[austintorn@aol.com]

Nothing begets nothing;
therefore, there had to be something;
so, nothing cannot exist;
that is, there was no creation.

I’d then say that the Big Bang or bangs of “materialization”
had to be from previous indestructible material.

(No weirdness of something making itself;
No myth of a single one fundamental thing exhibiting
multiple part systems of intelligence, planning, thinking, or emotions that operate underneath reality to rule and create all that is, including itself.
No strangeness of a complex composite arriving before its parts—to rule by underlying reality;
No superstitious believing on faith,
faith meaning believing in the unseen supernatural
because somebody declared it so.
No complex composite overseeing reality,
whether claiming fundamentalness or not,
since no such alien life forms have been seen.)

Something exists and it produces
time, space, and all that there is;
it just exists because non-existence is impossible.

It preceded the big bang and all that we call forever.
It is likely more than just one thing;
otherwise it would be undifferentiated—
one external unbreakable thing could have no parts.

It seems to be several things at certain levels:
A strong force that help forms and stabilize matter,
a weak opposing force that helps disperse matter through decay,
and an electric force and a magnetic force
which seem to facilitate movement and more.

At lower levels we have all the “ultimate” fundamental “particles” and forces said to be accounted for by strings, but strings are far from believable right now.

Electric and magnetic forces each lead to the other
and so are closely linked as the electromagnetic force.
Note that all forces blend to produce other effects,
like gravity, which also facilitates movement,
and so on through forms of matter on right up to human being (of course via the forming of stars which produce
heavier elements, billions of years of brewing, DNA, and so on).

Movement begets time.
No movement, no time,
just like in the movies when somebody stops time.

Space is defined by the influence of the forces.
Anything beyond this influence is nonexistence,
meaning that it is not there at all in any way.

Human life was a lucky accident,
owing to death as the chooser of the wise from the silly
through natural selection,
events like asteroids wiping out 99.9 % of species,
the fusing of two of our chromosomes—
separating us by making chimp mating impossible, etc.,
and, in general, 13 billion years of unforeseen unplanned happenings. That’s a very long time. Hard to even imagine it.

Consciousness is still somewhat of an enigma,
unless is it simply (probably) the brain’s perception of itself,
although it still seems unique and global and all that.

The brain receives input from the senses and itself,
The brain generates thoughts from the self: our memories,
sense data, goals, wishes, and learned associations.
Some make it to the mind’s eye at different times;
Consciousness (‘I’) observes what is on the mind.

Luckily, we live at peak, atop life’s pile
Of miraculous lives, from eons of wiles.
We’re alive, thanks to all who’ve come before,
So how could we live by any style but to smile?