Wow, the amount of egos in this thread is impressive.
Just a quick query before I duck out, are you by any chance referring to the anthropomorphisation of time by modern man?
Also when you say that a writer uses a catchy title to "grab" the readers attention and then follow on with an explanation that is loosely based on
it but not exact literal interpretation. Is that not in some way disingenuous?
God is Time, page 16
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reply posted on 5-2-2012 @ 11:00 AM by Philodemus
reply to post by ImaFungi
You're asking me opinion on the what, how, and why of the universe? My paradigm in a nutshell? Yikes.
If it's alright, I'll start with the latter question of my thoughts on an afterlife and work my way up to the former.
I would have to say that my response would very much depend upon in which of the many hypothesized “here-afters” I was to find myself. For instance, if I found myself in the place I was raised to believe all sinners go, I would most likely start with a lengthy conjunct of expletives, followed by a brief thought of, “Glad I loved my life while I had it” and then I would commence with the 'wailing and gnashing of teeth'. On the other hand.....
He wore a glove. If I found myself in a Nirvana without any real sense of purpose but with a heightened sense of being (due to being part of the collective conscious), I would probably think, “Glad I loved my life while I had it”, before not caring about much of anything for the rest of eternity.
Alternatively, if I found that I was an energy entity, unrestricted by dimension and governed by a new set of physics, and had the ultimate power to control my eternal destiny; to do and go as I please, I hope I would think, “Glad I loved my life while I had it” and go forward learning and growing.
You see, you are asking me what my response would be to the unknown. No one can really tell me what to expect so I can't really say what my response would be although, it is fun to postulate. There isn't much reason to spend an inordinate amount of time in debate of the particulars because anything beyond-I'm dead-is just a guess.
But for the tough questions....
About What:
What is this universe all about? Hmmm.....cheese? No? Back to the drawing board!
Personally, I think the universe, the earth, and everything on it are spectacularly improbable. I know a lot of my colleges seem to think that due to the vast amount of stars and planets that surely there must be other life out there and though I would not be so hubristic as to emphatically say that there isn't; I must express that I think that it is incredibly understated to say, that what we are and what we have is extraordinarily rare. If I were to place any wager on faith alone, having no proof to my credit, I would bet that we are alone. It would be a small wager, but a wager none-the-less. I'm sure I will incite impugnation with that last claim.
Scarcity in tow, I still have to lean toward it being a natural occurrence. I think it's a kick to the ole hoo-ha-ha of mother nature to implicate any outside help for what we enjoy everyday. It demeans the power of humanity. It castrates us and makes us impotent. At least the popular God of Christendom does. And as I mentioned I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that this phantasmagoria is in the slightest the result of invisible people.
Have you ever seen these people who win multiple millions of dollars say, ten years down the road? You're sitting there asking yourself how the bloody hell these buffoons could have possibly squandered all that money. Somehow they manage it, though. What do you do with 50 million bucks? I dunno. This existence is the cosmic equivalent. Don't pee it all away.
I see humanity as a bunch of kids sitting in the back of Mom and Dad's Buick on a 85 degree day making the last leg of the trip to Disney Land. Everyone is tired and sweat and the only thing the kids keep asking is, “Are we there yet?” It's all about our individual and collective journey.
About How:
How did we get here? Why that's just an elaboration on my last point, really. The problem is though, I don't really care. I wish that we could all not care for a thousand years or so. It would do us some good to take a vacation from the 'big picture' for a bit. I'm not saying that I think we should all stop being human; to stop our never ending search for the answers, for knowledge, for understanding. What I am saying, is that I think we should just ask smaller questions. Like the ones we're asking at places like CERN or even the little things the tin cans we're shooting off into space make us ask. The jumping to conclusions about the answer has brought us nothing but grief for far too long.
Nothing(Something + X) x Infinity + (Y – us) = The answer
Why stand on the right of that equation? We don't even know what the parenthetic variables are. Since no one is handing us the answer we should probably figure that stuff out first. No sense getting all bunged up. So many people seem to be so staunchly convicted that they have it though. Fun little trait of ours. It's paltry and pejorative at best to over indulge in that line of thinking. I stopped caring how I got here years ago. All that matters is that I'm here now.
About Shmidt:
Weird movie.
You're asking me opinion on the what, how, and why of the universe? My paradigm in a nutshell? Yikes.
If it's alright, I'll start with the latter question of my thoughts on an afterlife and work my way up to the former.
I would have to say that my response would very much depend upon in which of the many hypothesized “here-afters” I was to find myself. For instance, if I found myself in the place I was raised to believe all sinners go, I would most likely start with a lengthy conjunct of expletives, followed by a brief thought of, “Glad I loved my life while I had it” and then I would commence with the 'wailing and gnashing of teeth'. On the other hand.....
He wore a glove. If I found myself in a Nirvana without any real sense of purpose but with a heightened sense of being (due to being part of the collective conscious), I would probably think, “Glad I loved my life while I had it”, before not caring about much of anything for the rest of eternity.
Alternatively, if I found that I was an energy entity, unrestricted by dimension and governed by a new set of physics, and had the ultimate power to control my eternal destiny; to do and go as I please, I hope I would think, “Glad I loved my life while I had it” and go forward learning and growing.
You see, you are asking me what my response would be to the unknown. No one can really tell me what to expect so I can't really say what my response would be although, it is fun to postulate. There isn't much reason to spend an inordinate amount of time in debate of the particulars because anything beyond-I'm dead-is just a guess.
But for the tough questions....
About What:
What is this universe all about? Hmmm.....cheese? No? Back to the drawing board!
Personally, I think the universe, the earth, and everything on it are spectacularly improbable. I know a lot of my colleges seem to think that due to the vast amount of stars and planets that surely there must be other life out there and though I would not be so hubristic as to emphatically say that there isn't; I must express that I think that it is incredibly understated to say, that what we are and what we have is extraordinarily rare. If I were to place any wager on faith alone, having no proof to my credit, I would bet that we are alone. It would be a small wager, but a wager none-the-less. I'm sure I will incite impugnation with that last claim.
Scarcity in tow, I still have to lean toward it being a natural occurrence. I think it's a kick to the ole hoo-ha-ha of mother nature to implicate any outside help for what we enjoy everyday. It demeans the power of humanity. It castrates us and makes us impotent. At least the popular God of Christendom does. And as I mentioned I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that this phantasmagoria is in the slightest the result of invisible people.
Have you ever seen these people who win multiple millions of dollars say, ten years down the road? You're sitting there asking yourself how the bloody hell these buffoons could have possibly squandered all that money. Somehow they manage it, though. What do you do with 50 million bucks? I dunno. This existence is the cosmic equivalent. Don't pee it all away.
I see humanity as a bunch of kids sitting in the back of Mom and Dad's Buick on a 85 degree day making the last leg of the trip to Disney Land. Everyone is tired and sweat and the only thing the kids keep asking is, “Are we there yet?” It's all about our individual and collective journey.
About How:
How did we get here? Why that's just an elaboration on my last point, really. The problem is though, I don't really care. I wish that we could all not care for a thousand years or so. It would do us some good to take a vacation from the 'big picture' for a bit. I'm not saying that I think we should all stop being human; to stop our never ending search for the answers, for knowledge, for understanding. What I am saying, is that I think we should just ask smaller questions. Like the ones we're asking at places like CERN or even the little things the tin cans we're shooting off into space make us ask. The jumping to conclusions about the answer has brought us nothing but grief for far too long.
Nothing(Something + X) x Infinity + (Y – us) = The answer
Why stand on the right of that equation? We don't even know what the parenthetic variables are. Since no one is handing us the answer we should probably figure that stuff out first. No sense getting all bunged up. So many people seem to be so staunchly convicted that they have it though. Fun little trait of ours. It's paltry and pejorative at best to over indulge in that line of thinking. I stopped caring how I got here years ago. All that matters is that I'm here now.
About Shmidt:
Weird movie.
reply posted on 5-2-2012 @ 11:01 AM by Philodemus
reply to post by ImaFungi
About Why:
Why are we here? What gives us purpose? What drives us if there is no God or after-party? Why try? Because you are obligated to. The spectacular amount of luck you had to pull out of your fanny just to be the one who showed up on your birthday instead of one of those other slack-jaws, is nothing short of miraculous. Every person that is walking the planet is the exception. Millions of your companions didn't make it to the egg. The likely hood that you'd be able to pull that off again is slim-to-none. Welcome to earth, it's your obligation to make the most of it.
Many of us tend to think of our 'why' in fixed terms. It's hard not to; we've been taught to think of it that way. It's not fixed though. It's a variable. For instance, my 'why' changed the moment I became a husband, and again when I had my children. It evolves continually. A dear friend of my is losing her father, it's only a matter of weeks now. So, my why will change as these unfortunately unavoidable events play out.
If I were to wake up tomorrow and find all my “whys” were gone, somehow I would have to move forward. I owe to to my lineage and I owe it to my fellow man not to give up. I'm not saying it wouldn't be incredibly painful and that I wouldn't need to seek an inordinate amount of help from professionals. I'm also not saying that I'd be able to do it either. I'm merely stating the 'ought to's'.
The reason for our individual existence is for the greater good. If you are asking why we exist as a race well, I deffer to my first point. We're here because the universe handed us the winning lottery ticket. Anything beyond that we'll just have to figure out when we get there.
If there is one thing that video games have taught me it's that the end sequence is never the pay off you're expecting. The game and the journey were as good as it gets and when you reach the end you can't ever go back to the time before you finished.
Were you looking for my opinion on the theoretical physics of the universe? If that's the case just read Hawkings.
About Why:
Why are we here? What gives us purpose? What drives us if there is no God or after-party? Why try? Because you are obligated to. The spectacular amount of luck you had to pull out of your fanny just to be the one who showed up on your birthday instead of one of those other slack-jaws, is nothing short of miraculous. Every person that is walking the planet is the exception. Millions of your companions didn't make it to the egg. The likely hood that you'd be able to pull that off again is slim-to-none. Welcome to earth, it's your obligation to make the most of it.
Many of us tend to think of our 'why' in fixed terms. It's hard not to; we've been taught to think of it that way. It's not fixed though. It's a variable. For instance, my 'why' changed the moment I became a husband, and again when I had my children. It evolves continually. A dear friend of my is losing her father, it's only a matter of weeks now. So, my why will change as these unfortunately unavoidable events play out.
If I were to wake up tomorrow and find all my “whys” were gone, somehow I would have to move forward. I owe to to my lineage and I owe it to my fellow man not to give up. I'm not saying it wouldn't be incredibly painful and that I wouldn't need to seek an inordinate amount of help from professionals. I'm also not saying that I'd be able to do it either. I'm merely stating the 'ought to's'.
The reason for our individual existence is for the greater good. If you are asking why we exist as a race well, I deffer to my first point. We're here because the universe handed us the winning lottery ticket. Anything beyond that we'll just have to figure out when we get there.
If there is one thing that video games have taught me it's that the end sequence is never the pay off you're expecting. The game and the journey were as good as it gets and when you reach the end you can't ever go back to the time before you finished.
Were you looking for my opinion on the theoretical physics of the universe? If that's the case just read Hawkings.
reply posted on 5-2-2012 @ 11:15 AM by Philodemus
reply to post by TiM3LoRd
Thanks for adding your ego to the pool. Just enough for me to jump from the high board now!
Your attempt at a nonchalant manner is the 'tell'.
Yay, you used the word anthropomorphism! *place goes crazy like PeeWee's Playhouse* Yay, big words! Glad you picked up on the subtlety.
ANYWHO! No, using hyperbole in a headline is only disingenuous if one doesn't explain one's self.
Thanks for adding your ego to the pool. Just enough for me to jump from the high board now!
Your attempt at a nonchalant manner is the 'tell'.
Yay, you used the word anthropomorphism! *place goes crazy like PeeWee's Playhouse* Yay, big words! Glad you picked up on the subtlety.
ANYWHO! No, using hyperbole in a headline is only disingenuous if one doesn't explain one's self.
edit on 5-2-2012 by Philodemus because: (no
reason given)
reply posted on 5-2-2012 @ 08:40 PM by Philodemus
reply to post by Philodemus
I just put the kids to bed and was thinking (the only time I get the luxury) that you almost got me! No, I am NOT talking about the anthropomorphizing of time by man. Not even close. Nice try though.
I just put the kids to bed and was thinking (the only time I get the luxury) that you almost got me! No, I am NOT talking about the anthropomorphizing of time by man. Not even close. Nice try though.
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