24-03-2018, 05:18 PM
21
Re: The beginning, middle or End?.......or none of the above!
Originally Posted by swimfeeders
->
I am a Scientist and also a Christian.I do not believe in the Bible and it's explanation of Creation.
There are millions of "Christians" who don't appreciate this and who, through Church leadership peer pressure and conditioning DO take the Bible literally and thereby run into all manner of difficulties including complete absurdities, contradictions and impossibilities.
Genesis recounts the processes by which the Philosopher's Stone is created. So in a way it is a "creation" as such, but not the creation of the universe, simply the creation of a most wonderful product of Nature which humans desperately need.
24-03-2018, 05:46 PM
22
Re: The beginning, middle or End?.......or none of the above!
The beginning, middle or End?.......As with all philosophical discussion one inevitably gets tied up in language terminology. Your terms are man-made language inventions.
When you first choose to define the word "UP", by implied definition you simultaneously are defining it's opposite, that which is not "up" which we have chosen to call "down".
If you define something as UP you can not avoid the existence of DOWN.
If you define the term BEGINNING then you simultaneously define the term END.
The truth is that there are no beginnings and no ends, they are one and the same.
The beginning is always the point of an end, and an end is always the point of a beginning. Just terminology.
It is no accident that ancient symbology frequently displays the Ouroboros (below) which depicts this simple truth. The snake or other animal swallowing its tail, infinity, endlessness.
There are many forms of this.
In many ways it should be comforting to understand that there are in reality no beginnings or ends. This means that there is no "death" as such, which once again is just a man-made language term we used to describe one moment along an infinite chain of events.
Death is not an end, no more than a caterpillar going into a cocoon and morphing into a butterfly is a "death". It is a point in time along an infinite endless existence.
The consideration of the Earth is . . . . perhaps uninteresting. There are gazillions of planets and heavenly bodies out there in space. Who cares when the Earth was created?
Science tells us that in this closed universe, matter (energy) can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus everything that has been here, every single atom, has always been here and will continue to always be here.
Each of us is made from millions of atoms which make up our bodies. Those atoms have been there since time immemorial. That's how old we really are !
The only constant in all this is change. Hydrogen atoms combine to make Helium atoms, they combine to make other atoms. Everywhere, all the time, changes are occurring, energy changes from one type to another but nothing is lost, nothing is gained. The same energy is always there in one form or another (afaik).
So really does it matter when the Earth was created? What it was created from is just energy that was always there and which will always be there.
What stops us from continuing our human form and thus makes us sick, sees us age and "die" is simply a lack of the energy we need to sustain our form. I call it "life energy" but every culture, religion and creed has it's own name. In Taoism they call it the great TAN for example.
If we had sufficient life energy we would "live" forever by which I mean maintain this form indefinitely instead of changing into something else. The Philosopher's Stone provides that energy in huge amounts. In the Bible, which recounts the processes for making it and which has numerous other references to it, it seems clear to me that most of the OT characters had this "Stone". Noah obviously had it, and Moses and Jesus. It allowed them to live over 900 years and heal sicknesses and much more. Things that would seem miraculous to those ignorant of the Stone.
It's a great pity that so many people concern themselves with the singular dimension questions like "Does God exist?", "Is the Earth actually flat?" and so on.
Seems to me our most urgent necessity is holding onto this current human form for as long as possible so that we have the time to experience more and seek more answers.
Surfermom highlighted an oft raised theory, that this existence might not be real but just an "illusion" or more accurately a construct, a Hollywood blockbuster for the mind in which we are perhaps actually sat somewhere strapped into a chair hooked up to computers feeding us sensory inputs to mimic sight, sound, feeling, hearing and smell as well as the many other senses. It's entirely possible.
(No surprise that The Matrix is one of my favourite films)
Regardless, I would maintain that Beginning and End are mere man-made terms that we use to describe points in time that in fact are neither one nor the other but rather just change.
24-03-2018, 05:49 PM
23
Re: The beginning, middle or End?.......or none of the above!
Originally Posted by Realist
->
The beginning, middle or End?.......As with all philosophical discussion one inevitably gets tied up in language terminology. Your terms are man-made language inventions.
When you first choose to define the word "UP", by implied definition you simultaneously are defining it's opposite, that which is not "up" which we have chosen to call "down".
If you define something as UP you can not avoid the existence of DOWN.
If you define the term BEGINNING then you simultaneously define the term END.
The truth is that there are no beginnings and no ends, they are one and the same.
The beginning is always the point of an end, and an end is always the point of a beginning. Just terminology.
It is no accident that ancient symbology frequently displays the Ouroboros (below) which depicts this simple truth. The snake or other animal swallowing its tail, infinity, endlessness.
There are many forms of this.
In many ways it should be comforting to understand that there are in reality no beginnings or ends. This means that there is no "death" as such, which once again is just a man-made language term we used to describe one moment along an infinite chain of events.
Death is not an end, no more than a caterpillar going into a cocoon and morphing into a butterfly is a "death". It is a point in time along an infinite endless existence.
The consideration of the Earth is . . . . perhaps uninteresting. There are gazillions of planets and heavenly bodies out there in space. Who cares when the Earth was created?
Science tells us that in this closed universe, matter (energy) can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus everything that has been here, every single atom, has always been here and will continue to always be here.
Each of us is made from millions of atoms which make up our bodies. Those atoms have been there since time immemorial. That's how old we really are !
The only constant in all this is change. Hydrogen atoms combine to make Helium atoms, they combine to make other atoms. Everywhere, all the time, changes are occurring, energy changes from one type to another but nothing is lost, nothing is gained. The same energy is always there in one form or another (afaik).
So really does it matter when the Earth was created? What it was created from is just energy that was always there and which will always be there.
What stops us from continuing our human form and thus makes us sick, sees us age and "die" is simply a lack of the energy we need to sustain our form. I call it "life energy" but every culture, religion and creed has it's own name. In Taoism they call it the great TAN for example.
If we had sufficient life energy we would "live" forever by which I mean maintain this form indefinitely instead of changing into something else. The Philosopher's Stone provides that energy is huge amounts. In the Bible, which recounts the processes for making it and which has numerous other references to it, it seems clear to me that most of the OT characters had this "Stone". Noah obviously had it, and Moses and Jesus. It allowed them to live over 900 years and heal sicknesses and much more. Things that would seem miraculous to those ignorant of the Stone.
It's a great pity that so many people concern themselves with the singular dimension questions like "Does God exist?", "Is the Earth actually flat?" and so on.
Seems to me our most urgent necessity is holding onto this current human form for as long as possible so that we have the time to experience more and seek more answers.
Surfermom highlighted an oft raised theory, that this existence might not be real but just an "illusion" or more accurately a construct, a Hollywood blockbuster for the mind in which we are perhaps actually sat somewhere strapped into a chair hooked up to computers feeding us sensory inputs to mimic sight, sound, feeling, hearing and smell as well as the many other senses. It's entirely possible.
Regardless, I would maintain that Beginning and End are mere man-made terms that we use to describe points in time that in fact are neither one nor the other but rather just change.
24-03-2018, 09:52 PM
28
Re: The beginning, middle or End?.......or none of the above!
Originally Posted by Rhian
->
I posted recently the same (well only vaguely similar then) the notion that we don't physically cease to exist after death.. just that our chemical makeup morphs in to something else
24-03-2018, 09:59 PM
29
Re: The beginning, middle or End?.......or none of the above!
Originally Posted by Longdogs
->
Eventually we go into the ground or into the atmosphere so I'm sure we must end up as something or someone else, even if it's a carrot or a tree.
Caress your carrots! |
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