Brahmn, the unknowable phenomenon

What is this physical creation? There are

two broad ways of looking at it. First, may
have designed and programmed it,
possibly with some degree of freedom of
choice to us. Second possibility is creation
may be like a dream, totally “unreal” and
illusory. The perceivable universe is
perceived by us as a physical phenomenon
with a materiality to everything. Now, can
this material universe have a materiality
that is absolute, independent of our
perception? If yes, then that materiality
must come out of a bigger materiality, or at
least equal materiality. And where does
the materiality come from in the first
place?

Materiality cannot come from “nothing”. It

has to come from materiality or, if we go
by Einstein’s theory of relativity (E=mc2),
materiality will have to come from energy.
Where does the energy come from? This
will amount to chasing our own tail! Of
course, theists argue that the “source”
(god) of creation is beginning less and
hence the question, “Who created the
Creator?” is not in order. But that doesn’t
convince rationalists.
So, it seems more likely that this universe
is a dream, perhaps dream-like. In the
dream, we do perceive materiality without
really having material. It is all the play of
dream consciousness. So, in some sense, a
dream comes out of nothing. Likewise,
even the so-called real material universe
that we perceive in our waking state may
still be non-material, just a play of our
consciousness, an ephemeral illusion. Of
course, this line of argument also leaves us
with the question – “Whose dream? Who
created that dreamer?” So, it may be
better to say that this universe is “dream-
like”, dream being just a metaphor to
illustrate the phenomenon. It may not
necessarily mean a Creator similar to a
human being who sleeps and dreams! A
better argument then could be that the
source is simply something that is unlike
anything known to us, a completely
unknowable phenomenon whose nature it
is to “dream up” a creation. That
unknowable phenomenon is given a name
– Brahmn.

Now one question still remains. If creation

is dream-like, it is not pre-designed and
pre-programmed. But then, we do see all
things happening in accordance with
universal physical laws (laws of nature).
How can that be? I have a crazy answer to
that! We have an intellect that is basically
designed to find patterns in repeatedly
observed phenomena. So, in that sense,
what we call as physical laws are
retrofitted to the observed phenomena.
For all we know, the phenomena
themselves were not pre-designed!

As an example, think of a person who

keeps throwing a ball. The ball follows a
trajectory and lands in a particular spot
that may be different every time. Scientists
then try and identify certain parameters
like the force applied to the ball at the time
it is thrown through the hole, the angle at
which the force is applied, wind resistance
and work out a formula. Scientists keep
checking their formula and refine it as
necessary to take care of all the cases
observed and measured thus far. Now, the
person throwing the ball is acting
randomly and yet scientists find some
pattern in it! Likewise, creation is a random
dream-like phenomenon and yet, we have
found laws governing it!