...and where do the Saudi's get that money from in the first place?

If you follow the money trail, we are all responsible really as we buy the oil.

Whilst money is still the main method used to assess one's worth in this world, nothing will change.

Here in the UK, to 'Trump' is another word for expelling hot air from one's bottom...

The obsession with buying up property or keeping property purely as an investment doesn't help. There are over half a million empty properties in the UK. The government should have a moral responsibility to stop this practice.

What if consciousness has always been there? i.e. there is no such such thing as nothing (or total vacuum). Maybe everything has come from that cosmic/higher consciousness (which is the reverse of your first paragraph).

Regarding your second paragraph. Maybe the higher consciousness has the same problem as a human parent. Do you program the child to do everything you want, or give the child free reign and learn from them?

As a human parent, I can categorically say I've learnt a lot from my children.

I have wondered whether the whole universe is like a hologram. One particle but creating almost infinate wave patterns.

Our brains are very good at joining up gaps too.

Who cares, it's still fun...

Anything which is fun is good. We don't have to analyse the #%÷$ out of it...but that can be fun too.

Math metal but I was brought up on Rachmaninoff, Procofiev and alike.

Love Djent. Shattered Skies, Hactivist at the moment.

Things move on.

I was with the biggest Canal forum in the UK. Then it started to become overmoderated to the point they banned any discussion of politics or religion.

So someone started a new breakaway forum with minimal moderation

Darwin would be proud.

Ha ha. Aren't we all our favorite phylosophers?

One of the reasons I didn't study philosophy formally is that I had a problem trusting us humans (including myself). I thought we seem more obsessed with our ego's than finding the truth.

:)

My current thinking is that our brain (and body) is a tool for growing the higher consciousness which we are all connected to.

I also think our conscience is the nudge we get when we are going against the flow of the higher consciousness (a bit like how we nudge our children when they go down the wrong road). So I guess our brain serves conscience.

Our brain can still choose to ignore conscience though, so we have free will.

Oops...sorry, I think I've got the wrong forum...

Or if you can play an instrument, join a band. Oh no, you wanted to make an income didn't you...

I say old chap, that's rather below the belt and just not cricket.

I reckon it would be quite entertaining to discuss phylosophy over a video conferencing system but use nothing but body language. A bit like playing charades.

I'm sure the answer to life and everything will remain intact (i.e. to have fun nicely).

Responding to the OP. If we are all part of one consciousness, then maybe we can prevent all these bad experiences happening in the future by appealing to the higher consciousness. ;)

If you believe there is no world beyond your experience then why have I just experienced your post? Unless I am just a figment of your imagination, or maybe you are a figment of mine. :)

Having said that, I am starting to believe we all might be part of one big consciousness. So it's possible our experiences are connected in some way.

As I was suggesting in the next paragraph of that post, pain is used as a guide. To nudge us in the right direction if you like. The point is we can still choose how we respond to the pain unlike 100% programming.

Yes, I agree that the carrot/stick analogy doesn't sit well on it's own. It does blomin' feel like it sometimes though.

I think inspiration is also a massive driver. Again we can choose whether to act on it or not.

I learnt most of my philosophy in the pub...cheers...

To be fair I wasn't trying to cover everything...lol.

Actually just to mention that I don't pretend to know any answers (that would be dangerous). I am just on a journey, like many of you, to get closer to the truth. Whether I'll ever get there is another matter. :)

But then everyone would see my body language and what an ugly old git I am. :)

The answer is usually in the middle. We are a product of those we come in contact with during our lives. However, we do choose which traits to pick up. Some good for the propagation of nature and others bad.

We also feel pleasure and pain. I doubt we will ever be able to program a robot to really 'feel' pleasure and pain. What would be the point of making something feel pain if it was 100% programmed with no free will anyway?

It seems that we are more guided by stick and carrot than programmed. After all, isn't that how we bring our children up?

Depends what you mean by not getting out of trouble. In some peoples minds, being punished by being put into jail (for example) just makes them feel like martyrs.

Anyway, shouldn't we be more concerned about the cause of actions rather than the consequences? Maybe this is where things are going wrong...

A word of warning.

Many years ago I met someone who genuinely believed in a deterministic universe and that everything was fate and we had no free will.

He used it as an excuse for his actions.

Sorry, how do you embedd links here?

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more.

I wouldn't worry. Body language still speaks volumes more than written or spoken language

I would guess that those who have a problem with the idea of a deterministic universe are very egotistical. :-)

...but as I said, I think we do have some free will. Maybe we get more when we are learn to be responsible enough to use it. So far in this world, we have a lot to learn.

We definitely have some free choice. We can chose where we focus our consciousness. Even pain can be reduced or amplified by focus.

For example how many of us cut our knees playing sport as a child but didn't notice the cut until we looked down to see the blood. It was only then it hurt.

As someone with tinnitus, I found I could choose to listen to it and get upset, or focus on other things and let my brain learn to ignore it. I rarely notice I have it now.

Hi, newbie here. My thougts...

Nothingness doesn't exist. The concept of nothingness is really something we invented to deal with gaps in our own consciousness. In reality there is always something.

When we are unconscious (e.g sleep) we can't sense change (or time if you like). When we die, our consciousness is just put on hold like in sleep, maybe until the universe starts all over again in zillions of man made years. As we won't be conscious during that time we may go from 'death' to birth without noticing the zillions of years which passed by.