by Jim Holt
Beatles, 88
Beckett, Samuel, 31
Becoming, 218–19
Being, 8, 10–11, 61–62, 68, 72, 77, 160–61, 203, 243, 246
Becoming and, 218–19
Hegel’s doctrine of, 216–18
nothingness and, 215, 218, 227
Being and Nothingness (Sartre), 3, 43, 216
Bell Labs, 26
Bergson, Henri, 22, 46–49, 54
Berlin, Isaiah, 124
Bhagavad Gita, 86–87
Bieberbach, Ludwig, 65–66
Bierce, Ambrose, 279
Big Bang, 4, 6, 9, 25, 55, 83–84, 97, 128, 145, 146, 155, 168, 173, 211, 224, 278
cosmic background radiation and, 13–14, 144
existence and, 74–75
false vacuum and, 218–19
God and, 25–26
Grünbaum on, 70–72
infinity at moment of, 139
nothingness and, 55
and origin of the universe, 26–27
quantum theory and, 144
singularity and, 139
time and, 71–72, 74–75
universe prior to, 70–71
Why? question and, 26–27
Big Bounce, 83
Big Crunch, 27, 81, 83, 123
black hole, 35, 173, 189
Block, Ned, 192
Bohm, David, 26
Bondi, Hermann, 83
Boswell, James, 266–67
Boubal, Monsieur, 216–17
boundary conditions, 156
Bradley, F. H., 47–48
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 93
bubble universes, 166–69
Buddhism, 31, 36, 65, 260–70
and nature of reality, 278–79
Budé, Guillaume, 276
Burnyeat, Myles, 44
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 123, 213
calculus, 20, 38, 90
Camus, Albert, 213
Candide (Voltaire), 9, 20
Cantor, Georg, 35, 182
Carlyle, Thomas, 32
Carnap, Rudolf, 44
Carroll, Lewis, 44
catastrophe theory, 172
Catholic Church, 26, 82
causation, 211–12
Chalmers, David, 194
chaotic inflation, theory of, 12–16, 84, 197
background radiation and, 250
multiverse and, 166, 168–70
charge conservation, law of, 53–54
Cheever, John, 274
chemistry, 77–78, 208
Chesterton, G. K., 247
Church Dogmatics (Barth), 42
Cioran, E. M., 31, 213
Clarke, Samuel, 109
COBE satellite, 14, 144
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 41, 46, 87
Combination Problem, 195–96
comprehensibility, principle of, 127–28
Connes, Alain, 172
consciousness, 8, 22, 35, 127, 177, 210, 263, 270
artificial intelligence and, 127
Grünbaum on, 73
matter and, 73
nothingness and, 43, 46–48, 56
Penrose on, 174–75, 178, 185
panpsychism and, 194–96
reality and, 190–94
self as subject of, 257–58
unity of, 195–96, 200
Updike on, 250–51
conservation, laws of, 54
constants, 15, 98, 156–57, 207–8
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 25
Copleston, Frederick, 24
cosmic background radiation, 26–27, 83–84, 165
Big Bang and, 13–14, 144
inflation theory and, 250
multiverse and, 165, 168
“cosmic bootstrap,” 246
cosmic censorship hypothesis, 173
cosmic structuralism, 189
cosmogony, 19–20
cosmological constant, 82–83, 156–57
Creation, The (Haydn), 33
creation myths, 18–20
Creative Evolution (Bergson), 22
Crick, Francis, 174–75
Danto, Arthur, 17, 174
Darwin, Charles, 5, 126
Davies, Paul, 164–65, 167–68
Dawkins, Richard, 5–6, 63, 66–67, 77, 93, 97, 100, 111, 113, 116, 122, 202–3, 255
Dead of Night (film), 83
death, 266–75
of author’s dog, 151–53
of author’s mother, 270–75
Buddhist view of, 269–70
fear of, 266–67, 268
and prospect of nothingness, 268–69, 270
Death of a Salesman (Miller), 249–50
de Beauvoir, Simone, 91, 216–17
Dedekind, Richard, 40
Dennett, Daniel, 192, 257
Dependency Axiom, 68
De Rerum Natura (Lucretius), 266
Descartes, René, 8, 56–57, 68, 89–92, 104, 111, 129, 196, 253
pronoun “I” of, 256–57, 260–61
Deutsch, David, 120–31, 164
background of, 120–21
compatibility theory of, 121–22
on nature of explanation, 126–27
Turing principle of, 123
universal computer and, 121–22
on Why? question, 125–26
Devil’s Dictionary, The (Bierce), 196, 279
DeWitt, Bryce, 121
dialectical materialism, 26
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Hume), 10, 84–85
Dickens, Charles, 258
Dirac’s equation, 74
DNA, 255
Donne, John, 42
Douglas, Jimmy, 88–89
Dreams of a Final Theory (Weinberg), 146, 160
Dreyfus affair, 29
Dunciad, The (Pope), 171
Dyson, Freeman, 147, 252
Eddington, Arthur, 26, 189, 193
Einstein, Albert, 25, 26, 27, 34, 48, 50, 51, 66, 74, 139, 141–42, 144–45, 183, 189, 195
cosmological constant of, 82–83, 156–57
electromagnetism, 78, 146, 208
Elements (Euclid), 181
Elizabeth II, Queen of England, 173
Emperor’s New Mind, The (Penrose), 174
End of the World, The (Leslie), 198
energy, 51, 75, 183, 188
in closed universe, 141–42
uncertainty principle and, 141
entanglement, notion of, 195–96, 198
entropy, 61, 166, 252
Escher, M. C., 174
Ethics (Spinoza), 205
Euclid, 181
event causation, 211
event horizon, 173
Everett, Hugh, III, 121, 169
evil, 202
axiarchism and, 212–13
privative theory of, 212
Spinoza’s view of, 213–14
Swinburne on, 102
evolution, theory of, 6, 122, 126
existence, 4, 30–31, 33, 126, 132, 138, 155, 211, 254
Big Bang and, 74–75
causation and, 211–12
as cause of itself, 34–35
cosmic structuralism and, 192–93
ethical need for, 209–10
God question and, 10–11
Grünbaum on, 64, 66–69
Indispensability Argument and, 183–84
literary world’s view of, 31–32
mathematics and, 8–9, 183–84, 254
monism and, 196
monotheistic religions and, 34
and need for goodness, 199–200, 203
ontological argument and, 112–13
Platonism and, 182
principle of fecundity and, 28
quantum theory and, 128–29, 157–58
rejectionists and, 28–29
Schopenhauer on, 21–22, 30–31
scientific explanation of, 5–6, 25
Selector for, 226, 228, 232–36
Steady-State Universe and, 83
Wittgenstein on, 33–34
existentialism, 3–4,
8, 188, 274
nothingness and, 31–32, 43–44, 149–50
Fabric of Reality, The (Deutsch), 122–23, 129
fact causation, 211–12
Faraday, Michael, 187
fecundity, principle of, 135–36, 159, 182
logical defect of, 159–60
Weinberg on, 159–60
Fermat, Pierre de, 37, 65, 152
Feynman, Richard, 76, 120–21, 167, 172, 183, 189
Fibonacci, Leonardo, 37
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 261–62
Field, Hartry, 184
final cause, notion of, 211
first cause, see God
First Three Minutes, The (Weinberg), 146, 163
Flashdance (film), 64
Foundation, Principle of, 237–38, 239–42
France, 90, 188
Fredkin, Ed, 190
free will, 127
God and, 102
Freud, Sigmund, 30, 266
Friedmann, Alexander, 83
Fuller, Margaret, 32
functionalism, theory of, 191
Galileo Galilei, 25, 51, 82, 172–73
Gamow, George, 142
Gardner, Martin, 164, 167–68
Gaunilo of Marmoutier, 113
Gell-Mann, Murray, 167
genes, 255
Genesis, Book of, 19–20, 67, 97
George I, King of England, 20
Germany, 64, 65
Ghazālī, al-, 81–82
Gingerich, Owen, 6–7
Gnostics, 34
God, 65, 85, 155, 157, 180, 185, 204, 233, 242, 278
as Absolute Idea, 219
and argument from design, 101
in Ayer-Copleston debate, 24
Barth’s view of, 244–45, 251–52
Big Bang and, 25–26
in book of Genesis, 19
as brute fact, 105–6, 108
as cause of himself (causa sui), 108–9
in Christian dogma, 67–68
cosmological argument for, 109–10, 119
and doctrine of atonement, 102–3
ethical need for, 199–200, 205–6
and existence of life, 77
and expansion of universe, 25–26
free will and, 102
goodness and, 101–2
Leslie on, 204–5
as necessity, 104–5, 109–10, 116–17
as omnipotent, 102, 105–6
ontological argument for, see ontological argument
Platonism and, 173
Russell on, 254
Saint Anselm’s reasoning for, 110–15, 116
Sartre’s view of, 90–91
self and, see self
Spinoza’s view of, 34, 204–5
Swinburne on, 92–93, 95–106, 204
timelessness and, 103
universe and, 5–7, 21, 67–68
Updike on, 251–52
Weinberg on, 155
Why? question and, 4–8
God Delusion, The (Dawkins), 63, 93, 111
Gödel, Kurt, 115, 117, 172
incompleteness theorem of, 174, 179
“God’s Universe” (Gingerich), 6–7
Goethe, Johann von, 266
Gold, Thomas, 83
Goncharov, Ivan, 254
goodness, 201–2, 210, 213, 238
existence and, 199–200, 203
God and, 101–2
as Selector, 227–28
truth and, 211
gravity, 15, 78, 139, 145, 162, 184
“Great Chain of Being” (Lovejoy), 7
Greece, ancient, 19, 36, 60–61, 68
Greene, Brian, 231
Gribbin, John, 140
Grünbaum, Adolf, 63–73, 75, 77, 78–80, 93, 103–4
antipathy to theism of, 63–64
background of, 64–66
on Big Bang, 70–72
on consciousness, 73
existence question and, 64, 66–69
on nothingness, 69–70
Swinburne on, 95–96
Grünbaum, Thelma, 79
Guth, Alan, 14, 142
Hard Times (Dickens), 258
Hardy, G. H., 181
Hawking, Stephen, 5, 28, 50, 66–67, 139–40, 145, 155–56, 161, 163, 167, 173, 209
Haydn, Franz Joseph, 33
Heath, Peter, 46
Heckmann, Otto, 26
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 22, 65, 216–20, 261, 270
Heidegger, Martin, 3–4, 22–23, 30, 46, 66–67, 69, 204, 235, 248, 274
on nothingness, 43
on Why? question, 17–18
Heisenberg, Werner, 10, 140–41, 163, 188
Heraclitus, 19
Higgs field, 51
History of Ideas, 17
Hitchens, Christopher, 5, 229
Hitler, Adolf, 22
Holocaust, 93
Hostage Chess (game), 198
Hoyle, Fred, 26, 83
Hubble, Edwin, 25
Hubble space telescope, 250
Hume, David, 10, 21, 24, 84–85, 210, 267, 269
self as viewed by, 256–57, 258, 260
Husserl, Edmund, 261, 262
Hutchinson, Sara “Asra,” 41
Hutton, Barbara, 88
Huxley, Julian, 138
hylomorphism, 186
Immortality Defended (Leslie), 198
incompleteness theorem, 174, 179
Indispensability Argument, 183–84
infinity, 35, 60, 99, 254
at moment of Big Bang, 139
information, 61, 189–90
Introduction to Metaphysics (Heidegger), 3–4
Islam:
creation doctrine of, 19–20
temporal nature of world in, 81–82
Is There a God? (Swinburne), 92
It’s a Wonderful Life (film), 52–53
Jackson, Frank, 191
James, William, 12, 17, 30, 193, 195–96, 200, 209
Jeans, James, 173
Jeremiah, prophet, 101
Jesus of Nazareth, 103, 251
Johnston, Mark, 268–69
Jones, Archilochus, 41
Joyce, James, 3
Judaism, 20
Kant, Immanuel, 21, 48, 65, 82, 196, 261
ontological argument criticized by, 112–13, 116, 119
Kepler, Johannes, 126
Kierkegaard, Søren, 22, 30, 244, 247
Kripke, Saul, 115
“Kubla Khan” (Coleridge), 87
Küng, Hans, 204
Lagerfeld, Karl, 89
language, 188
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 6
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 7, 20–21, 38–39, 42, 59, 66–67, 68, 69, 71, 86, 91, 93, 104, 109–10, 111, 209, 212, 223, 225
Paris sojourn of, 89–90
and relational view of space, 49
Lemaître, Georges, 25
Lenin, V. I., 26
Leonardo da Vinci, 61
Leslie, John, 197–215, 217, 223, 227, 241, 254
axiarchism of, see axiarchism
on God, 204–5
on multiverse, 207
on problem of evil, 202, 212
as subjectivist, 210
writings of, 197–98
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 188–89
author’s encounter with, 276–77
Lewis, David K., 40, 167
Lichtenberg, Georg, 256
life, 30
Linde, Andrei, 13–16, 166, 197
logic, 20, 57–58, 110, 182
modal, 115–18
nothingness and, 57–58
ontological argument and, 115–18
universally free, 58
logical positivism, 24, 28, 44
London Review of Books, 222
Louis XIV, King of France, 90
Lovejoy, Arthur, 7, 17
Lovell, Bernard, 17
Lucretius, 266
Luria, Aleksandr, 47
Mackie, John, 118, 205
Maimonides, 20
Many Worlds
possibility, 225–26
mass-energy conservation, law of, 54, 86–87, 188
“Mathematician’s Nightmare, The” (Russell), 184–85
mathematics, 8
Allegory of the Cave and, 175
applied, 181
atoms and, 187–88
concept of zero in, 36–37, 39
existence and, 8–9, 183–84, 254
finite numbers in, 37
if-then propositions and, 181
and infinity of prime numbers, 181
matter and, 180, 187
mysticism and, 171
in nature, 172–73
Platonists and, 171–72
reality and, 189
regular numbers in, 37
Russell on, 183
theory of sets and, 30, 39–40, 45, 238, 240
truth and, 172, 180–81, 183
matter, 8–9, 22, 48, 50, 75, 97, 139, 165, 168, 183, 185
consciousness and, 73
in inflation theory, 14
mathematics and, 180, 187
Meditations (Descartes), 253
Mendeleyev, Dmitri, 70
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 219
metaphysics, 28, 31
Metaphysics (Aristotle), 217
“Metaphysics Explained for You” (Jones), 41
“Midpoint” (Updike), 244
Milky Way galaxy, 84
mind, 8–9, 122
mathematics and matter and, 180
Mind of a Mnemonist, The (Luria), 47
Miracle of Theism, The (Mackie), 205
Mitford, Nancy, 88
modal logic, 115–18
monads, 20
Montaigne, 155, 276–77
Moore, G. E., 200
Moreau, Jeanne, 89
Morgenbesser, Sidney, 17, 125
Moses, prophet, 106
Moyers, Bill, 10
multiverse, 84, 121–22, 125–26, 130, 170, 182, 198
axiarchic hypothesis and, 207–8
as bubble universes, 166–69
chaotic inflation theory and, 166, 168–70
cosmic background radiation and, 165, 168
counterfactuals problem and, 167
doubters and critics of, 164–65, 167–69
Leslie on, 207
paradox of Schrödinger’s cat and, 167
parallel worlds in, 135, 165–66, 169
pocket universe and, 158–59
principle of comprehensibility and, 127–28
quantum theory and, 167, 169
spacetime and, 165
Swinburne on, 97–98
Weinberg on, 156–59, 169–70
Munitz, Milton, 58
Mystery of Existence, The (Munitz), 58
Nagel, Thomas, 73, 191, 192, 194, 210, 257, 158–59, 265
objective self argument of, 262–64
Napoléon I, Emperor of France, 6, 115–16, 264–65
natural selection, 6, 77
Nature of Necessity (Plantinga), 115
Nature of the Physical World, The (Eddington), 193
Nausea (Sartre), 31, 149
New Testament, 101
Newton, Isaac, 6, 20, 25, 38, 49, 71, 82, 109, 140, 184