Philosophy Now Forum

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 11:02 am

I wish my mind were "wide open". However, my mind seems to need to form hypotheses in order to guide it, in order to give it direction of where to look and what to look for. Right now there seems to be a lot of destruction with loss of life going on in the world, according to the news I see. I wish it would stop.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:21 pm

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 11:02 am

I wish my mind were "wide open". However, my mind seems to need to form hypotheses in order to guide it, in order to give it direction of where to look and what to look for. Right now there seems to be a lot of destruction with loss of life going on in the world, according to the news I see. I wish it would stop.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... t%20places.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:21 pm I wish my mind were "wide open". However, my mind seems to need to form hypotheses in order to guide it, in order to give it direction of where to look and what to look for. Right now there seems to be a lot of destruction with loss of life going on in the world, according to the news I see. I wish it would stop.

I'm not sure what wide open would mean. Everyone uses hypotheses. There are different degrees of openness. People who call themselves seekers are not just randomly choosing activities and experiences. Many who call themselves that will head to ashrams or meditate or contemplate nature or talk to spiritual experts and they make these choices from hypotheses. Very few of them will eat matches. Why won't they eat matches? Well they have hypotheses based on things they've read, heard, already experienced, seen, been told and so on.

Some people would not be willing to try things outside the subculture they started in. And they may have hypotheses that the only way to _________________is X, Y and Z. So we could say they don't have so open minds, at the present. Others might overhear a coversation, read something, talk to someone and get a starting hypothesis for something to try, even if it's not something they grew up with or have friends doing. So, they are more open.

But it can't be binary. We are guided by experiences and ideas and intuition based on those two.

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:39 pm

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:21 pm

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 11:02 am

I wish my mind were "wide open". However, my mind seems to need to form hypotheses in order to guide it, in order to give it direction of where to look and what to look for. Right now there seems to be a lot of destruction with loss of life going on in the world, according to the news I see. I wish it would stop.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... t%20places.

Noam Chomsky, I've heard, at least once posed the question of whether humanity is a "malicious mutation" or not. I hope we are not. But I wonder if hope is capable of creating good results. Are we doomed? Or are we not doomed?

Iwannaplato wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:11 pm But it can't be binary.

Binary seems to be a bad thing to many. However, at the same time, we seem to be polluting the world, destroying habits and other species, and possibly culminating in the destruction of ourselves in the process. It appears that in order for life on Earth to survive, that behavior needs to stop.

I have no children and I am glad that I made it through life without creating children. I don't belong in this world. It's not a world that I am able to thrive or live in without great mental anguish at times. Now there is but one problem left for me and that is to come to an end myself. The longer I am here, it feels like the more damage I do by consuming resources--and then we chemically turn them into waste products that become unusable to anything else on Earth (embalming our dead, or chemically "treating" our sewage and other waste we produce, killing weeds with pesticides and diseases with "anti-biotics"). We are not in harmony with our fellow living beings and it seems to be showing.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:26 pm Binary seems to be a bad thing to many. However, at the same time, we seem to be polluting the world, destroying habits and other species, and possibly culminating in the destruction of ourselves in the process. It appears that in order for life on Earth to survive, that behavior needs to stop.

I have no children and I am glad that I made it through life without creating children. I don't belong in this world. It's not a world that I am able to thrive or live in without great mental anguish at times. Now there is but one problem left for me and that is to come to an end myself. The longer I am here, it feels like the more damage I do by consuming resources--and then we chemically turn them into waste products that become unusable to anything else on Earth (embalming our dead, or chemically "treating" our sewage and other waste we produce, killing weeds with pesticides and diseases with "anti-biotics"). We are not in harmony with our fellow living beings and it seems to be showing.

I'm not sure what this has to do with my post, but I agree with you.

I'm not against binary when things are binary. But often things that aren't binary are presented as binary.

Anyone getting rid of all their hypotheses will be peeing in bed, eating their smaller neighbors, spending a week counting to a billion, brushing their teeth with their shoes and so on.

Iwannaplato wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:52 pm I'm not sure what this has to do with my post...

The world is a web, a World Wide Web and as it comes undone, so do all of us in a way. I suppose I am pessimistic and negative. To some I am a blasphemer of one sort or another and to others I speak a truth. But the truth that I speak is that finality/finitude is scary and disconcerting and that's all I can think about these days for some reason.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 2:16 pm Are we doomed? Or are we not doomed?

I don’t know

We seek answers only through knowledge we already have. We seek only because we don’t know. And we are not satisfied with our not-knowing, so the need to know is our nature. It’s almost an imperative impulse we can’t ignore.

However…We will never unravel the mystery of life because we have no definitive knowledge of any beginning to life. We can only speculate with our theories. But a theory is just an idea with an aim or purpose in mind.



Human Science can only go so far with their knowledge, but so far is only scratching the surface of our curiosity. The never ending story that is human curiosity born of ideas/theories will continue go on indefinitely forever needing to know this mysterious not-knowing.

https://thesciencebehindit.org/how-did- ... wer%20pace.


Or… we can simply end the mystery we are trying to solve by saying GOD DID IT …. End of story.




.

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 9:30 am It’s rather interesting to read back a few pages over this thread. Here’s one I found that I missed because I post a lot and after I post I often forget where I left it.

seeds wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:22 am However, if you can provide us with a truly logical explanation as to precisely how "The Supreme Ordering Principle of the Universe" - became - "The Supreme Ordering Principle of the Universe," then I'm listening.
_______

Interesting. What is the truly logical explanation precisely explaining how The Big Bang became the universe?

Well, first of all, I don't understand why you said that you missed that particular quote when, in fact, you provided a response to it in the post that immediately followed it.

Anyway, moving right along...

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 9:30 am I only ask because from what I've heard, all matter and energy in the universe exploded from an infinitely small point,...

...explain how everything can fit into something so small,...

Going against your request of me not using any pictures, I'll try to be as succinct as possible.

In pretty much the same way that this gigantic oak tree...



...once fit into something this small...



...likewise, billions of years ago, this...



...once fit into something as small as this...



And that's why I call humans "The Ultimate Seeds"

Admittedly, the theory sounds crazy and might be wrong, however, if it is indeed possible, then the truth of reality cannot get any more "natural" and "organic" than that.
_______

Gary Childress wrote:
I wish my mind were "wide open". However, my mind seems to need to form hypotheses in order to guide it, in order to give it direction of where to look and what to look for. Right now there seems to be a lot of destruction with loss of life going on in the world, according to the news I see. I wish it would stop.

What I do is focus on what i can directly inflence and leave the greater part of the world to sort itself out.

Nature has always destroyed and created ceaselessly so it is no biggy to the point where one need lose sleep over that.

And yes...i think most folk have that same wish that you expressed Gary, so it is in us as part of nature to care and show concern, but the best place to do so is directly in our locale. A smile, a kindness, a subtle change...mindfully open...

seeds wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 5:42 pm

Walker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 08, 2023 9:30 am It’s rather interesting to read back a few pages over this thread. Here’s one I found that I missed because I post a lot and after I post I often forget where I left it.

seeds wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:22 am However, if you can provide us with a truly logical explanation as to precisely how "The Supreme Ordering Principle of the Universe" - became - "The Supreme Ordering Principle of the Universe," then I'm listening.
_______

Interesting. What is the truly logical explanation precisely explaining how The Big Bang became the universe?

Well, first of all, I don't understand why you said that you missed that particular quote when, in fact, you provided a response to it in the post that immediately followed it.

Anyway, moving right along...

- I forget my postings after awhile. Reading them again I had to often pause and say, who is this writer who deploys the language with such clarity and precision while pondering truths, and I must have been so impressed with this writer that it didn’t leave enough attention to notice whatever you wrote.

- Here and now you were supposed to give me a truly logical explanation as to precisely how The Big Bang became the universe, so I, and we, could continue listening to you. You were supposed to apply the same standard to yourself that you set for me. As two intelligent adults who can perceive cues, I thought we were together on this.

- The Big Bang Point that contained all matter and energy in the universe had nothing external to it.

- Your Big Tree Acorn, infinitely larger than The Big Bang Point that contained all matter and energy in the universe, requires externals such as wind to grow into a tree. Wind is not within the acorn and without wind, there can be no tree.

- You know what they say … The wind blows in many directions but only God can make a tree.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:21 pm I wish my mind were "wide open".

Walker wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 8:03 am - You know what they say … The wind blows in many directions but only God can make a tree.

Who says that other than idiots?

Dontaskme wrote: ↑Fri Nov 10, 2023 8:39 am

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2023 1:21 pm I wish my mind were "wide open".

The first step is to accept the label others give you. Then you work within that label to prove that you're just as human as they are. If they want to admit me again (I was in one of those dungeons earlier this month), then they're welcome to join me in the asylum. They belong there too as far as I'm concerned.