Noun

The state of being, existing, or occurring; beinghood.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis' of a commonplace ' existence .}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jeremy Bernstein)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=146, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= A Palette of Particles , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}

Empirical reality; the substance of the physical universe. (Dictionary of Philosophy; 1968)

Noun

(physicotheologies)

(philosophy, theology, dated) The view that evidence and sound arguments for God's existence can be derived from a study of the natural world; a study of the natural world intended to provide such evidence.

* 1713', , '''''Physico-Theology , or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation , 5th ed. (1720), London, book I, p. 36:

What else can be concluded, but that all was made with magnificent Design, and that all the whole Structure is the Work of some intelligent Being; some Artist, of Power and Skill equivalent to such a Work?

* 1865 , "Büchner's Force and Matter," Anthropological Review , vol. 3, no. 8, p. 28:

We have been rather severe in the foregoing observations on Dr. Büchner's work, because it belongs to a school of physico-theology , which, whether on the affirmative or negative side, we hold to be equally opposed to the true interests of science.

* 1989 , Thomas B. Gilmore, "Implicit Criticism of Thomson's 'Seasons' in Johnson's 'Dictionary'," Modern Philology , vol. 86, no. 3, p. 269:

Indeed, Creation'', like a number of passages in ''The Seasons , furnishes excellent examples of physicotheology , helpfully defined by Harry Solomon as "the use of the scientific examination of nature to establish and raise admiration for the existence and providence of God."

* 2002 , "Abstracts of Colloquium Papers: 'On Kant's Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God' by Martin Schönfeld," Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association , vol. 75, no. 3, p. 127:

Some claim that Kant's discussion amounts to a refutation of physicotheology and thus does not result in an argument from design.