Originally Posted by n0nsensical

This is a matter of religion. I personally believe that our reality is a four-dimensional fractal and it is infinite in both space and in time. It has always existed and it will always exist. Someday we may even discover the equation, much the way that we discovered the 2-dimensional fractal defined by the Mandelbrot equation z_n+1 = z_n^2 + c. Or maybe it is impossible to define. Within every atom there is another entire universe. Everything that happened today will happen an infinite number of times in the future as well in addition to everything that is possible. By analogy there are also an infinite number of realities and we simply happen to exist in this one. It is not as if the Mandelbrot fractal didn't exist before some French dude published a paper, like it existed in 1990 but not 1970. Also you choose your own reality by your decisions, but you cannot control the external forces of any such reality.