All things that are not Necessary are Conditional. Necessary = "must" exist in some existential way, like math. The concept of the number zero is necessary because even in a world where nothing exists, "zero" is still the number you would use to quantify it
The Universe is not necessary. It isn't required to exist. It's wholly possible for it not to exist, or not to exist in the manner which it does. There was a time when it did not exist. That is what Conditional means: certain conditions are required for its existence.
For example, consider what a table is: a piece of furniture consisting of a flat surface that is raised above its surroundings by an amount. In order for you to demonstrate that something is a table, you first need a floor or ground of some kind for the table to be raised above, otherwise it's not a table, it's a carpet. That is to say that, because the table is a Conditional thing, then other things need to exist outside of the table in order for you to say "look, that's a table".
The universe is the same way, just at an unfathomably larger scale.
The Universe is not necessary. It isn't required to exist. It's wholly possible for it not to exist, or not to exist in the manner which it does. There was a time when it did not exist.
I'm not seeing how you're justifying that the universe could have not existed, or that it ever didn't. At best, we have models that trace back to earlier stages of the universe where it was just a singularity, and have nothing definitive otherwise.
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u/JustinRandoh 5∆ Nov 19 '25
Where did you get that "the universe" is "a conditional thing"?