| The argument that there must be a cause for something from nothing is predicated on the quite unproven notion that nothing is a physical possibility to begin with. Separately, some of the most interesting philosophy around this stuff was in the first century or two CE when Hellenistic philosophy connects to the oddity in Judaism that there's two creation stories back to back. With Philio you end up with an embracing of Plato's forms where the idea of a perfect spiritual archetype of man existing first before a lesser physically embodied incarnation (i.e. us). But the coolest is in the Gospel of Thomas and components of the Naassenes following it later on, where they incorporate ideas from Epicurean atomism and naturalism, positioning a model of a spontaneous naturally arising physical cosmos first, and then claim that there's a second non-physical copy of that original (and that we're the copy). You don't tend to expect to see quotes being attributed to Jesus that considers the greater wonder to be evolution over intelligent design, such as "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty." Given the Epicureans were convinced the soul's material dependence on the body meant death was certain, this was a rather clever addition to those philosophical foundations, lamenting physicality ("How miserable is the body that depends on a body, and how miserable is the soul that depends on these two") while emphasizing that the copies won't die and are thus preferable ("Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being"). It was a sort of simulation theory sans computers in antiquity (down to claiming the creator of the copy was brought forth by the original spontaneously existing man), which you tend not to expect to see. |