Darrel No. But occam is quite sure he exists. 'I reason therefore i 'am', and thus 'a' reality exists to support the 'am'. This is proclaimed in the NOW. The now IS reality. Existant reality is an ABSOLUTE FACT. There can be no denial of this. Time, is a concept. No-one lives in the past No-one lives in the future We live NOW NOW is all there is Past and future are concepts related to NOW. dont confuse them with real states. You can argue but you cant 'validate'. The now IS existance. And having writ, it moves on. This fits EXACTLY with human experience. Sorry but the idea that the past and future exist like pages on a book. Is crap. It goes against everything occam has learnt of our reality. Occam
Whose NOW? The moment is only how we conceive existence. The past and future don't exist like pages in a book, a book having a beginning and an end. They exist infinitely in every moment. Eternity is weird!
Dejavu Lol You mystic. Collect a cult of believers. 'The time bandits' hehe The past and future exist in every moment. Yes. The NOW is a product of the past. The future will be a product of 99.9% determinism and .1% will. Which is what the past was before it became the now. BUT STILL, only the NOW exists. The past and future do not. They are the NOW as it IS NOT [NOW] This should get a few human difference engines turning over. lol Occam
lol You mystic! The now as it is not?! You have proven that the moment is not existence, but our conception of it, which of course affects it.
Dejavu Occam has proved nothing. Yes the moment is but our 2nd hand interpretaion of a constant input generated by something that is real. Hopefully our interpretation matches 'what is' to some degree. Occam exists knowing this fundamentally. Thus Universes houses trees people and politics are all just neuroelectrical input. When occam looks at a tree, he powers up the conceptual imagination to see it as it really is. Empty space. Suffused with an atomic pattern that reflects EM radiation to his eyes which syphon data to neocortex and deeper to then interpret that input as trunk/branches/leaves and bark. This has made the world and what is important to those that rule the world. A thing of little import. Our human 'list' be it memes or cultural or ecconomic, of what is important. IS NOT Most humans see nothing but a facile patina of reality What is important is what evolution has told us is. Survival and adaptabillity. Occam
I have heard that in the far east it is said that 'Westerners are forever planning for their life.' We are there. Wherever you go there you are, as my aunt told me. It is worth saying that although I have been convinced of the reality of life after death, that does not mean I feel I can't be wrong, as I often am. The other side is a topic that I have little knowledge of, and am quite ignorant in. But, the general view of people who have experience in this area is that even though the afterlife is real, we don't carry our memories into our next life. So, we wouldn't know we reincarnated, an amusing irony if that is the case. Great minds such as Albert Einstein, Bucky Fuller, and M.C. Escher, to name a few, all state that all is possible, and that humans know relatively nothing about what forces are at work around us. The impossible becomes possible every day. An open mind supports learning, encourages the acquisition of knowledge, discourages ignorance, and is definitely a positive quality, imo. But, for me, the greatest strength is an open heart. When I need choose between heart and mind, or said another way, love and logic, I now choose my heart. Being that the educators labelled me a genius, I spent most of my life choosing logic, and trusting my mind. It is my experience that that was more often the poorer choice.
actually, judging by what little i am able to observe, i kind of seriously don't believe a majority of people actualy do believe there is "an afterlife". i also don't quite see how belief is pertinent to it. not in any intrinsic sense anyway. it there is there is and if there isn't there isn't and nothing we can do or believe is going to chainge whether there is or not. what is furthermore, seems likely to me, that out of all the infinity of possibilities, the longest shot of all, is for whatever of that nature actually does exist, to bear any particular resemblence to the few and limited conceptions of those possibilities people have. baha'ullah did say something about the universe folded within us when we dream, yet even that i've seen interpreted in a non-literal manor. i do aggree that people are not making good, rational, or responsible sense, to put their future POSSIBLE eternity ahead of not screwing everything up for each other here and now so as to not have a screwed up here and now to have to live in. nor do i see how a just and loving god could possibly put these two interests in conflict. and if there should happen to be some other kind of god and that one being the only one that exists, well it's karma would be its problem and not up to us anyway either. i don't think all that many people would really be all that suprised at all to just simply stop existing. i think that whatever to the contrary most people tell each other, that is what they really expect. i think what will surprise people, if it does happen that way, is anything else. such as waking up an infant, new born, to a sentient life form, as dominant, creative, artifact surrounding itself by as our own, on some other world in some other distant solar system of this unimmaginably vast universe. or in a garden, with no gates or fences or signs, no hunger, tiredness, thirst, or physical form, and then maybe playing a few video games with ancient sages, and then randomly queing up to be born. different lines for different worlds to be born into. short lines for the less popular worlds, longer lines for the more popular but thus possibly more overpopulated ones. i mean really, who knows? my dad used to say no one's ever come back. although that too i've always been a bit sceptical of. i would like there to be something. really however many lives i may or may not have lived before this one, just is not quite enough. maybe give me a couple more, and handful more, what have you, maybe then i'll be ready to accept the idea of oblivion. =^^= .../\...
Themnax My friend.. We really should share that beer. Yes it would be nice would it not.,, but i dont think it will come about. One day i will stop speaking on hip. I will have ceased to exist. Totally. An absolute I am insane by human standards To not exist is for me a freedom of great worth. Hope all you idiots have fun in heaven and hell Fools [] Occam
As if! The great Occam is immeasurably sane! You will be missed! I, however, will be forgotten! My fate is HARD!
Dejavu There is no 'great occam' There is but a pile of sentient protoplasm that types on a keyboard. Occam PS.. Your fate is the same as EVERY HUMAN. You will die and you will be forgotten. All species go extinct. 99.7% of all species that have ever existed on earth are now extinct. ALL species that existed 200 million years pastward. Are now extinct. Our planet/sun/galaxy/universe..will DIE But reality will continue. The sum total of energy in realty cannot fall for it has nowhere else to go. It reforms in new ways.. EVOLVING. Existance is damn cool.
The afterlife is a lynchpin in the religious formula. It is an underlying emotional foot hold with which religion (ie society by proxy) has made sure to indoctrinate the young and gullible. This structures a person's mind to value immortality as self-evident, which should be blatantly rediculous to a sober and unconditioned observer. Every piece of evidence avaiable points to a CUT and DRY reality.
This same sentient pile does not conceive of 'greatness'? Well, no kidding. lol Technically, only life dies. And yet you don't think the universe is reality, you think one more 'observable' than the other! lol Eternity, not immortality, is beautiful, is at least as beautiful as existence, as ALL existence wants it!
Pick at occams words to find fault you will. This is your way. Not a firm position, but the undermining of all others. Occam awaits your FIRM statement of what you believe the unverse and reality to be. And not just the denigration of others Occam
Infinite. I've said it before and you've asked me to say it again. If you truly believe I've been "denigrating" you, or anyone else, I am sorry. What else can one say of such misunderstanding?