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

^^ Thank you for that clarification, Darkmatters; that makes much more sense, and dovetails nicely with what I've been taught, and, well, common sense. My wife would be proud of you, as you've paraphrased her oft-voiced (sometimes screamed) argument well. And, before I resign my current attempt to sell the blasphemous idea that time doesn't exist, let me add this thought to your last post:

Funny that you suggest freezing time. What exactly would you freeze? Are there time molecules? What exactly is present when that 4th dimension attends and creates motion? My guess is that your answer is absolutely nothing, and you would be correct. Then what is time, then? Just the existence of a 4th dimension?

I think my problem with all this is that you're adding a little extra reality to reality that just might not be there. Think about it... You (and, well, pretty much everybody) are creating a physical dimension in order to explain an event that defies human comprehension. That event? Motion. Perhaps that created 4th dimension is a dimension made only of perception?

Energy causes things to move, and move they do. Yes, the only way we can explain that movement is by describing it as, say, the displacement of matter across space over a certain period of time.

We need to add the factor of time in order to understand the movement ourselves; but there is no thing that is time anywhere in the process. Things move, and yes, from our perspective time was a part of that movement because it was the only way we observers can track that movement. But there was no thing that is time present, ever. So time does not exist.

This is not a semantic exercise; except for its mathematically necessary and cognitively convenient presence to make motion comprehensible to our limited minds, there simply is no force, material, or even essence that can be identified as time. It doesn't exist.

And yet, time is the most powerful force in our lives. Go figure.

Thanks for playing!

PS: This post was of course rhetorical. I understand exactly what you're saying, and only wanted to summarize. No need to respond or clarify again; I get it, and logic loops are dull.