Thank you for your feedback, Stephen. That is definitively my pleasure.
The point I am making, and I agree that words can get in the way here, is that there is no container. There is only a concept, an aggregate of all the parts, and we gave that collective a name, the universe.
To mention the parts:
* Time
* Space
* Energy
* Matter
Some say that Space, for instance, is a something (and that it fits inside the container).
I do not. Space is a phenomenon, which means it is real but it does not have any attributes of its own. The only 'thing' of the universe that is infinite is Space. Nothing else in the universe is infinite.
Space is also not on the move, it does not influence anything. Space has no borders because there is nothing to Space. Space simply is Space.
Same for Time. It is a phenomenon, which again means it is real but it does not have any attributes of its own. Only Time is eternal. Nothing in our universe is eternal other than Time. Even when we start with original Energy in the prior state of the universe, then we cannot state it is eternal because (at least some of it) changed into matter.
Last of these four are the two parts of Energy and Matter. They are not one and the same even though we can express Matter as Energy, but we cannot do that the other way around.
A dog = an animal, but an animal = not necessarily a dog.
Matter = Energy, but Energy = not automatically Matter.
So, we have two realities of Energy. There is likely plenty of Energy that is still like the original Energy (the kind we do not see), but Matter must then be seen as the outcome of something that happened at the end of the prior state of the universe with that original Energy.
--
Here is the structural setup.
Once we agree that we live in a result, then we must embrace the Egg & Omelet setup, there is no way around it.
While we do not need to say anything in detail about the Egg, we can know with certainty that the state of the Egg broke and how that breakage was needed before the Omelet could be made.
We have the Omelet to prove that point. There once was an Egg.
Can we say that the prior Egg is a container?
Potentially yes.
Can we say that the Omelet is a container?
No, definitively not.
The prior state could not have produced an outcome that is of a fundamentally distinct nature in light of Energy, and remain intact. Therefore we know for a fact that the ‘container’ of the universe today exists as an aggregate only. We have a fundamental change -- Matter -- that did not exist prior. The Egg, even when we contemplate this just in the abstract, did indeed have to break otherwise Matter would not have come about. The original container broke some 13.8 billion years ago.
To say that the universe today is a container is like claiming a nation is a person. We can do that. Our brains are willing. We can say that the USA is a gentle man carrying a big stick indeed, but this is then a metaphor for an aggregate of people and land, and certain policies, histories and action and inactions. The container we call the USA is not an actual person. The president of the USA is two things at the same time: an actual person and his function as president. The nation is a secondary reality next to all the people and land, and while we give it first spot for good reasons, it is not the actual first-spot reality but the established reality.
And this is reflected in the name: The United States. The States were there first, and only afterward did they decide to Unite. Once they did that, we have a unit. But that unit is based on smaller self-based realities. Had the smaller units not been real by themselves, we could not have used the word United.
