I have been thinking lately, thinking about when do we classify something as 'existing'. I have thought about the fact that you might have to give a place to something to truly understand it's existence.
If something is 'there' does it 'exist'?
If Something Is 'There' Does It Exist?
When does something exist? I know chocolate exists because I can go to a supermarket, pick up and eat a bar of chocolate; so if something is 'there' does that mean it exists?
However, there are other things that we cannot point at and pick up, but we know that it is there. Space for example, if I ask you where Space is, you'd point to the sky, the vast emptiness of the sky. But we know space exists, so this adds another mystery to our puzzle.
In most instances, if you can see and touch something in the world, it probably exists. Even if I point to the sky and say, "Space is there!" most people would agree that it is in fact 'there'.
If I say, Space exists because it is there and point to the sky. I would be correct as Space is something measurable that surrounds us.
When Does Something Not Exist?
Sometimes, 'there' is in our minds. We have ideas. Ideas are 'there', but they are not in the observable Universe, they are in our minds. We do not know exactly where 'there' is, but we know these ideas exist as we can recite them back to others.
One issue we can look at with existence within our minds is God. There is no definitive evidence of God's presence. We cannot see God. God may be all around us, but we cannot see this entity that apparently constantly surrounds us.
If we think about the idea that God is omnipresent, that will defeat the point of God being 'there'. If God is omnipresent, he is everywhere. If we say that to exist you must be 'there', God does not exist. God does not exist in one specific location, he is everywhere and with our logic, does not exist.
Existence is a mind-boggling topic. What are your thoughts?