I am no longer confident the universe in which we live is benevolent.

In my younger years, I believed in a benevolent God, a holy father. And then when I gave up that concept, I still believed in a benevolent creator force.

Now, I am not so sure the universe in which we exist is ultimately benevolent. I haven't given up hope that it is, but the idea that we live in a matrix that has us trapped is hard to shake for me.

Dark days maybe effect my glass half empty attitude, but will it ever get better while I live my life, and then will the light shine after I die, and I don't mean the false light that traps.

I will keep an open mind, but I need some good news to feel optimistic about our future.

a reply to: droid56

If it is or isn't may not be a good way to look at it. If it might be either or both and even more, guiding oneself towards where it might be more than somewhere else could be a nice pursuit.

Life would be boring if the universe was benevelent .. the challenge of surviving lets you know your alive ..

a reply to: droid56

If we are in a matrix of malevolent nature which is one of the competing theories that goes through my head, Then, does it really matter? I would imagine it will "reset" as soon as there is a risk of us breaking through the edge.

In the Movie the Matrix which version was it the 5th or 6th?

There are old tales, Mythologies whatever that say 4 or 5 worlds...

I dunno.

There does seem to be the Agent Smith aspect.. I've called em Demons and Angels in the past. Made a bunch or Art called together "Eternal Escape" I eventually threw it all away though it the best concept I've ever come up with.

But what's the benefit of getting outside the matrix? Wouldn't you just be in another space something?

Then again there is the weird Idea of enlightenment and some people "get out of the matrix" because the way out is inside you..

I watched the movie Artificial Intelligence for the first time couple nights ago.. It actually talks about this.. I doubt too many people saw that part. Even talks about a fake Moon, Blood sacrifice, Becoming ( "I AM" )...




I'm of the opinion that we are actually God. And That's what actually pisses off Agent Smith so so much.
There is no where to go to.. It's all HERE.

I don't think it's either. IMO the Universe is neutral. It is the medium and that is it. We are the artists and it is us who paint our reality.

We are just very sh*tty painters and our art is painful and disgusting most of the time as well.

a reply to: droid56

I tend to fall on the belief that this reality that we inhabit is just simply what it is. Just a meaningless energy that has happened to evolve to the point that we have.

But in my deepest interpretation of what is, I always fall back on an experience that I had (lets just call it a OBE to comply with the T & C of this site) once. I entered this realm that felt just so right and perfect, then a female entity ( the combination of the perfect partner, but also the perfect mother if I had to explain it) approached me and asked how it was and if I enjoyed my experience. Then a more dominant female figure told her not to talk to me, since it was not my time yet and that I was going back and did not need to know yet.

Take from that what you will. Just some random hallucinogen maybe.

But whenever I get the thought in my head of this world just being a meaningless existence and that I might as well just noose myself right now, I always get that image of that in my head and think to myself, no way!

I'm gonna ride this thing out, right to the end and prove I can do it. Maybe it is just a meaningless existence and nothing really matters. But then again, its just as likely that we are existing in some matrix and are being tested to see if we can handle it.

Either way, no lose no gain. might as well just ride this thing out and see where it takes us, right? No matter how hard it gets.

That's just my deepest interpretation of what is, anyway. Just have a little fun with it and I'm sure it'll be all good in the end.

Peace.

a reply to: droid56

Looking at the universe as benevolent or even malevolent is not gonna bring you peace. We are one of the most amazing things in the universe, children of the universe, and like us the universe has good and bad in it. Joy and sadness. Ying and yang. Balance.

a reply to: droid56

Looking at nature on earth we see a predatory environment. If the laws of nature permeate through the universe then we are looking a giant spiders web and future man better be careful in venturing into the cosmos.

a reply to: droid56

any evidence for this " matrix " hypothisis ?

The Universe is not "Ultimately" Benevolent. Neither is it "Ultimately" Evil.

originally posted by: KnightLight
a reply to: droid56

I would imagine it will "reset" as soon as there is a risk of us breaking through the edge.

That actually makes me think... and I do think you may be right.

a reply to: AnuTyr

the universe has zero malevolence or benevolence - some elements within the universe can display traits of either . but the universe per se is neutral

a reply to: droid56

I use to think that there was some kind of spirit that looked after the universes and all in them eg a god form.

However once I started watching programmes about the universe and saw planets, comets and even galaxies banging into each other and the destruction that caused, then black holes being explained as a centrifugal forces pulling into themselves and then ejecting out mashed matter elsewhere etc, I decided that creation is random and we have made up, in order to make ourselves feel better and not alone, all the bits about angels, gods etc and what the ancient pagan gods represented were purely aspects of our own personalities and energy drives within us.

XOP: I am with you on the glass half empty and I have a really big glass. I keep hoping for that spark

That ignites the humanity in us. So we can just decide to ignore these wealthy people that

Are willing to destroy this planet so they can have a few extra 0's at the end of that bank out

Balance. I doubt it happens in my life time. But hopefully there are enough like us that our children

Get the message that there is a better way off doing this earlier in life. Early enough that the escape the matrix before they get trapped into it. Hopefully that will start a snowball effect until it all crumbles
But not in a violent disasterous way. More of the way I look at businesses that are still using paper and file cabinets. Anyway when I hit the slump I always refer to Ghandi. " be the change" or this by Andy Weir

THE EGG

You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.

I don't go along with the matrix thought .. but I fully understand questioning a benevolent universe or benevolent creator. Life is hard. It's cruel. It can be really sucky, for human and critter alike. Eat or be eaten. That's not exactly a peaceful benevolent existence.

a reply to: droid56

It doesn't warm your cockles to accept that the universe is not benevolent, does it? You could be the nicest person for 5 miles around and still be struck down by meningitis or trip and crack your head open. Death can hit you a 1001 ways every time you leave your bed.

Likewise, you could be the biggest, cruellest jackass for miles around and still win the lotto or live a luxurious life with a beautiful partner.

Out there in the universe are probably millions of planets where life arose and was exterminated when conditions changed. Out there, there may have been thousands of beautiful civilisations that were prematurely ended by massive asteroids and without any real warning.

Even here on Earth, we have hundreds of thousands of innocent kids being born into war zones, poverty, brutality and abuse. Now where is the malevolence or benevolence in any of that? Not to be a total downer here...how many tears have people cried since we got started? How big a hole in the ground would it take to hold them all?

Nah, there's no benevolence in the Universe beyond what we offer to each other in the short time we share this beautiful rock in space. Merry Christmas and good will to all

You're right - things are pretty rough in this existence. I've wondered about that. I have no answers, but sometimes I imagine that we have existed for eternity as blissful beings/souls/entities - no pain, no suffering, only bliss. Forever. And ever. After a while, that might get boring, so we decided we wanted to feel something that wasn't pure bliss, even if it was for a tiny blip of time - and when you are looking at eternity, a human lifetime IS a tiny blip. I base that imagining on what I have read of many near-death experiences. People claiming that the place they went was pure bliss, and they felt like they were coming home to the place they were from. I don't know, but based on that, I get the feeling that we chose to come here of our own free will to experience the things we experience. And if it's something we chose to do, it can't be all bad.

There are many ways of seeing the universe and can't prove things like this. Some think neutral, I think possibly this is an interactive level, our inner world expressed out, but in a kind of group frequency, and just one tiny particle/wave of infinity and infinity universes and places.

viewzone.com...

Tibetan Buddhism is a bit different from the usual philosophy of "dry detachment" from the world. The teachings incorporate an attachment to one thing which is the foundation of the universe -- compassion. They seek the goal of enlightenment not for their personal accomplishment or mastery -- but so that they will be able to likewise liberate all sentient beings from their suffering. This grand goal is accomplished through good works and meditation.

I don't think it matters what portion we're in, because this may not be one of the eutopian planes. It seems like a chess game plane with a strong presence of negativity/evil.

Earth is trashed, a beautiful jewel that is constantly bathed in blood, poverty and suffering, tyranny and corruption. But if you look around at close systems, this is a wonderful planet.

So its what we try to work or sort out in our own lives or put into it that matters. While we're here. And think we also need to rescue earth, there aren't many like this around us on this plane. Only one I've seen so far on this plane near us, through any video from any telescope.

If there is a good force out there, in order for it to be good, then there must be a bad, IMO. The whole idea of a matrix existence is a bit far fetched. I believe that we live a universe full of life, with a lt of intelligent life. Just that we are all seperated by tons of space. I think we have been visited by both good and bad. And they whoever they are, are either good, or bad, by whatever the people seeing the visitors believe in. If someone has one belief they could be good to one person, and bad to another. Its a weird universe we live in, if we are really living . LOL