you state that every event has a purpose, you are setting forth the basis of religious doctrine. It inserts meaning into life as it indicates higher purpose and a reason for our being in existence. — Hanover
Is this the answer?
I've never heard of this guy before... Did this article only appear because I went 'looking' for it? This seems to point to Question 1 & Option 1 plus Question 2 & Option 3 - where I am the only truly self-aware entity in my version of reality, and I'm slowly figuring out what I really am.. — CasKev
Well maybe creation is really hard work and that is why God seems to rest and be absent a lot of the time. :-|Overwhelmingly, the vast majority of the Universe cannot support life. And where life manages to survive and reproduce, it remains exceedingly fragile and precarious. 99% of all species that have ever lived have become extinct. It is ludicrous to think humanity can transcend an indifferent Universe. Even assuming (without justification) that the Universe was designed, there is nothing intelligent about it. — maw
If the universe has been around for over 14 billion years, why wouldn't it be more than likely that some civilization now has the ability to create realities for us to experience; and that we are also part of that creation process. Moreover, it may be that they even have the ability to move from universe to universe. We couldn't even conceive of how advanced such a civilization could be. To say that there is nothing beyond the physical is just too dogmatic for me. It's similar to religious belief. — Sam26
I sometimes find myself baffled by the absurdity of everything that exists. How can it be possible that little quarks somehow not only hold themselves together, but organize themselves into groups, which then organize themselves into atoms. Oh, and by the way, these atoms form all kinds of materials that have different colours, smells, consistencies, even though they are made of the same subatomic materials, just in different combinations. And if that's not baffling enough, some of these atoms know how to organize themselves in ways that allow for movement and reproduction. And the complex biological organisms that exist - somehow programmed by DNA to produce life-sustaining systems. Throw in brains and self-awareness just to make matters more complicated...
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It's hard not to compare the behavior of quarks and such to the bits and bytes in the computers we program. How could these quarks assemble and organize without some sort of outside guidance? A computer could never have been created - never mind programmed - without some sort of intelligent designer.
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If we can accept that our world has been intelligently created in some way, what do you think would be the most likely implications, and why?
For each one of us, hir (his/her) individual life-experience possibility-story is set in a possibility-world, and of course for all of us, it’s the same one. That isn’t surprising: Of course you must be a member of a species, and of course, in your world, there must be other members of that species. That’s the rest of us.1. What is the nature of self-awareness? (3 votes)
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I am the only truly self-aware entity in my version of reality
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We are a collection of self-aware entities sharing the same reality
100%
.2. What is the nature of consciousness?
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3. (3 votes)
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Consciousness arises as a result of existence, and ends with death
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.Consciousness is assigned to an entity upon birth, and is reassigned upon death
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I don’t think that it’s necessary to invoke Intelligent Design (which amounts to Theism) at the metaphysical level, to explain how there could be a metaphysical world, including living beings like ourselves. It seems to me that the “existence” of the metaphysical world can be explained, within itself, without outside or higher invocation. — Michael Ossipoff
How could these quarks assemble and organize without some sort of outside guidance? A computer could never have been created - never mind programmed - without some sort of intelligent designer. — CasKev
I sometimes find myself baffled by the absurdity of everything that exists. How can it be possible that little quarks somehow not only hold themselves together, but organize themselves into groups, which then organize themselves into atoms. Oh, and by the way, these atoms form all kinds of materials that have different colours, smells, consistencies, even though they are made of the same subatomic materials, just in different combinations. And if that's not baffling enough, some of these atoms know how to organize themselves in ways that allow for movement and reproduction. And the complex biological organisms that exist - somehow programmed by DNA to produce life-sustaining systems. Throw in brains and self-awareness just to make matters more complicated... — CasKev
If you are baffled by the absurdity of everything that exists, wouldn't an intelligent designer qualify as something that "exists" and you should be equally baffled by it's existence? Everything you ask about quarks and atoms would need to be asked about the intelligent designer too. Why doesn't God need a creator?I sometimes find myself baffled by the absurdity of everything that exists. How can it be possible that little quarks somehow not only hold themselves together, but organize themselves into groups, which then organize themselves into atoms. Oh, and by the way, these atoms form all kinds of materials that have different colours, smells, consistencies, even though they are made of the same subatomic materials, just in different combinations. And if that's not baffling enough, some of these atoms know how to organize themselves in ways that allow for movement and reproduction. And the complex biological organisms that exist - somehow programmed by DNA to produce life-sustaining systems. Throw in brains and self-awareness just to make matters more complicated...
It's hard not to compare the behavior of quarks and such to the bits and bytes in the computers we program. How could these quarks assemble and organize without some sort of outside guidance? A computer could never have been created - never mind programmed - without some sort of intelligent designer.
If we can accept that our world has been intelligently created in some way, what do you think would be the most likely implications, and why? — CasKev
some of these atoms know how to organize themselves — CasKev
And the complex biological organisms that exist - somehow programmed by DNA — CasKev
But I think ID errs in believing that the existence or otherwise of a God, is something that can be proven - or disproven! - by the science. — Wayfarer
Could it be said that science's inability to explain the reason for the seemingly intelligent behavior of subatomic particles and the nature of consciousness supports the idea that there is some sort of ID at work, perhaps one that is still becoming aware of its own nature? The ever-increasing known complexity of the universe seems congruent with elements of biocentrism and quantum mechanics - where things only exist when observed. Did atoms exist before we were able to see them, or is that just the universe's attempt to explain all of the wondrous things it has unwittingly created in a vastly intelligent semi-aware state? — CasKev
If you are baffled by the absurdity of everything that exists, wouldn't an intelligent designer qualify as something that "exists" and you should be equally baffled by it's existence? Everything you ask about quarks and atoms would need to be asked about the intelligent designer too. Why doesn't God need a creator?
If you're going to say that God is eternal, then let me just stop you right there. The universe, or the multiverse (everything in it's entirety), could be eternal and without a designer. So your whole point for questioning the existence of everything could be equally applied to your belief in the existence of a God. — Harry Hindu
Why would it make more sense if nothing had ever existed? Why does that make more sense than something existing?Right, it would make much more sense if nothing had ever existed... but here we are! Knowing that there are currently unexplainable paradoxes (e.g. infinite space, infinite time, infinite regression), I would guess that humans are currently incapable of understanding their own existence, never mind the existence of some creative intelligent force. — CasKev
Purpose is the essence of Life. The purpose is to create, observe, learn, and evolve. To have fun. — Rich
You'll have to explain this further. — Buxtebuddha
Why would it make more sense if nothing had ever existed? — Harry Hindu
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