More thoughts for Andrew
I'm a huge fan of evolution, but I'm also a creationist. Here's why.
Evolution itself is not an explanation of life or why we exist. Evolution is a tautology. Basically evolution is saying, "Whatever survives, survives." No shit Sherlock. Anyone bold enough to exclaim that it at least explains why we are in the form we are should really think about the reductionist nightmare alongside fathoming out exactly where the rules for survival come from. Who or what decided that evolution should take place in time and three dimensions? I'm sure some would feel confident that the answer is 'out there' and we just haven't found it yet.
I believe that the tautology of evolution in no way discounts the possibility of a creator which few scientists can disagree with. When I think of a garden shed I see it as being both designed and having evolved. From one viewpoint no garden shed just sprang forth perfectly without going through some natural selection process. Garden sheds with flat roofs caved in with water, garden sheds made from flimsy would simply collapsed and some weren't put together with strong enough hinges. Garden sheds were not designed, they evolved.
Another viewpoint is that we evolved by random chance, and we created garden sheds. So if we follow the origin of the shed at some point it was only ever possible to exist because evolution made humans and trees. Ergo evolution made the garden shed.
But then I realized that it's only a garden shed because the human mind defines it as a garden shed. There is nothing inherently "sheddiness" about it. There's also nothing inherently "humaniness" about us either. Just because the human mind 'pretends' that bits of dead tree arranged in a certain way is a seperate 'thing' doesn't make it so. The same is true of the human mind itself. Just because we pretend that a certain arrangement of atoms makes a human mind, that doesn't actually make it true.
All the evidence surrounds me that there can only be separate 'things' because my mind pretends they are. Without a mind to pretend otherwise, all things are one. Well all things are one regardless of what my mind thinks. My mind is playing pretend. So why is there anything at all? Hmmm.
On another train of thought I came to a realization that the rhetoric "Why does there have to be meaning to life?" is rather odd. Of course there is meaning, there's nothing but meaning. Here's why. If a small mass is near enough to a large mass to be caught in it's gravitational pull then that "means" the small mass will move towards the large mass.
If 5,000 volts passes through my body that "means" my heart will stop and that "means" I won't have blood pumped through my body which "means" I will stop thinking.
What's the meaning of life?
There's nothing but meaning in life. It's ALL meaning. This means that means this means that means the other thing which means more.
Things meaning something in life is like bits of dead wood arranged in a certain way means "garden shed" to the human mind.
"No, but what people mean is, what is it all for? Why did I bother to live if it has no end result?"
You're not alive.
All you are is a pretend "thing" in the mind of something much greater. You cannot exist any other way. In this greater mind, it pretends that when a nail gets banged into your thigh bone you will feel pain and scream. But here is the trick. If you know that it's just pretend and that everything is just one thing you don't have to follow the script. A garden shed doesn't have to follow the script of being a garden shed without a human mind around to define it as such. We don't have to pretend that we are soft bodied beings subject to pain and suffering.
I'm not saying it's easy to stop pretending, but you can stop pretending.
The greater mind that perceives what we sense as the physical universe can stop pretending too. If you stop pretending then you wake up.
Dreams are just pretend. Sometimes they can be amazing, sometimes your worst nightmare, just like life. When you wake up you are safe from a nightmare and relieved or you were enjoying a wonderful dream so much then you feel disappointed, but you realize that it was just pretend.
Instead of calling it 'pretend' lets call it a 'creation.'
:)
Namaste.
Evolution itself is not an explanation of life or why we exist. Evolution is a tautology. Basically evolution is saying, "Whatever survives, survives." No shit Sherlock. Anyone bold enough to exclaim that it at least explains why we are in the form we are should really think about the reductionist nightmare alongside fathoming out exactly where the rules for survival come from. Who or what decided that evolution should take place in time and three dimensions? I'm sure some would feel confident that the answer is 'out there' and we just haven't found it yet.
I believe that the tautology of evolution in no way discounts the possibility of a creator which few scientists can disagree with. When I think of a garden shed I see it as being both designed and having evolved. From one viewpoint no garden shed just sprang forth perfectly without going through some natural selection process. Garden sheds with flat roofs caved in with water, garden sheds made from flimsy would simply collapsed and some weren't put together with strong enough hinges. Garden sheds were not designed, they evolved.
Another viewpoint is that we evolved by random chance, and we created garden sheds. So if we follow the origin of the shed at some point it was only ever possible to exist because evolution made humans and trees. Ergo evolution made the garden shed.
But then I realized that it's only a garden shed because the human mind defines it as a garden shed. There is nothing inherently "sheddiness" about it. There's also nothing inherently "humaniness" about us either. Just because the human mind 'pretends' that bits of dead tree arranged in a certain way is a seperate 'thing' doesn't make it so. The same is true of the human mind itself. Just because we pretend that a certain arrangement of atoms makes a human mind, that doesn't actually make it true.
All the evidence surrounds me that there can only be separate 'things' because my mind pretends they are. Without a mind to pretend otherwise, all things are one. Well all things are one regardless of what my mind thinks. My mind is playing pretend. So why is there anything at all? Hmmm.
On another train of thought I came to a realization that the rhetoric "Why does there have to be meaning to life?" is rather odd. Of course there is meaning, there's nothing but meaning. Here's why. If a small mass is near enough to a large mass to be caught in it's gravitational pull then that "means" the small mass will move towards the large mass.
If 5,000 volts passes through my body that "means" my heart will stop and that "means" I won't have blood pumped through my body which "means" I will stop thinking.
What's the meaning of life?
There's nothing but meaning in life. It's ALL meaning. This means that means this means that means the other thing which means more.
Things meaning something in life is like bits of dead wood arranged in a certain way means "garden shed" to the human mind.
"No, but what people mean is, what is it all for? Why did I bother to live if it has no end result?"
You're not alive.
All you are is a pretend "thing" in the mind of something much greater. You cannot exist any other way. In this greater mind, it pretends that when a nail gets banged into your thigh bone you will feel pain and scream. But here is the trick. If you know that it's just pretend and that everything is just one thing you don't have to follow the script. A garden shed doesn't have to follow the script of being a garden shed without a human mind around to define it as such. We don't have to pretend that we are soft bodied beings subject to pain and suffering.
I'm not saying it's easy to stop pretending, but you can stop pretending.
The greater mind that perceives what we sense as the physical universe can stop pretending too. If you stop pretending then you wake up.
Dreams are just pretend. Sometimes they can be amazing, sometimes your worst nightmare, just like life. When you wake up you are safe from a nightmare and relieved or you were enjoying a wonderful dream so much then you feel disappointed, but you realize that it was just pretend.
Instead of calling it 'pretend' lets call it a 'creation.'
:)
Namaste.