assisigirl wrote:
TOTN asserts: But I AM a member in good standing of something far larger. It's called the universe. Because in every real way I am the universe contemplating itself. Which is itself a very high standard of existence indeed.
assisigirl: This is theism, the belief in a 'contemplative ' universe. Where did you buy, one of them? Where is the connect between your 'conspiracy theory' based on NT fiction and the reality of the world now, today? What are you logically saying. What is your contemplative insight here, TOTN. What can we extract from this that is useful even if it is only the expose of a lie. Have you achieved this yet? I do not think so? What your efforts here amount to, is an exhibition of scepticism.
Let me first say that skepticism is a good and necessary thing. I am not suggesting that one should not be open minded. But a healthy dose of skepticism is vital to enable one to separate the fact from bull stuff. And there is an amazing about of bull stuff to be separated from. Because fact it limited to what it is, but bull stuff is only limited by the imagination.
the-ism [thee-iz-uhm] noun
1. the belief in one God as the creator and ruler of the universe, without rejection of revelation ( distinguished from deism ).
2. belief in the existence of a god or gods ( opposed to atheism ).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theism++?s=t
The observation that I am the universe contemplating itself has absolutely nothing to do with the existence of any God or gods and is therefore NOT theistic in nature. I reject the notion of the supernatural entirely as purely a product of the imagination and therefore without physical reality. Probably. Humans are fallible and can only know things to a high degree of certainty, and so I could be wrong. However one of the products of the age of scientific discovery which has taken place, roughly, over the course of the last four centuries, has been the growing recognition that things happen for natural, understandable and predictable reasons. The ancients lived in a world where virtually everything around them was a product of the supernatural. It simply is not true however, and we understand that now. We are moving from ignorance to knowledge.
When I say I am the universe contemplating itself, this is what I mean. What we now understand about the universe is that it is made up of energy. Everything that is not nothing, is energy in one form or another. These forms include energetic bits, little blobs of energy in various forms much too small to see and only detectable at all with very high technology. These include the family of quarks, of which six are known, the family of leptons, which includes electrons, and the family of bosons, which include photons. Up quarks have a positive electrical charge, while down quarks have a negative electrical charge. As a result they are massively attracted to each other. They tend to clump together into groups of three, either forming a proton (+-+) with a net positive charge, or a neutron (-+-) with a net neutral charge. Under intense gravity or high speed collision protons and neutrons bond to form an object we call a nucleus. Electrons, being negatively charged, are attracted to the positively charged protons in the nucleus. A unit which contains one electron one proton and one neutron represents a perfect hydrogen atom. A unit which contains two protons, two neutrons and two electrons represents a perfect helium atom. A unit which contains three protons, three neutrons and three electrons represents a perfect lithium atom. And so on up the periodic chart of elements. Hydrogen and helium are gases at temperatures above about -430 F degrees. Lithium on the other hand is a metal. The physical properties of the elements change quite drastically depending on their composition you see.
And yet this is still energy. Energy locked into a form we call matter. A very large amount of energy in fact, according to the formula E=MC^2. Because mass, or matter, is energy. And energy according to all observation and experimentation, cannot be created or destroyed. It constantly reforms itself, but the total amount remains the same. It is therefore finite in amount but infinite in duration. It's always existed and it will always exist. And if it can't be a created then there can't be a creator.
So, stars and planets and living things, all are made up of matter which is one of the forms that energy takes. Of the living things in the universe that we know of, only humans have reached the level of awareness, and the state of technology necessary, to actually physically contemplate the universe at large. When I say that I am the universe contemplating itself I am not being metaphysical or philosophical. I am literally in every way made up of the stuff of the universe, and I am contemplating all of it. I am hardly alone in this endeavor of course. Because some choose to contemplate the natural physical universe at hand and seek physical answers through observation and experimentation. They are called "scientists." Others however prefer to contemplate the physical universe at hand and imagine answers that suit their intellectual or emotional needs. They are called religious. There was a time when these two groups were the same. Because for most of human history, make believe provided the only possible answer. But as the physical evidence has made itself apparent over the last few centuries there has been a divergence into two distinct groups. There is still some cross over between these two groups of course, but the difference between the group which base's it's view of the universe on physical evidence and the group which base's it's view of the universe on make believe has been steadily widening for the last century. In the US the number of people who no longer express a theology has reached about 20%. In Europe the number is well above 50%. And growing rapidly.
