observed" is the change of the object being observed, and not time. In other words, the only thing that ever "exists" is the object being observed, and time is simply a decidedly abstract and subjective tool of observation.

I guess we might be saying the same thing when "from our perspective" is considered, since that was sort of my point: time only exists because we need it to do so. But our perspective does not create existence; it only defines it. So if no sentient beings were around to use time as a measuring stick for reality, there would be no time.