There is a Limit

Many people study the big bang, black holes, and space travel, looking out into the cosmos toward what appears to be billions upon billions of galaxies. Physics, astronomy, and cosmology attempt to determine how the universe works. These fields have succeeded in laying down the basic guidelines of what the universe does and how it does it. Apparently, though, we are in a universe that we do not actually understand: what of the question of why the universe exists? What is its purpose? Or for that matter, are we capable of grasping the answers to such questions? There are ways that this can be approached.

Our universe could actually be a single event occurring in a higher universe. We usually think of the big bang as a single event. What I am proposing is that the entire universe - from its beginning to ending in time - is all a single event in this higher universe. For example, could the universe be the blink of an eye? A match being lit? Or could the universe actually be what makes up a giant organism that lives in a higher universe? Or perhaps the universe's purpose is something that we can't - and never will be able to - comprehend?

To get a better idea of this situation, imagine an ant that has found its way into a shopping mall. The ant, as it works its way around and throughout the mall, documents what it comes across. What will it find? Or perhaps the appropriate question is what can it find? That is to say, there's a limit to what an ant can understand. The ant, as it tries to make sense of what it encounters, will develop a view of the shopping mall far short of what it actually is in reality. Does the ant know what a store is? Or what money is? Can an ant comprehend what a shopping mall is? Can it make sense of the multiple events that are constantly taking place around it? No - all that has meaning to the ant is the floor / wall that provides a surface upon which it can move forward. Such concepts are things that the ant couldn't even begin to comprehend. But they nevertheless still exist.

A similar example, for what it's worth, would be that of an amoeba on the pages of a calculus book. The amoeba can never, ever learn calculus - but is nonetheless completely surrounded by it. The amoeba's greatest discovery, perhaps, would be that ink exists on the pages. Similarly, 'science' and 'religion' are feeble attempts of the human mind to make sense of the universe. After considering the above examples, we can conclude that it's not a matter of what does or doesn't exist - but rather a matter of what we can and can't comprehend - that sets the limit to what we will find.