Existence

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From Wikipedia:

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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations.
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For this thread Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth". is to be accepted as a declarative statement of completed action.

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Genesis 1:2, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." is to be accepted as a disjunctive as translated in the LXX and marked by the Masoretes.

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Thus it would begin with 'Now' or 'But' the earth...

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Now to a very controversial word.

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is translated 'was' in verse 2 means 1) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out.

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I find only 4 times is translated 'was'. Genesis 1:2, 3:1, Exodus 5:13, and Judges 20:3.

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Since the word does not have 'was' in the definition I don't know why the translators chose 'was' unless it suited their bias.

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An interesting subject. Re the grammar of Genesis, there is the notion of a verb in perfect tense in the Hebrew, applying to past, present and future.

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In Genesis 1:2 my bias would prefer become, or come to pass. But I believe a form of exist (existed) would be better.

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I see this verse as applying to the initiation of LAWS [science] upon which the universe functions. The formless void becoming formed allows only one understanding of this verse, especially since it is followed with the first created products via separations from the void.

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In Genesis Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

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This statement was translated "I AM THAT I AM'.

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But should have been translated 'I EXIST THAT I EXIST'. 'I' comes from the prefix .

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Thus God claims to be existence.

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Yet the creator cannot be finite. The first indication of this is the verse I AM THE LORD I HAVE NOT CHANGED. This CHANGE factor appears the best description of 'infinite'.

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In Genesis 1:1 Moses declared God caused the Heavens and the Earth to exist.

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In Isaiah 40:26 Isaiah declared God caused all things to exist.

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In Isaiah 42:5 God declared He caused the Heavens to begin to exist and streached them out.

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In Isaiah 45:12 God declared He caused the earth to begin to exist and man upon it.

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These are just a few scriptures that declare Existence caused everything to begin to exist.

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Observations:

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The Heavens (universe) exists.
The Earth exists.
Mankind as well as all living creatures exist.

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The question is:

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Is existence responsible for bringing into existence all that exists?

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If not, then what is responsible for bringing into existence all that exists.

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The Bible declares existence is responsible for bringing into existence all that exists.

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I agree.

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What say you?

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If existence is not responsible for bringing into existence all that exists, then what is?

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There is existence (all things exist) and the opposite of that is non-existence (no thing exists). There is no known mechanism whereby existence can begin to exist from non-existence.

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Can anyone present a case for existence without it being brought about by existence?

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God Bless,

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Your choice.

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I do not believe an alternative answer is available or possible to your question. The nearest we have is 'breath of life' [whatever that means in empiral terms]. However, Genesis makes a most significant declaration about life, which is not fully appreciated or considered. This is that the life forms were 'COMPLETED' but were yet not alive [animated; existing]; they became alive only after the completed life form was injected with the breath of life. This goes against the accepted versions of ToE, but I agree with Genesis: a car is not a car till it is completed; the car moves only when ignited with a key in its triggering. A zebra is not a Zebra till it is completed. A trigger factor must apply between completed and existing.Edited by IamJoseph, : No reason given.