Here’s something to spin your wheels on for a while: if The Big Bang happened due to preexisting energy transforming into the first and only matter in the “universe” (whether you can even call it “the universe” prior to TBB is debatable), where did that energy come from?
Did an astronomical electromagnetic field just spontaneously occur and begin transforming itself into the matter contained in the singularity? And if so, what generated that electromagnetic field? Where could such an astronomical field of energy originate?
The sun, or some other source of heat or light? Maybe that was the catalyst for some sort of cosmic chemical conversion. Or, maybe aliens were behind the creation of the universe and they’re not interested in revealing their Intel to a bunch of primates. Who knows.
In order for the sun, or some other source of heat or light to create the universe, they must first exist outside it (just like “aliens”). Where? Also, if ALL matter was contained in the original singularity (not confirmed i supposed, but that’s the theory, and the evidence makes it seem quite solid), how, and/or where, did energy exist, prior, in order to cause the effect of energy transforming into the singularity?
Those are all great questions. The next time I run across an inter- dimensional alien I’ll ask him/her/it.
Hopefully we can do a mind meld thing – you know, communicate telepathically. I don’t speak alien, and there’s no way of knowing if the alien speaks English.
1) there are infinite levels of universes containing infinite universes
2) “magic” instigated the beginning of existence, out of sheer nothingness
Neither seems a sufficient (or even plausible) explanation, to me.
I conclude that our universe should not even exist, hence none of us, or anything else, should exist. And yet, here we are.
So, as an offshoot from that previous question: do we really exist? Is any of this actually real? How would we be able to test whether reality is real, if we are contained within it?
The only way to answer the question is to assume that there is another “container,” or at least one parallel “universe/dimension,” outside of / in addition to, our own.
And if that is the case, all the same questions about our own universe, apply to that other realm. So where did that come from?
Without “magic,” how can anything come from “Void?”
There must be another realm, and ours must have been intruded by something it produced or expelled or created. But we have no way of testing that, and no way of observing it.
This line of questioning forces me to accept that “afterlife” is not necessarily an absurd notion… just the way it has typically been described by humans, seems to be (absurd).
There’s a lot of weird shit I can’t explain. I’ve had stuff happen and experienced things that I wouldn’t have believed if someone told me that they had had those same exact experiences.
I don’t like talking about it because I have no proof, no evidence to back up my claims. I only have experience, and I don’t like pulling the supernatural card.
Idk. I think there’s more going on than we’re aware of. It’s frustrating because I can’t prove what I suspect. It’s a gut feeling based on experience and observation. Eh. Who knows.
Well, i wasn’t expecting anyone to have the answers to unanswerable questions. 😉
I’m obviously in the same boat: all i can do is allow reason and evidence to take me as far as it can, and attempt to “invent” something compatible to fill the gaps, until/unless new information becomes available.
RT said post something interesting… ready aim fire. ^^
I respect people who are honest enough to answer “I don’t know” when they’re asked a question they don’t know the answer too. I’ve heard enough BS “answers” from theists to last a lifetime. Hehe
Hey CN? What’s your take on reincarnation? I’m curious.
I think that reincarnation, in and of itself, it not necessarily a fundamentally implausible idea. I could go on and on about various conditionals in that regard, but… “maybe” is my answer. If it happens, i don’t think we take any part of the current/previous life into the next one. I also wonder… i think i’d have to opt for a “universal” interpretation of it, in which “we” are not even guaranteed to incarnate into anything on earth. The universe is huge, astronomically vast. It’s likely there are other habitable places out there somewhere, and i think all of those places would be included in the “reincarnation lottery.” We could end up being a bug on an alien planet, for all i know.
Like i said in a comment on another thread (i think it was that older one by “engie” that you necro’d the other day), IMO, reincarnation seems equivalently probable as eternal oblivion. One thing i’m fairly sure of: we will never be “this” person, ever again, regardless of whether anything happens after.
It seems impossible to really know how it all started. How vast space is, what we as a species do not know, and what we might eventually learn.
I like to believe that mankind is still evolving. We’re in a latent state of becoming. We haven’t yet realized our full potential. Someday we might figure out the answers to these questions, but right now we’re just not as advanced as we like to think we are. That’s my theory, anyway.
What I meant was I believe we’re capable of evolving to a level that people today couldn’t even imagine. We could become gods.
We’re extremely primitive right now, using only a handful of our potential.
Honestly, i think we (as a species) could eventually evolve to become able to control both matter and energy by sheer will. But if so, that’s a LONG way off, and is not guaranteed. I also think we could evolve into a collective hive-mind, complete with “queens” and “drones.” Seems like that’s the direction we’re headed.
Whenever I think about the multiverse theory, I imagine the multiple dimensions as slices of bread, all adjacent to each other, floating wherever it is dimensions reside. I started to think that maybe a reasonable explaination for poltergeists and ghosts could be like, the dimensional planes clashed against each other, momentarily, because they’re always swaying back and forth bouncing off of each other, and any ‘ghost’ was like a shadow of/or a dimensional imprint of somone from another dimension… also, every dimension was a different moment of time, stacked up against each other chronologically, that’s why people see ‘nineteenth century ghosts’ instead of ghosts wearing modern clothes… of course, I was partially blazed when I came up with all that, so..
So people in ‘the future’, I.e. the dimensional plane chronologically er, to the right of us, in this diagram, (the slice of dimension bread ahead of us) would see US as ghosts, whereas we would see denizens of the dimension residing just behind us in time as ghosts… lol. 🙂 Idk…
I actually had a similar idea about ghosts. I wonder if they could pass through some kind of “portal” from one dimension to the next. There are places on earth that are especially known for seemingly ‘supernatural apparitions’ such as the “Suicide Bridge” in Pasadena, California. Could this place hold an invisible link to an alternate dimension? People have claimed to see some pretty creepy visions here, so… who knows.
No harm in wild speculation anyhow, as long as you don’t wholeheartedly “believe” anything without evidence.
We can sit around all day and postulize what the answers to life, the universe, and everything are until our brains explode from over-thinking things that we are simply not capable of understanding .
Fact of the matter is that our little primate minds simply aren’t equipped to grasp this kind of knowledge.
I’m just going to go with “42” and leave it at that.
Now I’m going to continue on with my suicidal ideation.
Thanks for the interesting comments though everyone. Was a nice read.
Exactly. I could philosophize, I just choose not to. I’ve done a lot of thinking on these subjects already and the conclusion I always return to is that it’s simply impossible to know anything beyond what scientists have theorized and speculated. (Even then, their propositions sometimes require “suspension of disbelief”.)
42: The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. You can’t go wrong there.
In the meantime, I make it my mission to study personalities and human psychology and attempt to figure out the complex workings of the human mind and behavior. Why do people do what they do, why do they react in such and such a manner, et cetera. I think this might be slightly less frustrating than pondering the origins of existence as we know it.
@Persa- that’s exactly my whole take and approach to everything. lol I read into neuroscience and social behavior. I’ve contemplated greater questions in life but I find the heart of the matter is within the human condition and it’s much more entertaining! lol
And 42….lol I’ve got that movie! hehe
I know “necro” has to do with death, but I didn’t understand your reference the first time. Now I do. I was “resurrecting” a dead post.
(By the way, a necrophiliac used to frequent this site. He claimed to have a night job at a mortuary, and sometimes when he was alone with the stiffs he would “crack open a cold one”. Interesting fellow).
I only brought up the reincarnation thing because lately I’ve been thinking about the transfer of energy. Entropy and that. I wonder how possible it is for intangibles like consciousness, awareness, memories, etc., to transcend physical existence I understand that all of this occurs in the mind. Once the body and brain cease functioning, can the mind still persevere? Can it be powered by some other source, independent from the body?
Idk.
Also lol @ “crack open a cold one.” xD (ew, but hilarious)
Like i was saying before… if we are all animated into sentience by “one source,” and are indeed “all one,” then the question “why am i me, and not you?” is actually… well idk what it is, but in accordance with the “one source” notion, we ARE me, and you, and everyone and everything else, all at once… but we are experiencing individuality, in a way that feels like “self.”
So while “i am me,” i am also “you,” and vice versa. If we are all the same consciousness inhabiting different individual vessels, then it would make sense that as soon as a body dies, that same “one source” would simply fill the next available vessel… although there’s no telling which type or location that next vessel would be. It could be an ant, or a lion, or a north korean! Or maybe something on an alien planet none of us humans have ever seen (as in “universal reincarnation lottery”).
The interesting thing about entropy, is that it involves potential to do work (the science kind of work; like chemicals catalyzing and producing a result). It’s essentially just natural decay. It’s tied into the “heat death of the universe” theory, which itself is tied into the “big crunch” and “rebound” theories. Along those thought lines, it’s possible that our most recent “Big Bang” was not the first, and that this universe and all its materials have actually recycled themselves multiple times already.
To me, the universe seems like an “explosion,” and all the stars are basically tiny bits of a much larger combustion-type reaction… particles flying everywhere, burning until there’s nothing left, then collapsing into static “dead” matter, drifting at the mercy of various gravitational influence… until the ultimate heat death of the universe (at which point entropy has completed its purpose).
Since we don’t see anything in the physical universe that would indicate an origin/introduction point for this “one source,” it would necessarily have to exist in some other realm. Perhaps THAT realm, is infinite, is not bound by physical/material laws/constraints, and was the origin of all existence.
I would even take it further and suppose that perhaps all sentient experience is shared and/or combined into that “one source,” and so it might be possible that some of that makes it into all subsequent new beings.
I’m obviously speculating, but i try to do so in accordance with what can be known. I figure it’s an interesting line of thought to pursue, and i’ve spent a lot of idle time exploring it.
“The Source”. “Not constrained by physical laws”.
I wonder if people just have it hard wired into their DNA to want to believe there’s more to existence than the time we spend alive on Earth. So many questions, so few answers.
This was fun. These meandering philosophical threads are my favorite. I like em just a little bit more than the God vs. Atheists debates. (The God people always recite the same old tired lines).
Honestly, i think we really are “hard wired” to reach for something more… whether that’s a product of conditioning burned into our DNA over thousands (millions) of years of evolution, or something else… i can’t really say.
@Clevername
People aren’t that difficult to work out. All you need to do is pay attention. Most human beings seem incapable of changing themselves and thus have very predictable behavioral patterns.
Have you ever noticed that when a woman is bitching at you but you disregard or ignore her, she will either 1) become more upset or 2) will settle down or run off in a huff.
If you don’t give her the reaction she’s looking for, she’ll have no choice but to find someone else to whom she can ***** and moan. She may be complaining about you, but the reality is that she is stressed and wants to take out her frustration on SOMEONE, so why can’t that someone be you? (Men also do this.)
See? Predictable. You may be part of the problem, but if you did nothing wrong, they should learn to recognize how they’re being overdramatic, histrionic, unpleasant, et cetera. Everybody should really take classes in self-awareness. (Then I suppose we’ll have to deal with a society of narcissists. Oh well.)
Or she actually calls in the neighbors to literally unscrew the hinges off your door and remove said door altogether, so instead of a 13 year old being able to go to his room to stop an argument, she can literally come in and FINISH bitching at you.
My mom.
I prefer self analysis over analyzing others.
Other people can and will think, do or say whatever it is they’re going to. I can’t control them, I can only control me. (How I react to external stimuli).
I quit trying to understand women a long time ago. Tides are more predictable. (No offense).
Yeah, I gave up on trying to understand women too, because of how frustrating my own mother was … then again that was when I was younger, I’m 19 now and I still haven’t made any progress on the matter.
Well generally, yeah, to be honest. Of course it depends on the person but man…
there were two female teachers that nearly suffered nervous breakdowns in my school district, (sit in the back and don’t make a sound, my motto, lol) and some of the things they did were definitely more of the female hysteria bracket. O.o
@Clevername
Right, yeah. That’s why I enjoy being a hermit.
Also, like I said people should try to be as self-aware and analyze their own thoughts and reactions, but it can sometimes be useful to attempt to discern where another person is coming from. That’s called “empathy”. The other person may be acting or thinking irrationally, but if you think to yourself: why might they be reacting in this manner, you can better control your own response. Reasoning with some people is pointless and some will unfairly attack you without cause, so in that case it’s best to let it go and leave the situation. If they’re upset but you didn’t react, they’ll probably start to wonder why they were angry in the first place. Perhaps this will teach them to self-reflect.
I find it baffling when anyone doesn’t know why they, themselves, are angry.
How can anyone be angry without knowing the reason? It doesn’t make sense to me. I think it’s more likely that they simply don’t want to reveal the reason, or rather their interpretation of it… perhaps because they realize they’re angry for the wrong reasons, and don’t want to further embarrass themselves. Idk.
But i always do that (self-aware, self-analysis, “reading” others’ behaviors, trying to understand…). It’s hard for me to turn that off. That’s part of why i avoid people: i get tired of reading them. Plus, if i’m away from irrational types, they won’t be able to target me.
It seems to me that lots of people lack self-reflection, whether it’s a lack of capacity or lack of desire to do so.
I’m sensing a psychopath thread comin’ on here. (Jk) (I hope..)
Seriously, met one, they literally could not tell and did not know why they were angry half the time. I actually (had to) sat down and explained to this person, (lol) “Okay man. Take a look at yourself.” I actually had to make it clear to them that they weren’t even aware of the reason they were angry in the first place. Utter ridiculousness.
Lol, is ridiculousness even a word? Or is that only the name of that skateboarding show?
Well, “utterly ridiculous” sums up the anti-social situation pretty well anyway.
Of course somone would (like to) assume they know why, or at least have some sort of reason for as to why they were angry at all.
@Clevername I’ve developed a habit now of telling anyone who starts spouting off at me when I did nothing to provoke them – “You must be having a bad day, but there’s no need to take your irritation out on me.” I also suggest that they go to anger management classes or a Buddhist monastery to learn how to meditate and self-reflect. (hehehe.) That one generally doesn’t win me any favours but if I’ll be left in peace, I’ll take it.
I haven’t had anyone “spout off at me” in quite a while… mostly because i rarely leave the house, and don’t force interaction with anyone here.
I generally resort to the “insufficient response” tactic, when someone is trying to corner me to get me to join in their being riled up over whatever… unless it’s something i actually care about, in which case, if i feel up to it, i’ll indulge them. Otherwise, i just keep doing the “uh huh… oh!… yep… mmhm! …yeah… [eyebrows]… [nod]… [body-language-trailing-off]…” etc. It’s hilarious, and effective, and helps me avoid being involuntarily engaged.
A lot of people have pent up anger due to traumatic past experiences that went unresolved. Something in their current environment may trigger it and then BAM! some poor, undeserving person takes the brunt of it.
I believe that what people who display inappropriate outbursts really want is not to transfer their pain onto another person, but rather they want resolution from their previous violation and have no other effective coping skills.
55 comments
Something interesting.
Wow. I just saved a life.
what would you do for a klondike bar?
I recently discovered that a reese’s peanut butter cup klondike bar exists. I was so taken aback that i couldn’t even ask for one.
I’ve seen those here lol
Mmm..that sounds good right about now! lol
What is “interesting?”
“It’s all relative (and subjective).”
Here’s something to spin your wheels on for a while: if The Big Bang happened due to preexisting energy transforming into the first and only matter in the “universe” (whether you can even call it “the universe” prior to TBB is debatable), where did that energy come from?
Did an astronomical electromagnetic field just spontaneously occur and begin transforming itself into the matter contained in the singularity? And if so, what generated that electromagnetic field? Where could such an astronomical field of energy originate?
Aliens….duh
In order for aliens to create the universe, they must first exist outside it. Where?
The sun, or some other source of heat or light? Maybe that was the catalyst for some sort of cosmic chemical conversion. Or, maybe aliens were behind the creation of the universe and they’re not interested in revealing their Intel to a bunch of primates. Who knows.
In order for the sun, or some other source of heat or light to create the universe, they must first exist outside it (just like “aliens”). Where? Also, if ALL matter was contained in the original singularity (not confirmed i supposed, but that’s the theory, and the evidence makes it seem quite solid), how, and/or where, did energy exist, prior, in order to cause the effect of energy transforming into the singularity?
Those are all great questions. The next time I run across an inter- dimensional alien I’ll ask him/her/it.
Hopefully we can do a mind meld thing – you know, communicate telepathically. I don’t speak alien, and there’s no way of knowing if the alien speaks English.
We can go one of two ways on this:
1) there are infinite levels of universes containing infinite universes
2) “magic” instigated the beginning of existence, out of sheer nothingness
Neither seems a sufficient (or even plausible) explanation, to me.
I conclude that our universe should not even exist, hence none of us, or anything else, should exist. And yet, here we are.
So, as an offshoot from that previous question: do we really exist? Is any of this actually real? How would we be able to test whether reality is real, if we are contained within it?
Aliens live in a dimension that humans cannot access.
The only way to answer the question is to assume that there is another “container,” or at least one parallel “universe/dimension,” outside of / in addition to, our own.
And if that is the case, all the same questions about our own universe, apply to that other realm. So where did that come from?
Without “magic,” how can anything come from “Void?”
There must be another realm, and ours must have been intruded by something it produced or expelled or created. But we have no way of testing that, and no way of observing it.
This line of questioning forces me to accept that “afterlife” is not necessarily an absurd notion… just the way it has typically been described by humans, seems to be (absurd).
This stuff ties brains in knots. Or ties knots in brains, depending on your linguistic tendencies. 😉
To the other extreme… “here and now” is the only thing that actually exists. The past no longer exists, and the future has yet not occurred.
How do you determine what to do with your “here and now?”
There’s a lot of weird shit I can’t explain. I’ve had stuff happen and experienced things that I wouldn’t have believed if someone told me that they had had those same exact experiences.
I don’t like talking about it because I have no proof, no evidence to back up my claims. I only have experience, and I don’t like pulling the supernatural card.
Idk. I think there’s more going on than we’re aware of. It’s frustrating because I can’t prove what I suspect. It’s a gut feeling based on experience and observation. Eh. Who knows.
Well, i wasn’t expecting anyone to have the answers to unanswerable questions. 😉
I’m obviously in the same boat: all i can do is allow reason and evidence to take me as far as it can, and attempt to “invent” something compatible to fill the gaps, until/unless new information becomes available.
RT said post something interesting… ready aim fire. ^^
I respect people who are honest enough to answer “I don’t know” when they’re asked a question they don’t know the answer too. I’ve heard enough BS “answers” from theists to last a lifetime. Hehe
Hey CN? What’s your take on reincarnation? I’m curious.
I think that reincarnation, in and of itself, it not necessarily a fundamentally implausible idea. I could go on and on about various conditionals in that regard, but… “maybe” is my answer. If it happens, i don’t think we take any part of the current/previous life into the next one. I also wonder… i think i’d have to opt for a “universal” interpretation of it, in which “we” are not even guaranteed to incarnate into anything on earth. The universe is huge, astronomically vast. It’s likely there are other habitable places out there somewhere, and i think all of those places would be included in the “reincarnation lottery.” We could end up being a bug on an alien planet, for all i know.
Like i said in a comment on another thread (i think it was that older one by “engie” that you necro’d the other day), IMO, reincarnation seems equivalently probable as eternal oblivion. One thing i’m fairly sure of: we will never be “this” person, ever again, regardless of whether anything happens after.
It seems impossible to really know how it all started. How vast space is, what we as a species do not know, and what we might eventually learn.
I like to believe that mankind is still evolving. We’re in a latent state of becoming. We haven’t yet realized our full potential. Someday we might figure out the answers to these questions, but right now we’re just not as advanced as we like to think we are. That’s my theory, anyway.
Mankind is still evolving, factually.
What I meant was I believe we’re capable of evolving to a level that people today couldn’t even imagine. We could become gods.
We’re extremely primitive right now, using only a handful of our potential.
Honestly, i think we (as a species) could eventually evolve to become able to control both matter and energy by sheer will. But if so, that’s a LONG way off, and is not guaranteed. I also think we could evolve into a collective hive-mind, complete with “queens” and “drones.” Seems like that’s the direction we’re headed.
lol
Whenever I think about the multiverse theory, I imagine the multiple dimensions as slices of bread, all adjacent to each other, floating wherever it is dimensions reside. I started to think that maybe a reasonable explaination for poltergeists and ghosts could be like, the dimensional planes clashed against each other, momentarily, because they’re always swaying back and forth bouncing off of each other, and any ‘ghost’ was like a shadow of/or a dimensional imprint of somone from another dimension… also, every dimension was a different moment of time, stacked up against each other chronologically, that’s why people see ‘nineteenth century ghosts’ instead of ghosts wearing modern clothes… of course, I was partially blazed when I came up with all that, so..
So people in ‘the future’, I.e. the dimensional plane chronologically er, to the right of us, in this diagram, (the slice of dimension bread ahead of us) would see US as ghosts, whereas we would see denizens of the dimension residing just behind us in time as ghosts… lol. 🙂 Idk…
@takeeverything
I actually had a similar idea about ghosts. I wonder if they could pass through some kind of “portal” from one dimension to the next. There are places on earth that are especially known for seemingly ‘supernatural apparitions’ such as the “Suicide Bridge” in Pasadena, California. Could this place hold an invisible link to an alternate dimension? People have claimed to see some pretty creepy visions here, so… who knows.
No harm in wild speculation anyhow, as long as you don’t wholeheartedly “believe” anything without evidence.
We can sit around all day and postulize what the answers to life, the universe, and everything are until our brains explode from over-thinking things that we are simply not capable of understanding .
Fact of the matter is that our little primate minds simply aren’t equipped to grasp this kind of knowledge.
I’m just going to go with “42” and leave it at that.
Now I’m going to continue on with my suicidal ideation.
Thanks for the interesting comments though everyone. Was a nice read.
If i could literally think myself to death, i’d go for it. lol.
How does one become capable of accomplishing something they are currently unable to do?
Practice.
We have to strive toward the improvements we want to manifest. Otherwise, we’ll surely never get there.
The point of all this was not to figure it out today, but to merely “write something interesting,” as requested by the OP. 😉
Exactly. I could philosophize, I just choose not to. I’ve done a lot of thinking on these subjects already and the conclusion I always return to is that it’s simply impossible to know anything beyond what scientists have theorized and speculated. (Even then, their propositions sometimes require “suspension of disbelief”.)
42: The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. You can’t go wrong there.
In the meantime, I make it my mission to study personalities and human psychology and attempt to figure out the complex workings of the human mind and behavior. Why do people do what they do, why do they react in such and such a manner, et cetera. I think this might be slightly less frustrating than pondering the origins of existence as we know it.
“I think this might be slightly less frustrating than pondering the origins of existence as we know it.”
lol, i have honestly concluded the opposite. 😉
@Persa- that’s exactly my whole take and approach to everything. lol I read into neuroscience and social behavior. I’ve contemplated greater questions in life but I find the heart of the matter is within the human condition and it’s much more entertaining! lol
And 42….lol I’ve got that movie! hehe
I know “necro” has to do with death, but I didn’t understand your reference the first time. Now I do. I was “resurrecting” a dead post.
(By the way, a necrophiliac used to frequent this site. He claimed to have a night job at a mortuary, and sometimes when he was alone with the stiffs he would “crack open a cold one”. Interesting fellow).
I only brought up the reincarnation thing because lately I’ve been thinking about the transfer of energy. Entropy and that. I wonder how possible it is for intangibles like consciousness, awareness, memories, etc., to transcend physical existence I understand that all of this occurs in the mind. Once the body and brain cease functioning, can the mind still persevere? Can it be powered by some other source, independent from the body?
Idk.
Idk, but that would suck.
…if your ability to think remained after your body died, like the guillotine thing.
“…well this sucks.”
Yeah “necro” is forum slang.
Also lol @ “crack open a cold one.” xD (ew, but hilarious)
Like i was saying before… if we are all animated into sentience by “one source,” and are indeed “all one,” then the question “why am i me, and not you?” is actually… well idk what it is, but in accordance with the “one source” notion, we ARE me, and you, and everyone and everything else, all at once… but we are experiencing individuality, in a way that feels like “self.”
So while “i am me,” i am also “you,” and vice versa. If we are all the same consciousness inhabiting different individual vessels, then it would make sense that as soon as a body dies, that same “one source” would simply fill the next available vessel… although there’s no telling which type or location that next vessel would be. It could be an ant, or a lion, or a north korean! Or maybe something on an alien planet none of us humans have ever seen (as in “universal reincarnation lottery”).
The interesting thing about entropy, is that it involves potential to do work (the science kind of work; like chemicals catalyzing and producing a result). It’s essentially just natural decay. It’s tied into the “heat death of the universe” theory, which itself is tied into the “big crunch” and “rebound” theories. Along those thought lines, it’s possible that our most recent “Big Bang” was not the first, and that this universe and all its materials have actually recycled themselves multiple times already.
To me, the universe seems like an “explosion,” and all the stars are basically tiny bits of a much larger combustion-type reaction… particles flying everywhere, burning until there’s nothing left, then collapsing into static “dead” matter, drifting at the mercy of various gravitational influence… until the ultimate heat death of the universe (at which point entropy has completed its purpose).
Since we don’t see anything in the physical universe that would indicate an origin/introduction point for this “one source,” it would necessarily have to exist in some other realm. Perhaps THAT realm, is infinite, is not bound by physical/material laws/constraints, and was the origin of all existence.
I would even take it further and suppose that perhaps all sentient experience is shared and/or combined into that “one source,” and so it might be possible that some of that makes it into all subsequent new beings.
I’m obviously speculating, but i try to do so in accordance with what can be known. I figure it’s an interesting line of thought to pursue, and i’ve spent a lot of idle time exploring it.
“The Source”. “Not constrained by physical laws”.
I wonder if people just have it hard wired into their DNA to want to believe there’s more to existence than the time we spend alive on Earth. So many questions, so few answers.
This was fun. These meandering philosophical threads are my favorite. I like em just a little bit more than the God vs. Atheists debates. (The God people always recite the same old tired lines).
Honestly, i think we really are “hard wired” to reach for something more… whether that’s a product of conditioning burned into our DNA over thousands (millions) of years of evolution, or something else… i can’t really say.
@Clevername
People aren’t that difficult to work out. All you need to do is pay attention. Most human beings seem incapable of changing themselves and thus have very predictable behavioral patterns.
Have you ever noticed that when a woman is bitching at you but you disregard or ignore her, she will either 1) become more upset or 2) will settle down or run off in a huff.
If you don’t give her the reaction she’s looking for, she’ll have no choice but to find someone else to whom she can ***** and moan. She may be complaining about you, but the reality is that she is stressed and wants to take out her frustration on SOMEONE, so why can’t that someone be you? (Men also do this.)
See? Predictable. You may be part of the problem, but if you did nothing wrong, they should learn to recognize how they’re being overdramatic, histrionic, unpleasant, et cetera. Everybody should really take classes in self-awareness. (Then I suppose we’ll have to deal with a society of narcissists. Oh well.)
Women … 3)
Or she actually calls in the neighbors to literally unscrew the hinges off your door and remove said door altogether, so instead of a 13 year old being able to go to his room to stop an argument, she can literally come in and FINISH bitching at you.
My mom.
I didn’t predict that one.
I prefer self analysis over analyzing others.
Other people can and will think, do or say whatever it is they’re going to. I can’t control them, I can only control me. (How I react to external stimuli).
I quit trying to understand women a long time ago. Tides are more predictable. (No offense).
Yeah, I gave up on trying to understand women too, because of how frustrating my own mother was … then again that was when I was younger, I’m 19 now and I still haven’t made any progress on the matter.
@takeeverything Do you find men easier to comprehend or do you find their words and actions baffling at times as well?
Well generally, yeah, to be honest. Of course it depends on the person but man…
there were two female teachers that nearly suffered nervous breakdowns in my school district, (sit in the back and don’t make a sound, my motto, lol) and some of the things they did were definitely more of the female hysteria bracket. O.o
It’s not that they’re difficult to figure out, but that they’re frustrating. That was my point. 😉
@Clevername
Right, yeah. That’s why I enjoy being a hermit.
Also, like I said people should try to be as self-aware and analyze their own thoughts and reactions, but it can sometimes be useful to attempt to discern where another person is coming from. That’s called “empathy”. The other person may be acting or thinking irrationally, but if you think to yourself: why might they be reacting in this manner, you can better control your own response. Reasoning with some people is pointless and some will unfairly attack you without cause, so in that case it’s best to let it go and leave the situation. If they’re upset but you didn’t react, they’ll probably start to wonder why they were angry in the first place. Perhaps this will teach them to self-reflect.
I find it baffling when anyone doesn’t know why they, themselves, are angry.
How can anyone be angry without knowing the reason? It doesn’t make sense to me. I think it’s more likely that they simply don’t want to reveal the reason, or rather their interpretation of it… perhaps because they realize they’re angry for the wrong reasons, and don’t want to further embarrass themselves. Idk.
But i always do that (self-aware, self-analysis, “reading” others’ behaviors, trying to understand…). It’s hard for me to turn that off. That’s part of why i avoid people: i get tired of reading them. Plus, if i’m away from irrational types, they won’t be able to target me.
It seems to me that lots of people lack self-reflection, whether it’s a lack of capacity or lack of desire to do so.
Also! I dislike having to constantly adjust my behaviors to suit others. Most of the time, i’d rather just be alone.
I’m sensing a psychopath thread comin’ on here. (Jk) (I hope..)
Seriously, met one, they literally could not tell and did not know why they were angry half the time. I actually (had to) sat down and explained to this person, (lol) “Okay man. Take a look at yourself.” I actually had to make it clear to them that they weren’t even aware of the reason they were angry in the first place. Utter ridiculousness.
Lol, is ridiculousness even a word? Or is that only the name of that skateboarding show?
Well, “utterly ridiculous” sums up the anti-social situation pretty well anyway.
Of course somone would (like to) assume they know why, or at least have some sort of reason for as to why they were angry at all.
@Clevername I’ve developed a habit now of telling anyone who starts spouting off at me when I did nothing to provoke them – “You must be having a bad day, but there’s no need to take your irritation out on me.” I also suggest that they go to anger management classes or a Buddhist monastery to learn how to meditate and self-reflect. (hehehe.) That one generally doesn’t win me any favours but if I’ll be left in peace, I’ll take it.
lol.
I haven’t had anyone “spout off at me” in quite a while… mostly because i rarely leave the house, and don’t force interaction with anyone here.
I generally resort to the “insufficient response” tactic, when someone is trying to corner me to get me to join in their being riled up over whatever… unless it’s something i actually care about, in which case, if i feel up to it, i’ll indulge them. Otherwise, i just keep doing the “uh huh… oh!… yep… mmhm! …yeah… [eyebrows]… [nod]… [body-language-trailing-off]…” etc. It’s hilarious, and effective, and helps me avoid being involuntarily engaged.
A lot of people have pent up anger due to traumatic past experiences that went unresolved. Something in their current environment may trigger it and then BAM! some poor, undeserving person takes the brunt of it.
I believe that what people who display inappropriate outbursts really want is not to transfer their pain onto another person, but rather they want resolution from their previous violation and have no other effective coping skills.
that seems plausible.
Have you ever sneezed yourself into a situation you couldn’t burp or fart your way out of?