On second thought, multiplication does not have to involve creating something from nothing. It can involve dividing something into parts and then adding them up. Take 5 x 3. We can either start with 5 units, and add two more sets of 5 units to this set, creating, as it were, these additional two sets out of nothing. But we can also start off with a set of 5 units, slice each member into three parts, and then add these smaller units together. This, of course, involves the "or" (division), which is overcome by the "and", addition.
This probably comes closer to describing what occurred during the birth of the universe, which started out as one tiny superatom, broke apart, parts gathered to form new elements, scattered, broke apart again, combined in massive suns to form new heavier elements, and eventually, more explosions, more scattering, dust coalescing to form planets, complex molecules being formed, eventually indescribably complex organic molecules etc. The and/or dance that I have described at length in my earlier posts.
So yes...multiplication was undoubtedly key. But this involved division and addition. And as the universe continues to expand and things drift apart, members are subtracted from each set.
Thus, the and/or, is, in its own beautiful way, the unifying principle that underlies all creation.
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