That fellow would worry less if he figured he'd reincarnate. Nothingness is okay, it's where you go for awhile and then you come back again. Circular instead of black and white. ;)
I'm going to start filtering the news on the theory of reincarnation. Instead of people losing their lives, they've gotten a chance to reinvent themselves. Rather a bit more positive, don'tcha think?
yay, border collies.
so, yeah...one need not die before having the chance to reinvent themselves...everyday is a new chance for changing as one will. will.
one always has the will, even if there be obstinent obstacles; will-sucking vampires...if it were easy, everybody would do it.
don't wait to die, enjoy the change in consciousness!
what i meant to mean... "enjoy the change in consciousness" ...while you are conscious!
enjoy changing your life now, while you know about it.
Border collies are dyslexic, they believe in "Dog".
There are a lot of religions which believe in reincarnation and it makes a lot more sense than thinking we can learn everything we need to know in one lifetime. It would also explain why there are so many folks who seem sort of new at this whole business. They've just not been around as many times.
We have a prevailing theory of "heaven", "valhalla", etc., where after a good and righteous life (however that is defined by the prevailing social group) one dies and goes to either "the good place" or "the bad place". This theory requires three "places" and once the determination of which you are to go to has been made you are apparently stuck with it forever. Generally things don't last forever, but this is supposed to. It would seem, IMHO, that recycling souls, essences, ghosts or whatever it is that is the difference between rotting meat and moving critters, would make more sense than creating more of it all the time. A soul inhabits a body, goes forth and learns all sorts of things, helps create the world consciousness, leaves the body behind (which hopefully turns to compost), goes off to the summerlands or some other staging ground and then starts another lesson when it finds a body or lesson it wants to learn. Kinda like college classes. You sign up for "Asian Female" and learn interesting things. Next life you can sign up for "Norwegian Male" and learn new stuff. You probably get to meet souls that you'd met before, too, one would hope. I'm not sure what the goal of all this is, perhaps to create a better planet, perhaps to create a world consciousness.
Maybe I need some coffee now.
Boy am I learning some interesting stuff.
Here's another.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/daily-show-big-mess.html
Well, there you go.
I read this essay years ago and found it one of the most profound I've encountered. Life changing for me, actually. It's worth your time.
http://www.anthonyflood.com/ethicsofbelief.htm
Enjoy!
I found this interesting and informative at the moment.
This is really interesting!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-science-of-economic-bubbles
The diatribe of the day, as typified by this quote "...as scientists of many stripes struggle to understand why the world economy fell so hard and fast", implies that a collapse has occurred and deflects all attention away from the real reason for this downturn and any coming collapse. The reason is that the world economy is mostly under the control of a small group which chose this downturn as part of their agenda to concentrate all wealth in their hands. This will also be true of any coming collapse. Although there could be a point at which things finally do get out of their control, we're not there yet.
I have a friend who's doctorates are in chemistry and math, he gets into the same philosophical bent at times. Either that or he is in a dissertation between the differences in theobromine and caffeine. He is also someone who gets hauled in by the coast guard after he blows out his sails because the real world physics don't match the on paper physics. So I dunno if I'm gonna listen to a chemist on philosophy. A chemist on chemistry, yes, but once they get off the hard core chemistry, though, I dunno.
LOL
No doubt. Trust philosophers, not professors of philosophy. . .
Jay, your link raises an old philosophical question: is the universe teleological? Theologians assume so. It's kind of amazing how deeply Aristotle's ideas permeate the value system of Western culture (yup, even folks who never studied the Greek philosophers!) It's got to be terrifying to religious folks to entertain the notion that the Universe might not have a purpose.
It begs the question--what is purpose?
Food for thought from Pirsig:
"The intellect's evolutionary purpose has never been to discover an ultimate meaning of the universe. That's a relatively recent fad. Its historical purpose has been to help a society find food, detect danger, and defeat enemies. It can do this well or poorly, depending on the concepts it invents for this purpose."
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