I'm sorry I've posted this stupid topic. If I could delete it I would. It's just that my thoughts have been going around about creation, living forever, Jehovah, etc. Then I scare myself about what the future may actually hold. If I share my thoughts, and get them out of my head, I can be told how crazy and wrong they are. (or funny) That usually stops my cycle of negative thinking. Perhaps I've posted to many seemingly unrelated topics lately but they're all related to the current anxiety I'm going through.
Musings of a manic mind
by paul from cleveland 23 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
OnTheWayOut
I allow myself to say "I don't know" to many of life's big questions. Is time infinite? I don't know.
There are many ways to contemplate such a possibility. I personally don't think that "we" exist over and over again, but that we are here for our brief life and that the sun is here for it's brief existence and some huge time past, it was something completely different, and it will be something again completely different eons from now.
But forget about it. Does it make one single difference in your life? Oh, there are the unanswerable questions about "How did we get into the mess known as life?" and "What happens to us after the mess we call life?" And you can contemplate all you want. But forget about it in the sense that you will never KNOW for sure. Forget it in the sense that you must work on living life instead of solving it's mysteries. Enjoy the contemplation instead of worrying about it.
-
Robdar
Paul, I sent you a pm.
-
snowbird
Paul, take a break from your thoughts, my friend.
I've gone down that road; it's terrifying.
I'm glad you posted your thoughts.
Farkel, quit being such a meanie. Even though you are blessed (cursed?) with a superb brain, that doesn't mean you can't show a little sympathy.
Sylvia
-
keyser soze
And why do they ask for your zip code at Best Buy?
-
VoidEater
If time is infinite, how can we be alive now?
Time may or may not be infinite. We can only perceive the present moment, a marker in a longer continuum, in ordinary consciousness at least. It might be something like a stylus on a record, this experience of the present moment. It may be more accurate to say time is "transcendant" than "infinite". It may be more accurate to say time, as in passing time, is purely a mental construct. When deeply in the present moment, "now" can seem "inifnite". Is there an end to sapce? Yes. What's on the other side? More space.
Wouldn’t everything that can happen have happened already?
Not in the ordinary consciousness domain, which is rooted to a point in time. In some other context or state of consciousness, you may experience the simultaneous occurance of all events. It's another domain, another experience. Which is truer? Which is fallacy? It is posited that there are domains where all events occur "now", or some events repeat (suggested by some to be the "extra dimensions" demonstrated in calabi-yau space). It's a subjective thing. But if you limit the question to events on a timeline, at some point on that timeline you would look back and see previous events have happened. In a metaphysical way, the simple answer can be, "Yes, everything that can happen has happened." With an omni-everything divinity that would presumably have seen everything, perhaps contain everything, again, "Yes, all things are already within it."
Given an infinite amount of time, wouldn’t the sun have burned out and the universe reached the ultimate state of entropy?
At the point on the timeline where inifinity is approached, yes. Some Hindu thought says the Universe has reached that state and started again several times.
However long that takes wouldn’t that amount of time have passed already?
Yes, but the conscious mind is rooted to a specific timepoint in the continuum. From that "present" context, it hasn't happened yet. The whole vinyl record exists, bu the stylus only plays on a small patch of track. The interstate road travels the whole length in reality, but the car you drive is rooted to a particular point on it. You only see a small window as it passes in front of your eyes.
Given that, if we’re still alive now, does that mean that this is the second time around? (Perhaps the millionth?)
Perhaps. But is that important, since "now" is "infinite", this is the point we are conscious of, here is where we can engage and interact? Perhaps the only reality is the present moment, and we are at our best when we are grounded here.
All the chance events that brought us to our existence today obviously happened. Couldn’t they, given an eternal amount of time, happen again? (And again and again and again?)
Again, perhaps. But how is this useful, other than an intellectual exercise? Pragmatism is a useful philosophy.
Are we doomed to live this same life over and over?
We are doomed or blessed according to our perceptions. As long as you are conscious, you have choice and ability to impact yourself and your circimstances, or adjust your internal experience. But it is probably not the same life because by the time the same circumstances come around again, we have forgotten the time it was exactly like this. That's part of being human.
Perhaps "you" and "I" are not something intrinsic to ourselves, but rather "you" and "I" become such when the same cisrcumstances conflate to the same point.
Or, perhaps we are all the same entity, experienced from different perspectives.
And it probably doesn't matter.
-
Farkel
:Farkel, quit being such a meanie... doesn't mean you can't show a little sympathy.
Is that one of those "don't call someone on their bullshit and they won't call you on your bullshit kind of things, snowbird?
I've been trying for at least 10 years to figure out a way to call someone on their bullshit without really calling them on their bullshit.
Any ideas here to help me out?
"Dear Sir/Madam,
"I've figured out that what you said is bullshit and I would like to find a way to tell you it's bullshit in order to help you to not continue to put out more bullshit or at least to recognize your bullshit when you write bullshit, but I'm at a loss as to how to communicate that.
"Should I not call it 'bullshit' when actually it IS bullshit?
"Should I say, 'I appreciate what you said, BUT...
"No. That is just toooooo Watchtowerish.
"Please tell me how to tell you the truth without actually telling you the truth."
How's that, Snowbird? I'm trying to hone my skills here. I need a hug. Even a bullshit hug.
Farkel
-
snowbird
How's that, Snowbird? I'm trying to hone my skills here. I need a hug. Even a bullshit hug.
Farkel
LOL.
You could perhaps say something like, "Though I'm completely at odds with what you posted, I will respect your right to post it, and will refrain from posting how I really feel about your post."
How's that? Too many P words?
Well, how about, "I disagree totally with your premise; could you be so kind as to distill it?"
Oh! Here's a . No bullstuff.
Sylvia
-
Wasanelder Once
I gave up thinking about it any minute now. W.Once
-
sir82
False premise. Time is not infinite. It had a definite beginning, and will very likely end one day, too.
But I wouldn't worry about that too much - it's a few odd billion years away.