Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 19, 2024, 1:37 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
#1
Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
I would like to start this with a Stephen Hawking quote:
"Go away"
That is completely irrelevent to the post, I just wanted a Stephen Hawking quote and he definitely said that at some point.

So, if you think about it, the universe is, in a way, conscious. As an analogy, think of your brain. It is the conscious part of you, but think- is it all of you? Ok, that's debatable in a different branch of philosophy but we're going to assume your whole body composes you. So, you are as a whole conscious because part of you- your brain- is conscious. Think about the universe now.

From this perspective, you could say the universe is conscious because part of it, you and the rest of us (and likely aliens) are. We are part of the universe and thinking, so there are thoughts in the universe meaning it is a thinking entity. As the great and powerful Carl Sagan put it:
"We are the Universe contemplating itself."

Now, for some pantheisticish stuff. The universe is the closest equivalent of the Abrahamic God in science. There are many aligning properties:
  • Omniscience- Omniscience means to know everything (obviously). The only way to store all known information in the universe is the universe itself (think information storage and you'll get it.) Therefor, the univese is the only possible vessle for omniscience, and it is omniscient whether or not it's using that information (information use is not a necessary part of having all information)
  • Omnipotents: As omnipotents is the ability to do anything physically possile, the universe would need to be there for it. The universe's fundamental laws- whatever that is- could theoretically facilitate anything possible. Meaning, though it doesn't have will do decide to do things, the universe can do anything in the universe
  • Omnibenevolence- Ok, this one isn't there. I mean, if you go with evolution creating better and better stuff... but this isn't part of it.
  • Omnipresence- Must I even explain? I mean, really?
I hope I'm not sounding too new-agey or crazy so far. So, that means that the universe is what I have now coined an Empty God- a god with no willpower, a passive facilitator of the reality as opposed to a living, unified, thinking magic being.

So, what do you guys think of my philosophical ramblings? I do hope i haven't made any scientific blunders or sounded like a complete crackpot...
Reply
#2
RE: Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
That the universe contains thoughts and thinking beings doesn't qualify the universe as a conscious entity. The ocean contains fish, the ocean is not fish.

More aptly, my own body contains thoughts. This doesn't make my entire body a thinking entity, just my brain. My fingernail, my spleen, my incisors, the nape of my neck, and my kneecaps are part of the unit that contains my thinking bit, but they have no thoughts or consciousness of their own.

I'm continually baffled by this wish-fulfillment disease suffered by Buddhists (and a few others) to make every thing - literally EVERY thing - conscious and self aware.

Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Reply
#3
RE: Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
(June 4, 2014 at 4:39 am)hppavilion Wrote: So, what do you guys think of my philosophical ramblings? I do hope i haven't made any scientific blunders or sounded like a complete crackpot...

I think you're a fucking pussy of a philosopher caught up in political dogmas.

Not crackpot enough. 1/10. Please try again.
Reply
#4
RE: Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
I am thinking you may be confusing the ability of atoms to organise themselves with actual thought

This is wrong imho
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
Reply
#5
RE: Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
[Image: mereological-8ball.jpg]
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
Reply
#6
RE: Living Universe, Buddhism, Etc. Etc.
(June 4, 2014 at 5:40 am)naimless Wrote:
(June 4, 2014 at 4:39 am)hppavilion Wrote: So, what do you guys think of my philosophical ramblings? I do hope i haven't made any scientific blunders or sounded like a complete crackpot...

I think you're a fucking pussy of a philosopher caught up in political dogmas.

Not crackpot enough. 1/10. Please try again.

I feel I was a bit harsh here. Let me explain. I was projecting. I only replied because a bit of your post hit and you asked for it and shit... my main problem was with you being worried about offending 2014 peer reviewed science, as if it holds the answers. It doesn't. Fuck 'em.

As for the universe, its atoms exist within you and in a sense whatever you perceive could be the universe. If you believe you are infinite consciousness then okay, I have heard a lot of stranger things. Frankly I was just severely disappointed you didn't talk about seeing dead people in the walls or travelling to other astral realms.

(June 4, 2014 at 4:39 am)hppavilion Wrote: the universe is what I have now coined an Empty God- a god with no willpower, a passive facilitator of the reality as opposed to a living, unified, thinking magic being.

We probably misunderstand eachother due to the subjectivity of terminology and the nature of humans to generally communicate in miscommunication. That said, as obvious as this observation is, the universe is probably an empty god because you define yourself as such.

I perceive this as an uneccesary limitation of the infinite possibilities of awareness/consciousness, perhaps in order for comfort. Some people are scared of failure and believe in this limitation to protect themselves - they don't believe more in the universe in case it doesn't fulfill their dreams.

Others limit the universe because they are scared of success. It might actually be as the Buddhist said, or better, and that frightens the fuck out of a determined ego.

We can discover this in more detail but I will have to charge for our next session.

FSM Grin
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Greek philosophers always knew about the causeless universe Interaktive 10 1238 September 25, 2022 at 2:28 pm
Last Post: Anomalocaris
  Living in a sim... ignoramus 64 3284 November 21, 2021 at 11:44 pm
Last Post: ignoramus
  Does one need to go through traumatic experience to truly appreciate living? Aegon 27 3049 May 14, 2018 at 8:34 pm
Last Post: The Valkyrie
Video Do we live in a universe where theism is likely true? (video) Angrboda 36 11266 May 28, 2017 at 1:53 am
Last Post: bennyboy
  The Blameless Life is not Worth Living Rhondazvous 11 1404 January 17, 2017 at 3:19 pm
Last Post: Rhondazvous
  What God is to the Universe is what your mind is to your body fdesilva 172 18302 August 23, 2016 at 7:33 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  If a supernatural intelligence did create the universe..... maestroanth 12 2037 April 20, 2016 at 8:36 pm
Last Post: bennyboy
  Do you think the universe is real? Excited Penguin 40 5607 December 15, 2015 at 9:09 pm
Last Post: Sappho
  Omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence... etc. Napoléon 47 8826 September 12, 2015 at 1:55 pm
Last Post: Pyrrho
  A Conscious Universe FallentoReason 327 41464 February 14, 2015 at 12:56 am
Last Post: Pizza



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)