Thanks John,

Given me a lot to consider.. Your logic is on point — I too always wondered how we can be certain that the cosmic background radiation is that of our own ‘big bang’ or sourced from something we can’t necessarily fathom in the context of what we know so far.

I’m eager to see what the Webb telescope, along with the other instruments being launched over the next ten years, will dredge up out of the abyss; I’m confident there will be a lot of revision.

The more I hear scientists claim that our universe started from nothing, the more I wince. I think it was McKenna who said that such a claim, that everything we now observe has started from nothing, is by far the most ridiculous claim that can be made. To some extent, it can be right, but in no way can it be right under the context that nothing existed anywhere before the big bang.

Like electrons can appear out of no where in a vacuum and disappear again, maybe our universe has appeared out of no where and will disappear again, but even the vacuum in which we find ourselves is something (if not next to or within) something else.

The universe has to either be infinite or a finite part of something infinite.

Can’t help but ask you one more thing: what role do you think ‘consciousness’ plays in all of this, if any role at all?

Thanks for the links!