Something Unanticipated Happens
(something unanticipated happens) “Dude… what are the chances of that ?” “Apparently 100%”
“Apparently it is something because I have been inside some sort of something this whole time.”
The claim I am making is that existence is the only property. Something like the original property from which any other more mundane property is derived. This is my attempt at a Cartesian “I think therefore I am” kind of baseline truth.
An aspect of my experience I have always found compelling is my experience of the consistency of the environment in which I am nested. It is generally navigable and predictable across time, it is stubbornly consistent. Whatever it is, apparently I am in it.
The human experience is inherently inductive, humans are finite. We by definition cannot make claims of certainty. This does not negate the uniformity of our environment just makes our claims less certain. Certainty is a nebulous and unnecessary level of analysis.
“All distinctions are arbitrary.”
When a theist makes an argument for the existence of God they frequently use an “inference to the best explanation” argument. Something like “we are in a Goldilocks zone these conditions are highly improbable to occur naturally, therefore God or Watchmaker etc.” I find these types of arguments to be exceptionally unconvincing. My intuition tells me that one cannot make claims of probability in reverse, looking back inductively doesn't make sense. How can one make the claim “The probability of the universe arranging itself in this exact way was 1 / however many billion when in reality is was 1/1, apparently we are here in this reality there is no way to know if we are in a black swan universe retroactively.
Many different probabilistic variations of existence can be presented. One of the presented options is actually the one that is occurring. The preconceived likelihood of any of these options occurring is irrelevant to which variation did in fact occur. The legitimacy of our currently inhabited reality is 100% by definition. The environment is stubbornly reliable, locations stay geographically consistent etc. We are apparently 100% likely exactly as we are regardless if we understand how we got in this variation or not.
-Guthrie
