(November 25, 2016 at 6:18 pm)Ignorant Wrote: You mentioned one sense. Is there any sense in which we may understand things to begin and/or cease?
If we interpret that a thing that changes its identity enough becomes a separate thing entirely even when its ultimately the same collection of atoms, then yes things begin and cease to exist whenever they change their identity enough. But the cut-off point is arbitrary and defined by us humans (like, "how many grains of sand = a heap?" kind of arbitrary). And IMO since energy cannot be created or destroyed I personally think that the interpretation closest to the truth is one that says things themselves never begin or exist... that all things are just parts of the totality of all things... and their forms and identities are all that really change and cease and begin.
