When debating the beginning of the universe, many often hide behind the infamous infinite regress idea. In other words, in order to explain the existence of the world by positing a “maker” raises the question of how to explain the existence of the maker. If another maker is posited, the question becomes, “Who made the maker?” And so on, or “ad nauseam,” whichever comes first.

My response to the very first cause of the cosmos? Just pull Lennon’s creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) argument:

“Before Elvis, there was nothing.” — John Lennon

The anecdote is motivated by Leibniz’s ideas–he was neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but merely a neutral rationalist.

Optimist: The glass is half full.
Pessimist: The glass is half empty.
Rationalist: The glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Aristotle is said to have said that meaning of life consists of happiness. St. Augustine thought it was to love God. Martin Heidegger, the famous twentieth-century existentialist, however, thought the authentic meaning of life is to live in full consciousness of death. Now that’s the “bright” way of looking at things…

I recently came across to an interesting fact, which most people, I would claim, are not aware of. Most dictionaries define the word “metaphysics” as a division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being and that includes ontology, cosmology, and often epistemology. One can easily read into the definition and think that the etymology of metaphysics refers to something that concerns matters beyond the physical world. However, the word actually comes from Aristotle’s work which was titled “Metaphysica”–a title given by a first-century scholar. The name referred to the fact that the treatise came after (i.e. meta- or beyond) his other treatise called “Physica.” Thus, the catchy name has nothing to do with matters beyond the physical world.