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We think we know but do we?

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posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 07:24 AM
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I have been thinking about the things we know as humans beyond a shadow of a doubt but the more I think about it I realize that in reality we have no clue. For the most part we are just guessing, even though we get some things right, at least we think we do. To be able to say that something is definite in this Universe doesn't happen as much as you would think. There are so many topics that we just assume are right even though we sometimes don't understand, we just accept it because it is labeled as a topic that we all should obviously know about. A few topics that come to mind are Religion, Law, Physics, Metaphysics, Aliens, and History. I know somethings on that list we don't know for sure but a lot of times people assume that they are right even though they may not have facts, just belief and ideas.

The most obvious one I can think of is Religion. If all religious texts never existed this would be a very different world but because we have been told these stories we have be convinced to believe with little to no real truth around it. The truth is we just have to take the word of texts that makes the world seem magical and full of miracles but the world I grew up in has no magic or miracles. I just don't understand if it all really happened then why doesn't that amazing stuff happen today? To believe... I just need facts and understanding because I just don't get it at this time in my life. I will be very amazed if I catch the mainstream religion bug.

With law it is more straight forward. If you break the Law then you get in trouble. The thing is though that if you happen to have money or power then there are loopholes that a poor person would not have access to. This makes the law not ironclad but a thing that can be worked around. Besides you would have to catch the person in the act first so getting in trouble for breaking the law is not definite.

Metaphysics to me is sort of like religion but different. We believe we know for sure but in reality we have no idea What we think we know may be up for a different way of seeing it 100 years down the line. To me though this is the least mind boggling thing to understand.

Aliens are really fun to think of when it is not terrifying to think of. Some people think they are peaceful yet the other half thinks they are going to or already are messing with us in a horrible way. Some say that to think of aliens is a waste of time and to think about them makes no sense to imagine because you just do have proof. In a way though I kind of understand religions because I do have that belief in aliens that I could not get with Jesus or whom ever. There are just more questions then answers but in a way I like that. I mean if we found out all the knowledge of the Universe would we enjoy living? I say the answer is yes. At least for a few thousand year because with that knowledge you would be able to do some really amazing things but after that even doing anything would get boring I assume. I just hope if aliens are real that they are not the type to send us all to a hell dimension just for the hell of it...

Lastly History, we can't say for sure happened the way it was written down because only the winner gets to write the history. We will not know for sure until future humans are able to watch what really happened by going back in time and watching without actually interfering.

Oh yeah normal physic is one more. We think we know but one discovery could add something to the equation making physics different then how we currently understand it. It is just that we are all learning thig everyday and assume that are way of thinking is correct but things are not always that simple...

Well I guess that is all I really can think of at the time. Question everything but not to much or you may go crazy. If you think of anythink to add post it, I am curious what else I missed which is prolly a lot.



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 09:04 AM
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a reply to: watchandwait410

Religion isn’t easy to get a grip on, but if you spend a few years gathering the world’s religious texts and reading them, it becomes pretty clear that they just wrote down what they thought was going on.

Law is also not easy to understand unless you study it. Then it becomes pretty clear as well. There are people who have a very good grasp on it. They are called lawyers.

History is a little more tricky because we know that people have lied about a lot of it. But, if you study enough of it, you will see that several sides have documented the important stuff and you can sometimes unravel most of the lies.


Physics is pretty easy. If you study it. The problem is that people like to dumb it down or translate it for “the layman” which just confuses everyone without a degree in physics.

Metaphysics isn’t a thing. It’s what the confused people use to justify their ignorance of actual physics.

All of your questions here have answers. You simply need to invest the time and brain power to study them. None of this is intuitive.


edit on 9-6-2019 by Woodcarver because: (no reason given)



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 09:29 AM
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I hear ya. Well, maybe I only think I do.

I guess I was around 15 back in the early 60s and sitting in church one Sunday morning with my parents. We were singing one of the congregations favorite hymns when a question popped up in my head. I say favorite hymns and even there I might be mistaken. I assumed it was a favorite because it was sung often but that may have only been because the church people used it a lot as kind of a mantra, drumming it into the heads of the parishioners.

It had one line in it that was the last line of the chorus and of course that chorus was sung over and over and over again within the hymn. The line was "Yes Jesus loves me'' pause, ''yes Jesus loves me'', pause ''yes Jesus loves me'' pause, ''the Bible tells me so''.

I had been singing this hymn in Sunday School for years and once a month when the kids came to the main service with their parents, we sang along with them.

So it was quite a shock when the notion popped up in my head and I wondered ''how do I know this is true''. If all I know about Jesus and his love for me is because the Bible tells me, then how do I really know. I recall looking around and everyone was happy singing it and wondered if maybe they all knew it somehow better than I, maybe they all had some relationship with Jesus that went beyond just '' the Bible telling me so''.

After questioning my parents and then later the following Sunday my Sunday School teachers I found that no that was not the case, that basically my thought had bee correct. That we believed it because the Bible said so and that then what was necessary was to take it on faith.

Well that wasn't enough for me. In a world where I was either promoted or failed in school depending on how well I knew the truth that 2+2=4, or whether or not I used ''their'' or ''there'' or '' they're '' correctly or had memorized the specific date that Sparta fell, it made little sense that something as important, important enough that I had to sit through that boring Sunday School class every freeking Sunday, depended on something as possibility in accurate as a two thousand year old book that told us it was written by God but in actuality might have just been written by a couple of guys who only wanted me , for what ever reason, to have faith that Jesus loved me.

That led me first into a couple of year quest to find out just what I did and did not really know. Eventually I got to the point that Descarte had gotten to in his ''cogito ergo sum''. I think, therefore I am. While others around me were dealing only with the coming dance or what to do after the game that week end, I was diving into mind exploration well before the drug induced mind trips of the late sixties.

For a bit I thought I was going mad as you mention above. But then in a college philosophy course I ended up reading about Descarte and his path to finding ''truth'' and realized that I was not alone really and in fact in pretty good company.

So for all of that, here I am nearing the end of my life and still trying to ''pin it all down''. After all these years I have managed to alter that ''I think, therefore I am'' into ''I think, I think and I am,,,maybe''
And for all of that and to your OP I offer this song of discovery, or not.

Iris De Ment... Let the Mystery Be




posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 09:34 AM
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a reply to: Woodcarver

For most of them except law , what I was trying to say is that we think we know but what is the actual truth. You can't study something that you don't truly know. There are things that we just don't understand truly. Just because you study the first few chapters of a book doesn't mean you are a expert when there are still 10 chapters to go.

Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

P.S. I have the attention span of a goldfish so you shouldn't have expected much.


edit on 9-6-2019 by watchandwait410 because: (no reason given)


taking everything too literal is something I do not do. my mind seems different in that way.
edit on 9-6-2019 by watchandwait410 because: (no reason given)



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 09:56 AM
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It's a a rough time for knowledge. What we know and are able to perceive are 5% of the universe. That's 95% unknown. That's leaving room for lots of phantasies and theories. Looking for something we can't see, or measure.
But we know some stuff. Stuff that works, stuff that makes our lifes easier. The sign you have understood something is if it makes your life easier.
That's true for spirituality and science.
Beliefs and religions are there for the people not for god. We like to have a pack that's why we agree on a certain lifestyle, a set of beliefs to feel like a we.
Or to make our life more or less complicated that depends on how you look at it.

I wouldn't put science and religion in one basket if it's about the question what we know. Science is doing quite good at least they were able to put a number on how much we don't know. Religion didn't make any progress for hundreds of years and has been proven wrong over and over.



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 10:31 AM
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a reply to: watchandwait410

You forgot to mention science. Every premise or dogma about science can be question. And when you do, many times what we believe to be constant or concrete knowledge turns out to be not so:



I've watched this video maybe 20 times now. His book is even better. I reading a section right now on zero-point energy and how living systems might be tapping into other forms of energy because this evidence the living systems consume much more energy than they take in. At least energy we know about like food consumption. It appears living systems take in other forms of unknown forms of energy to make numbers work. But since this is counter to orthodoxy it is completely dismissed.



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 10:48 AM
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a reply to: watchandwait410

There are no certainties, only varying levels of probability.



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 11:23 AM
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originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: watchandwait410

You forgot to mention science. Every premise or dogma about science can be question. And when you do, many times what we believe to be constant or concrete knowledge turns out to be not so:



I've watched this video maybe 20 times now. His book is even better. I reading a section right now on zero-point energy and how living systems might be tapping into other forms of energy because this evidence the living systems consume much more energy than they take in. At least energy we know about like food consumption. It appears living systems take in other forms of unknown forms of energy to make numbers work. But since this is counter to orthodoxy it is completely dismissed.


Very cool video! Just wish he had time to talk about the telepathy dogma. I think telepathy is real but not like in the movies. I believe it is just not as powerful as fiction makes it causing us to think it is not real.

Thanks again



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 11:59 AM
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a reply to: watchandwait410

This is also an interesting discussion on the non-algorithmic nature of consciousness.

I've ordered his book as i found the whole thing fascinating.




posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 12:17 PM
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Time for your pill...it red!!




posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 03:09 PM
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a reply to: Grenade
Your level of probability is high, 100%. That means everyone has a certainty in their lives. The certainty that they are going to die.
When anybody looks at any religion they must realise the time and place they were written and as such (do not look at religion though modern eyes) all religions were mechanisms to control the populace.
A prime example:- the 10 commandments. Take god out of them and you have rules to keep the peace in your ancient town or village. Add god to make it more important so the poor peons can't say "well a man made those rules and we don't agree with them". Adding god as the writer short cuts that arguement.



posted on Jun, 9 2019 @ 06:21 PM
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a reply to: crayzeed

Again, it's highly probable but not certain.

Medical advances could very well reverse the ageing process. God could pop out of the clouds tomorrow and grant us all eternal life.

It's highly unlikely but not impossible.

I stand by my statement, nothing is certain.
edit on 9/6/19 by Grenade because: spelling



posted on Jun, 10 2019 @ 12:38 AM
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a reply to: watchandwait410

We don't know nothin!
(Apparently: that could be a double-negative, which supposedly means a positive, unless maybe serial batteries, but don't really know...)



But really: what, exactly, do you know for sure?
Nothin.




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