I was outside at night and had these thoughts. I have them quite often, usually on very starry nights. Like everybody else, I wonder if we will ever get as far as the nearest one of the stars. When a man looks into the heavens, he sees who he wants to be better than ever… somehow getting in touch with the reaches of his aspirations. Sometimes though, he gets a sense of who he is, and he tries to comprehend the configuration of his place and purpose in the universe. The fifth day of May 2006 years after the death of our lord was such a night for me.
Except for the clouds, that is. I gazed past the clouds and saw a lone star up in the heavenly dark, and was suddenly seized by that usual desire to mentally explore the universe. Then I was taken with that great old question, ‘What is the universe?’ Thankfully, I came that night to what I think is a fitting conclusion of the matter. Let’s look at the dilemma my way. See what you think of it.

Question 1: Is the universe infinitely large?

First, what do we mean by infinitely large? As in goes on and on and has no end whatsoever? Or as in very, very large, but with an end we cant comprehend by our meaning and idea of distance? For some have attributed infinity not to the absence of a conclusion, but to the mere inaccessibility of it from the point at which such infinity is proclaimed. Still, some profess that this universe is one within another, and among others. If we accept this concept of multiple universes, then we have to contend with the question of what constitutes the universe. After that, we must be able to determine the boundaries of each of these coexisting universes, tangible or otherwise, based on our definition of universes. What then is the transition between any two universes, and what is that transition made of? Does any such transition exist?1

If one, on the other hand, chooses to believe in the never ending universe, then one would have to contend with the dynamics of energy and matter and how they relate to each other. For example, can an open system like space sustain a constant amount of matter and energy? Do not the laws of physics require that matter and energy leave such a system or enter it depending on the direction of the gradient? If so, then from and to where does this interaction come and go?2
Or maybe one would say that the universe is so large that it is closed to itself, but if that were true, one must still face the fact that infinite or not, distance is still distance, and such interaction must still occur to establish spatial equilibrium. Since almost all energy in the universe is in the form of radiation, energy would have traveled at speeds fast enough to have moved all of it from our solar system, for example, to distances far removed from us today. Again some scientists have claimed that the universe is so large that energy and matter are already evenly distributed. Once again, we don’t know. The assertion

that any matter is negligible compared with the vastness of vacuum in space cannot hold any concrete substance in the absence of knowledge about those parts of the universe that we do not see with our telescopes. We do not know if one third of the universe is occupied by a very large rock or millions of stars or vacuum. At least we know from our own neck of the woods that matter and energy are not in the least bit evenly distributed. Galaxies, planets, stars and nebulae3 prove that, to name a few.
We can’t even make statements like space is largely a microgravity environment. I mean, says who? Who knows what the larger proportion of space is made of? Can we even say there is a larger proportion of space? Because if there is, then there is a smaller proportion of it, and the two would algebraically make up all of space. That denotes end, summation, finiteness. But is there such a thing?

ImageQuestion 2: Where did the Big Bang occur?

If the universe arose from the big bang, then in what place did the big bang occur, and how much of that environment did the new universe occupy? How much of it is left? Is that a universe onto itself? How does it differ from our universe?

The universe is eternal, not infinite.

All of the questions led me to a great realization that, in my view, solves the whole problem. The universe, which I assume is ‘That which exists, has existed and will exist in space’, including space itself, is not infinite, but eternal. The quality of being infinite is embedded in the absence of an end, or a conclusion. But that’s where it ends. Infinity has nothing to offer about beginning. It describes the indefinite perpetuation of an event that has began, be it a line from a dot or an action from a certain point in time. It is a quality of containment, a situation in which any mathematical dimension has no conclusion. Infinity is not the way to describe the universe. We must move from trying to appreciate the universe as being infinitely large to realizing that it is actually eternal.
The difference is huge – as huge as the universe itself – because the universe has a dimension that infinity is too limited to describe, and that is the phenomenon of time. Time, for me, changes everything. It turns the universe from just a place, into a concept. Eternity is more appropriate of this, because like the universe, time has no beginning.
Indeed, time is not a separate thing from being. Time is not a measure of a progression of the universe, for what is the progression of being but the continuance of being, which is itself being? Because being is not event driven, but event permitting and time is the conceptual space inside which a finite event occurs. It is not by time that we measure events, but by events that we measure time. After an event has occurred, what happens next? Indeed, we can ask this because something happens next, whether it is nothing or something else. Now, whatever this something else is, it lasts within its scope of time before it comes to an end. That is to say, each event has a small portion of time to itself. Only one event has all of time to itself, and that is the event of the universe; the occurrence of the phenomenon of being.
The universe, therefore, does not bear the quality of not having and end, but is in the situation of not having a termination. Here is the real thing. Here lies the crunch of the matter. Here is the thin divide between thing and think; the thin curtain between concept and perception. Confusing? Take this point of view for a minute. What is the universe to an unborn – in fact – a not yet conceived person? Darkness? Emptiness? What? We certainly cannot say that it is nothing, because nothingness itself is a phenomenon that cannot be experienced by a not yet conceived person. What I’m asking you to do here is view the universe from a station of perception that does not exist. That is what the point of view of an unborn person is – non-existent. So what do you see from this viewpoint? What is the universe? It is nonexistent! The universe can only begin to exist when it can be experienced through any level of cognition. In other words, when concept becomes perception. When being becomes perceived. So I look at the universe on two levels: on the thing level, and the think or conceptual level. On the thing level, it is evident that the universe is an experienced world. On the conceptual level, it is nonexistent except as a concept. It is shapeless, formless, without mass and without energy. All these are phenomena of cognition. On this level, even nothing does not exist. To a cognitive or an ‘aware’ being, be it a light – sensitive bacterium or an adult animal, such a viewpoint as mentioned above is nonexistent on the thing level. That is to say, it cannot be experienced, but it does on the conceptual level, that is why we can imagine it and discuss it.
The universe then is a concept being experienced by awareness on the thing level.
But it is misleading to look at it from only this point of view. To get the real deal we must look at it from the concept point of view, which, as we have said, does not exist to itself, but to the aware. That is, except for one part of it. The only part of the imperceptible conceptual that we are in contact with: time.
The universe, I believe, is an event. The event of time. The only limitless concept, without beginning, without end. Everything else within it is an event. The occurrence of a phenomenon, occupying its portion in time, from the existence of a planet to the nonexistence of a person or thing.

1Theories exist on the possible boundaries of what is supposed to be our universe. Further reading may be done on that of cosmic strings.
2The Cosmic Strings theory proposes that a seal around the universe keeps gases from expansion, allowing them to form stars and prevents the energy in the universe from leaking out.
3Nebulae are large clouds of dust or gas, or both, that exist in space.

Written by Agana Agana-Nsiire