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Life, The Universe, Everything & Yourself in perspective

Discussion in 'Tilted Philosophy, Politics, and Economics' started by rogue49, Sep 18, 2013.

  1. kramus

    kramus what I might see

    @Baraka_Guru I'm guessing you have yet to read the seminal work by Busch and Silver.

    why cats paint.jpg

    On another note, I've often felt that people are in some way an expression of the universe. Well, technically it has expressed us, squeezed us into our current form using the pressure of Selection as played out in the crucible of Deep Time. But also we are in some way a face of the Universe. All life is that face. A moving ever-changing and potently busy face. I am comfortable with the thought that life is critically important to the Universe. Also I am quite happy being someone who is in an unbroken, direct line that connects me to the absolute beginnings of life on this planet.

    As life becomes more complex I'm pretty sure matter and the Universe begin to shift in some way. A new series of critical dimensions open up. The dimensions of Bound Time, Relative Significance, Emotion, Contemplation, Art, Seed Bed Detritus . . . probably as many different dimensions as you feel worth talking about.

    Someone with better Google-Fu than I can attribute the approximate quote "Hydrogen - An elemental gas with a unique property that, if given enough time, will begin to think about itself." If I read it correctly that is the thrust of the OP, and that is where It All Starts ™ .

    The size of the universe doesn't faze me. Nor does it's depth. After all, it is within me as well as without me. I will re-merge with it in some yet unknown way when my carcass slips into dissolution. The process of dying seems scary and quite often damned uncomfortable. The fact of being dead is a non-issue. The dead don't care. We all get to find out what happens to us after that, whether it is nothing we can comprehend as individual egos or it is an amazing expansion of those egos.

    Whatever. Time will tell. Till then, I get to snuggle my Lady, read good books, eat good food, look both up at the sky and down at the ground, and walk the hound on a daily basis. Life is good :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2013
    • Like Like x 2
  2. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    I haven't read it, but I'm familiar with the concept. On that same token, I'd assume my cat would like to do some of that stuff to my Van Goah print to "improve it."

    As for myself, I appreciate the works of spiders and elephants more so than cats.
    --- merged: Nov 1, 2013 at 4:12 PM ---
    [Spoiler Alert]


    View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBArMmngVH4
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 8, 2013
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  3. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks,
    and what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts.

    One: People aren't wearing enough hats.

    Two: Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive.
    Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person's soul.
    However, this "soul" does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation.
    However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.

    What was that about hats again?
    Oh, Uh... people aren't wearing enough.

    And now for something completely different...

    -------------------

    Duh,
    Everyone knows the answer is 49
    I'm still processing the question...
     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2013
  4. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    And this is what I was getting at...
    We are a wonder and an anomaly...but not a wonder nor an anomaly...at the same time.

    Curious...makes me think how many other "accidents" there are in this huge & awesome place we find ourselves.

    In the end...we have two components.
    Energy
    And what it works within.

    Everything else is built off of that.
     
  5. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    This is one of the big questions that is unknowable. It is for questions like this that we created religion.

    As an atheist, I had to early on embrace the idea that there doesn't have to be meaning in all of this.
     
  6. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    My car key is on a ring with a plastic fob, which originally had "The universe was created on my account" on one side, and "I am only dust and ashes" on the other side.

    That's from memory, because the lettering wore off some time ago.
     
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  7. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Well, I know that religion was created for two-fold reasons.
    First, as an early "science" to explain everything around them...Why the sun rises and such.
    Second, as a way to teach and keep value systems...something had to explain why you can't just go around killing everyone randomly...and such.

    In many ways, we've superseded the first...and we still use it often for the 2nd...beyond the law system.

    I think faith is developing further still, not so much as a way to explain the world,
    but to represent our interconnectivity with everything.

    And even Atheists can kind of understand this, as a symbolism of synergy and chaos theory.
    Well...some relate...others don't...and some unfortunately are a bit cold and militant.

    Meaning is what you give to yourself...and even many religions have stated the same.

    So perhaps faith and science will learn to live together.
    Each representing one side of what it means to be here and alive.

    I'm a scientist...although since I don't get a paycheck for it, I'm in amateur status.
    But I still work with other professionals and professors, to expand and test my work, based on the facts as we know them.
    And yet, I still have faith...I've been able to resolve myself between the two...there is no conflict.

    Because I don't use it to say this is that. Or think the Universe is controlling me...although it does impact me.
    I use it to represent my connection to everything.
    And the relationship that happens back and forth...the pull and sway.
    I'm a small ship on a large sea.
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2013
  8. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    All religions, at their root, are about two questions: where are we from and what happens when we die.

    Both of these questions tackle the question of this thread from different ends: What is the meaning of life.

    I get that life is interconnected. I just don't get the need to get all spiritual about. I enjoy mystery and coincidence and have no urge to understand it has magical. I am okay with things being unknown. Perhaps science will solve these mysteries some day. Perhaps it won't.

    I am okay with this. Mysteries are fun.