What Really Exists?

Much like how the religious know that god created the world, I know that we are concentrations of energy not unlike the stars that created us. Usually I’m perfectly content with leaving the argument there, arbitrarily declaring myself the winner of a one man debate. Not this time.

The mammalian metabolism.

Humans have a fundamental disadvantage when trying to make sense of the world. They’re a part of that very same world. We see in 2 dimensions, we sense in 5 (If you only count the usual ones). With those evolutionary holdovers we’re able to perceive local phenomena. We need tools to venture into the microscopic and macroscopic. Basically we’re looking at a 3 dimensional world through a 2 dimensional lens. We’re not as we’d call it “hyper aware”. We can only see what is on our scale and within our capacity. So each individual gets to assemble a fragmented understanding of their environment. Vision is my favorite example of this, and it’s a very basic example. You know how you see colors? The sky is blue, the grass is green, pretty simple. Well that’s not really what the world looks like. Our eyes only gather a certain frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. We call it the visual spectrum. Other than that the visual spectrum is just the same as infrared, ultraviolet, or microwave. But the universe doesn’t look green, red, or blue. It looks like microwaves, it looks like radio waves, xrays, everything. It's all energy, we just don't have the physical means to visualize them.

Invisible Worlds

That brings me back to my first point, who am I to say what exists? I’m not saying science is wrong, please. I’m saying that the universe only exists, indeed the need to explain the universe only exists if there’s a mind there to perceive and rationalize it. Otherwise it’s a # storm of waves and differential pressure. So I know I’m right, but so too do those who I discount. But to them they’re right. That means they are. Get it?



Questions for you guys that don't require an answer but are good to think about:

1) Does there need to be a god or is the notion just a human necessity?

2) Do things actually happen or is happening dependent on something with the ability to understand cause and effect witnessing that it has happened?

3) Creationists insist that there needed to be a god to create the universe, by saying so they assume the natural state of the universe is the absence of existence. Could the natural state instead be existence?

4) If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?

I would say for sure 1000 percent,that crunchy cheetos exist.I am convinced it is not my imagination because of the overwhelming evidence left behind after consumption.Consisently,there is solid proof consisting of orange residue left all over the place.How can you dispute this?

reply to post by pygmaeus


4) If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?





If the Universe is expanding, what is it expanding into..?


Right back at ya'..!





Great OP and it does leave a lot of questions...when it comes down to it, we are all right.


And since we all do it, I'll admit I too have the occasional 1 man debate. My mom actually caught me once...

reply to post by pygmaeus

4) If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?

Yes, the headlights go on.

What this may be percieved as doing depends on your frame of reference:

- From the spaceships' frame of reference the light propogates out at the speed of light.

- From an external observer off to one side, if they could see your ship at all, they'd see that your headlights were on.

- From an observer directly in your path, they'd be blissfully unaware until you collided with them releasing timespace damaging energies and killing them and your self instantly.

You might even wipe out the other observer too.

The only thing that will ever exist will be the personal reality that only you see.It will change every split second.What exists for you exists for no other being.It only exists briefly then changes again and again.

The only thing that will ever exist will be the personal reality that only you see.It will change every split second.What exists for you exists for no other being.It only exists briefly then changes again and again.

Originally posted by brindle
The only thing that will ever exist will be the personal reality that only you see.It will change every split second.What exists for you exists for no other being.It only exists briefly then changes again and again.

Indeed

I think if you were going at light speed you would not be able to turn anything on or off. Would'nt time have stopped inside your craft. Also how would you defeat infinite mass? To all the other heehaw all I can say with any certainty is that "I" exist. Maybe that makes me god.

It could be stated that we are all born with a great "hyper awareness." We become less "hyper aware" with age. Pain and suffering tend to make us recoiled and in a defensive, survival posture, and less trusting, or child like. We become more 2-D when we harbor bitterness, unforgiveness etc... Unfortunately, Apes don't have the same opportunities we do.

Good post.

Originally posted by RichMystic
It could be stated that we are all born with a great "hyper awareness." We become less "hyper aware" with age. Pain and suffering tend to make us recoiled and in a defensive, survival posture, and less trusting, or child like. We become more 2-D when we harbor bitterness, unforgiveness etc... Unfortunately, Apes don't have the same opportunities we do.

Good post.

I wouldn't really say that as we develop our emotional and scientific understanding of the universe we start to lose an awareness of it. Our mind is a proportionally small amount of matter that establishes a collective awareness of itself. Developing that notion to include concepts and the ability to apply them is ultimately the only way for the universe to know itself at all.

It's very anthropocentric to look at our own mind and say for a fact that it's superior and unlike the great apes when we are just now starting to understand how it works. Granted we've established schools of thought and traveled a stones throw into the cosmos, but that's only because we've been trained to do so over the last 10,000 years. Early grade school was where you were trained to be a functional modern human child, not where you discovered geometric shapes and the algebra that could be used to describe their form. We did play with blocks though. Someone else's intellectual pursuits allowed me and you to stack geometric shapes on the floor. There are fundamental differences in human and ape behavior sure. But other apes haven't been evolving with the pressure to outwit the competition like modern humans have ever since we were reduced to less than 1,000 breeding individuals and then migrated out of Africa. Apes recognize and categorize social actions just like humans do. They learn and adapt to the group and to their environment. How different are we really?

The Human Spark

Originally posted by Quantazero
I think if you were going at light speed you would not be able to turn anything on or off. Would'nt time have stopped inside your craft. Also how would you defeat infinite mass? To all the other heehaw all I can say with any certainty is that "I" exist. Maybe that makes me god.

Time only slows down when seen by a relative observer. The infinite mass would also be relative.

No, time would slow and mass would increase in the craft. Did you go to school in the US?

So none of you have ever heard of Steven Wright?

reply to post by pygmaeus


I know for a fact that my awareness of self exist. Everything else, well, if i am the only thing that i know for sure exist, what else could everything be apart of?

Originally posted by pygmaeus
So none of you have ever heard of Steven Wright?

edit on 5/19/2011 by pygmaeus because: (no reason given)

Yeah, but Mitch Hedberg did it better.

4^(1/2) line.

reply to post by pygmaeus

What Really Exists?

This question goes to the core of many arguments here regarding things like evolution, UFOs and various other hidden things.

Science generally claims to work on the basis of experimentation and result to obtain proof of a truth. But in the end, we are still somewhat dependent on interpretations and opinions which requires of us to trust and believe... which is the same as offering faith to any concept.

The same goes for those in the fundamentalist ranks of religion. They claim to take the Bible literally; without interpretation. But this is simply an impossibility because the bible demands interpretation at every turn.

As a species, we are just not smart enough to know it all... but, that doesn't stop some people from making the claim.

So in a nutshell, reality is what we as individuals perceive and believe it to be. Regardless of science and/or faith, it is up to each of us to accept or deny or even rework the information we are given.