Whats the point of life?

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

Whats the point of life?

I mean lets be honest:

We work every week through school just to waiting for the weekend. That goes by before we even realize

We work through weeks and months just waiting for summer break. That goes by before we even realize

We work for years of school just waiting for graduation. From those 12 years of school just to get a useless paper.

We go back to school after that for even more years, just working for one again another piece of paper.

Then we're supposed to get hired at a 9-5 desk job until we work ourselves into retirement, but by that time we are too old to enjoy life.

The point of this, everyone, is don't be so worried about what's going on in your life, whether it be school, or  work, or trying to find the love of your life. Just take a step back from everything and enjoy life where you are. 

I have a quote I'd like to share with you. It impacted me heavily and made me think about this. It says this:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you dont stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

Is anything real?

Another question or thought really that I've had in the last few months is what is reality?

Reality is what we perceive, but what is that?

Humans' brains are so broken, someone with schizophrenia or that just got hit really hard can literally physically see and hear things that are not there. 

We have no proof of anything in our reality. For all I know personally, I am a forty-two year old man in an insane asylum, and everything I've learned and every relationship I've experienced here is fake and all in my head.

This is a bit of a stretch, but what if when we die we wake up in a praservative tank in 2600 and pull hyper-real VR goggles off of our eyes, and everything was fake.

Science used to say that two things made our universe: Time and Space.

But recently another thought has been brought into the light: what if it was Space, Time, and Conciousness?

You see, dear reader, not only would this support many religious beliefs about the creation of the universe from a god or gods, but science supports it too.

I have two experiments I would like to show you for proof and support of this:

The first is Schrodinger's Cat experiment. Many of you have heard of it, but in short it shows how until observed, an outcome can have both outcomes happening. This is called Quantom Superposition. It says that, until oberved, say a coin flip when it lands is both heads and tails, at once. 

The second experiment is called the Double Slit Experiment. It essentially showed that when particalls were launched at a wall, with two slits. I wont go into the details, you dear reader can research it on your own.

Basically it too says that particles physically change when oberved. 

Reality is not real, at least it cant be proven to be real. Everything we are doing could all be a huge lie. I have a quote I'd like to share with you.

"Perception is not reality, it is just our tiny experience of reality, which is something very limited and flawed. Only Truth is reality, and unless we are willing to question everything that we think we know, we will never see anything but illusions and lies." -Gavin Nascimento  

What is Conciousness?

In my last post, I talked about how conciousness (maybe) helped shape the universe, but what actually is it?

I mean lets be real. We have ZERO reason to be conscious beings.

Our brain is a 3 pound organ of mush, made up of nerves floating in fluid. 

Even scientists don't know what or why we have consciousness. 

We are born with this incredible ability to think, to comprehend, to imagine, but we have no idea why.

This isn't as good as a question, and I cant go on it too much just because I don't know, either.

So I ask you, think about it, or comment about what you think thinking and consciousness really is.

[Through the Living Questio he/him]

Dang… this is…wow. Just wow.

This has given me a lot to think about. Thank you for sharing this.

Also new (and really good) quotes.

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

On 4/17/2024 at 6:46 PM, WhyEverNot_8 said:

Dang… this is…wow. Just wow.

This has given me a lot to think about. Thank you for sharing this.

Of course. Im trying to post these as much as I can. I mostly just have trouble ... forming the thoughts into words? idk lol

Fate

This can be a contradictory topic.

If there is such a thing as fate, then why do we do what we do? We can just say "fate happend."

There are two arguments to this battle:

1. Fate exists, and everything is predestined. 

If fate does exist, then what's the point, we can argue that there's no point in trying, because no matter what everything will turn out fine. There's no incentive, no "competitive pay," per se. 

Whether or not you try you will end up in the same place as you were destined to go.

2. Fate is not real, and we all are failures. 

If fate isn't real, then that means that we have reason to live, but there's also no end guerentee. 

We can try all we want, but since our lives are totally in our hands, we cannot be totally 100% sure that we will make it.

Even with fate you can be sure you're going to make it to wherever you're trying to end up, you just have to hope that any work you put in paid off.

All of this "end," of course, being in this life or the next (if there is an afterlife).

Many Thinkers do not believe in fate, that we have control of our own destiny.

I think there is no fate. No guerentee on anything in life. Everything is a chance, and you need to take that leap of faith.

I have always loved people who try and be life-freeing motivators, because they know they have it right.

Life is meant to be free. You need to leave the grind if you want to enjoy it. There are no guarantees in life. Never. 

You need to work to be able to get anything or anywhere in life, because I think that only you can make sure that you will get anywhere in life.

"The only time sucess comes before work is in the dictionary." -Harvey Specter, Suits

[Wittles he/him]

Dang. I've had literally all those thoughts, and some of them still kinda mess with me. Finding meaning and purpose in life is so...strange. 

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

Who created God?

In the King James Bible it says that God was a being since the beginning of time, but what created time?

It is irrational for a something to come from nothing.

If matter cannot be created or destroyed, then where did matter come from? Our best guess is the Big Bang, but even then something cant come from nothing.

Also, scientists say that the universe is still constantly expanding, but if that's true then once again its an argument of where is that coming from?

Was the Big Bang, or the start of our universe the start of time? And if so then did God get created along with the start of time?

We have a few scenarios here, the first, which is that God did get created when the Big Bang happened, which is the start of time.

But even then, it's still the matter of who or what created God himself, because ONCE AGAIN, something CANNOT come from nothing.

The next scenario is that God existed from before the Big Bang. Once again, is the Big Bang the beginning of time or not? If it is not, then what was here before the Big Bang and thus creation of the universe? Was it just a void, but what is the void made of? Is God in that void? and if so is it truly a void?

If it was the start of time, then how did God exist before time. Nothing can exist outside of time, because then there would be no time to exist.

Which once again brings me to the question of when was God created and who or what created him.

A quote I found recently says this: "Nothing cannot exist, for to think of anything that does not exist is to think of something that exists." -unknown

[NameIess]

On 4/17/2024 at 11:13 PM, Shardwatcher01 said:

Fate

This can be a contradictory topic.

If there is such a thing as fate, then why do we do what we do? We can just say "fate happend."

There are two arguments to this battle:

1. Fate exists, and everything is predestined. 

If fate does exist, then what's the point, we can argue that there's no point in trying, because no matter what everything will turn out fine. There's no incentive, no "competitive pay," per se. 

Whether or not you try you will end up in the same place as you were destined to go.

2. Fate is not real, and we all are failures. 

If fate isn't real, then that means that we have reason to live, but there's also no end guerentee. 

We can try all we want, but since our lives are totally in our hands, we cannot be totally 100% sure that we will make it.

Even with fate you can be sure you're going to make it to wherever you're trying to end up, you just have to hope that any work you put in paid off.

All of this "end," of course, being in this life or the next (if there is an afterlife).

Many Thinkers do not believe in fate, that we have control of our own destiny.

I think there is no fate. No guerentee on anything in life. Everything is a chance, and you need to take that leap of faith.

I have always loved people who try and be life-freeing motivators, because they know they have it right.

Life is meant to be free. You need to leave the grind if you want to enjoy it. There are no guarantees in life. Never. 

You need to work to be able to get anything or anywhere in life, because I think that only you can make sure that you will get anywhere in life.

"The only time sucess comes before work is in the dictionary." -Harvey Specter, Suits

When you think about it, would there be a difference between fate existing without us knowing it and fate not existing? Also, what does “fate” really mean? Is it some outside force that makes us do things? Or is it just the inevitable things that we will do, because of our unique personality and the situations into which we’re placed.

Personally, I think that fate does exist, or rather that someone who could know us perfectly and know everything about the universe could know exactly what actions we will take. However, we don’t know what our “fate” is, and since we don’t, there’s no reason to fall into apathy. Because from our perspective, it is almost as if fate doesn’t exist.

On 4/19/2024 at 12:19 AM, Shardwatcher01 said:

Who created God?

In the King James Bible it says that God was a being since the beginning of time, but what created time?

It is irrational for a something to come from nothing.

If matter cannot be created or destroyed, then where did matter come from? Our best guess is the Big Bang, but even then something cant come from nothing.

Also, scientists say that the universe is still constantly expanding, but if that's true then once again its an argument of where is that coming from?

Was the Big Bang, or the start of our universe the start of time? And if so then did God get created along with the start of time?

We have a few scenarios here, the first, which is that God did get created when the Big Bang happened, which is the start of time.

But even then, it's still the matter of who or what created God himself, because ONCE AGAIN, something CANNOT come from nothing.

The next scenario is that God existed from before the Big Bang. Once again, is the Big Bang the beginning of time or not? If it is not, then what was here before the Big Bang and thus creation of the universe? Was it just a void, but what is the void made of? Is God in that void? and if so is it truly a void?

If it was the start of time, then how did God exist before time. Nothing can exist outside of time, because then there would be no time to exist.

Which once again brings me to the question of when was God created and who or what created him.

A quote I found recently says this: "Nothing cannot exist, for to think of anything that does not exist is to think of something that exists." -unknown

I like your thinking here, but I think there’s a few things you’re missing.

First off, I don’t think the Bible ever says that God was a being only since the beginning of time. Genesis 1:1 in KJV says:

”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

As far as I know, there’s no implication that God began there, or that he had a beginning anywhere.

I think your other faulty assumption is that nothing can exist outside of time. Our current understanding of the beginning of the universe is that time did not exist before it. However, you say, and rightly so, that something cannot come from nothing, and that nothing cannot exist. So since we know that the universe (something) exists now, there can never have been nothing, because then our universe would not exist.

So the question we have to answer then is: what existed before time? Is it an unbroken chain of creation, something’s making something else’s stretching all the way back into eternity? Or is there a beginning to the chain, something that has existed eternally?

For me, I think the most logical answer to the question of God’s creation is that He was not created. That He exists eternally and outside of time and created time, the universe, and everything.

Edited April 20, 2024 by NameIess

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

 

On 4/20/2024 at 8:58 AM, NameIess said:

When you think about it, would there be a difference between fate existing without us knowing it and fate not existing? Also, what does “fate” really mean? Is it some outside force that makes us do things? Or is it just the inevitable things that we will do, because of our unique personality and the situations into which we’re placed.

Personally, I think that fate does exist, or rather that someone who could know us perfectly and know everything about the universe could know exactly what actions we will take. However, we don’t know what our “fate” is, and since we don’t, there’s no reason to fall into apathy. Because from our perspective, it is almost as if fate doesn’t exist.

I like your thinking here, but I think there’s a few things you’re missing.

First off, I don’t think the Bible ever says that God was a being only since the beginning of time. Genesis 1:1 in KJV says:

”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

As far as I know, there’s no implication that God began there, or that he had a beginning anywhere.

I think your other faulty assumption is that nothing can exist outside of time. Our current understanding of the beginning of the universe is that time did not exist before it. However, you say, and rightly so, that something cannot come from nothing, and that nothing cannot exist. So since we know that the universe (something) exists now, there can never have been nothing, because then our universe would not exist.

So the question we have to answer then is: what existed before time? Is it an unbroken chain of creation, something’s making something else’s stretching all the way back into eternity? Or is there a beginning to the chain, something that has existed eternally?

For me, I think the most logical answer to the question of God’s creation is that He was not created. That He exists eternally and outside of time and created time, the universe, and everything.

Nice. All of this is also my opinion and just thoughts I've had, not a definitive answer for anything.

There's another thing. The Bible says that God is omnipotent and omnscient, meaning all powerful and all knowing.

But you see, you have no real power if you know everything, because if you know what's going to happen, it means that you cannot change anything.

Realizing that is when I came up with this theory:

There are timelines in timelines. Essentially, its this

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gods timeline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humans' timeline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So God can see everything in his own timeline, but he can only control things in our Human timeline. This would give a reason as to how he can exist in and out of space and time, because humans can only comprehend our own space and timeline, but God can exist in and out of it, but he has his own timeline to function in. This would also be the reason he can be both omnipotent and omnscient.

edit: I know its a bit scattered and a stretch but I was in a bit of a hurry sorry

Edited April 21, 2024 by Shardwatcher01

[Just-A-Stick she/her]

On 4/19/2024 at 12:19 AM, Shardwatcher01 said:

because ONCE AGAIN, something CANNOT come from nothing.

As far as our weak human brains can go, at least.

I think, at some point, we just have to accept that there are things we can't imagine pr wrap our brains around. That's where faith and trust come in. 

There's my unsensible 2 cents  

[Xaladin he/him]

Ah, the days when I looked forward to weekends. Sigh.

[Shardwatcher01 he/him]

2 hours ago, Anguished_One said:

As far as our weak human brains can go, at least.

I think, at some point, we just have to accept that there are things we can't imagine pr wrap our brains around. That's where faith and trust come in. 

There's my unsensible 2 cents  

I mean maybe but its also the law of conservation of mass. "Matter cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another." -Albert Einstein 

[SPECTRE120]

I think y'all are overthinking this. It's 42.

[ʟɪɢʜʈ]

On 4/17/2024 at 7:53 PM, Shardwatcher01 said:

Of course. Im trying to post these as much as I can. I mostly just have trouble ... forming the thoughts into words? idk lol

Fate

This can be a contradictory topic.

If there is such a thing as fate, then why do we do what we do? We can just say "fate happend."

There are two arguments to this battle:

1. Fate exists, and everything is predestined. 

If fate does exist, then what's the point, we can argue that there's no point in trying, because no matter what everything will turn out fine. There's no incentive, no "competitive pay," per se. 

Whether or not you try you will end up in the same place as you were destined to go.

2. Fate is not real, and we all are failures. 

If fate isn't real, then that means that we have reason to live, but there's also no end guerentee. 

We can try all we want, but since our lives are totally in our hands, we cannot be totally 100% sure that we will make it.

Even with fate you can be sure you're going to make it to wherever you're trying to end up, you just have to hope that any work you put in paid off.

All of this "end," of course, being in this life or the next (if there is an afterlife).

Many Thinkers do not believe in fate, that we have control of our own destiny.

I think there is no fate. No guerentee on anything in life. Everything is a chance, and you need to take that leap of faith.

I have always loved people who try and be life-freeing motivators, because they know they have it right.

Life is meant to be free. You need to leave the grind if you want to enjoy it. There are no guarantees in life. Never. 

You need to work to be able to get anything or anywhere in life, because I think that only you can make sure that you will get anywhere in life.

"The only time sucess comes before work is in the dictionary." -Harvey Specter, Suits

There is a third option. @NameIess spoke briefly of it. 
 

Fate is defined as something that will happen. Destined to happen. Inevitable. But can that exist?

Many people try to distinguish that if we are destined to do something, become something, or go somewhere, and no matter what we do, it will happen, then we have no true free will, and true choice.

Say it like that and it sounds so…innate, so universal. But it is so easy to prove something. However, a law that “Thinkers” use way too infrequently is that when you first prove something, that IS NOT PROVE! What I mean is that when you find that through a logocal path, one thing must indicate another, that is actually a false assumption. Proof is only found when by multiple means we piece our way to the last indicated assumption, and the more columns we build, the more solidified building we create.

For example, I love magic. The kind of sleight of hand magicians especially. But I also love the magician who set up tricks in this way. Their goal is to make you prove that their trick is true. They guide you from true fact to true fact, but do not actually give you the true conclusion.

Example one: If you have seen the movie Now you see me, you know this one. 

A man performs a magic trick to a man person, we will say person two. In the trick, he gets the man to sign a card, and then by the end of the trick keeps the card. Later, the man, to a young tree in a park, cuts and inserts the same signed card of person two into the tree. 

He waits twenty years. Dedication, right?

Then, after twenty years, he goes to the park. He gathers a large crowd, Hypes up the group, and gets the same guy into his magic trick. In this new trick, the man has person two sign another card. The same number suit and color of the card as before. In the trick he vanishes it. Then he saws the tree open, and reveals the card from twenty years ago, with person two’s signature on it. Recognizing his own signature the person is completely bambozled. He will never find out how that is done. He forgot about the truck twenty years prior.
 

Example two: more simple. I know this one. A coin is placed in my hand. I vanish it, then hold my hands out, closed. I ask which hand it is in. They guess wrong. I open my hand. It’s empty. THEY ALL ASSUME IT IS IN THE OTHER HAND. 
Its in none. The irrefutable process of elimination has failed them because I know something they don’t.  

My point is, unless in some amazing feat, you knew everything, it is truly impossible to prove something by building one logical path to it. 

It seems so real that if we have a fate, then we can’t have a choice. 

If God knows everything, then he knows our futures. If he knows our futures, then we have some sort of position that somebody knows, something is out their that will happen. Could this be called fate? Possibly. But then how do we have free will?

I have observed in my growing and maturing how my mine expands. As a ten years old, I thought that I understood how life worked. But I saw how my mind was superior to other younger kids. Later, I saw how my comprehension hadn’t just grown but my limit had grown. My mind was able to see and realize more. I noticed how younger people couldn’t understand higher concepts that I could, because their mind simply wasn’t as developed as mine. Later, I saw again and made the same observations, but made another important one. I know my mind. I know how my mind can understand more, know more, and is simply more, higher than others, whose aren’t in the same way. But what I realized is that I I continue to learn and grow, I recognize that my mind is still developing and will be for a long time. I know that it is possible that a mind can be more than mine. conprehend things that I can comprehend. I cannot comprehend eternity, but in the same way that my ten year old brain couldn’t comprehend a concept that I can now, who am I to say that something else, higher, can’t either? 
 

If God knows something, if he knows exactly what time I will fall asleep tonight, can I have a choice? Well, I do choose, what I do is a choice. Am I forced? No, then it’s a choice. Does he know the choices I will make then? I guess. Does that make it less of a choice? No. I can watch a ten year old find a cupcake while they are alone. I can see his eyes slightly widen, and his hand come up, then grab it. Then raise it to his mouth then— I know he is about to eat this thing. How complex it must be then to know what time that kid will fall asleep. But in the same way that I saw those simple actions, and of say I knew that kid wasn’t gluten free, and I knew he loved cupcakes and all about him, I could know what he would do next. In this same way, perhaps someone who had a higher mind than I do, could comprehend huge amounts, and things all about me, who I am, who I want to be, what I struggle with, what my habits are, someone who can weigh and think more than I can, could know what time I will fall asleep. In the same way, again every higher, maybe a being could see where I will be in twenty years. I don’t understand. But I know that it is possible that an omniscient God can. And I know that the kid chose to eat that cupcake the same way I choose when to go to bed or what I will do in twenty years. Fate doesn’t mean no choice.

On 4/18/2024 at 9:19 PM, Shardwatcher01 said:

Who created God?

In the King James Bible it says that God was a being since the beginning of time, but what created time?

It is irrational for a something to come from nothing.

If matter cannot be created or destroyed, then where did matter come from? Our best guess is the Big Bang, but even then something cant come from nothing.

Also, scientists say that the universe is still constantly expanding, but if that's true then once again its an argument of where is that coming from?

Was the Big Bang, or the start of our universe the start of time? And if so then did God get created along with the start of time?

We have a few scenarios here, the first, which is that God did get created when the Big Bang happened, which is the start of time.

But even then, it's still the matter of who or what created God himself, because ONCE AGAIN, something CANNOT come from nothing.

The next scenario is that God existed from before the Big Bang. Once again, is the Big Bang the beginning of time or not? If it is not, then what was here before the Big Bang and thus creation of the universe? Was it just a void, but what is the void made of? Is God in that void? and if so is it truly a void?

If it was the start of time, then how did God exist before time. Nothing can exist outside of time, because then there would be no time to exist.

Which once again brings me to the question of when was God created and who or what created him.

A quote I found recently says this: "Nothing cannot exist, for to think of anything that does not exist is to think of something that exists." -unknown

Another question of the soul. How was  God created, was he created? We don’t know. Is is reasonable to say that something can’t come from nothing? I don’t understand how something can be eternal, at least not now. The Big Bang doesn’t answer anything. It claims that the universe, everything comes from two thing colliding. But that would imply that there are then already two things flying around in empty space, or in other words, a universe. We can try to make two options, though we don’t know if there is another that we haven’t realized or can’t understand, things have always existed, or they came from something that existed forever. Because if something did come from nothing, something would have caused it to do so, meaning there was something. But this is a law of the universe that we say is true. If the univers was created by God, couldn’t that law have been made by him too? If God created universal laws like gravity, then he created laws like something can’t come from nothing. But then if that law didn’t exist until God did, how do we know that he didn’t come from nothing. My point is, there are always things we won’t know. Or that we can’t know. As humans, we have limited comprehension of things.

On 4/17/2024 at 5:12 PM, Shardwatcher01 said:

Is anything real?

Another question or thought really that I've had in the last few months is what is reality?

Reality is what we perceive, but what is that?

Humans' brains are so broken, someone with schizophrenia or that just got hit really hard can literally physically see and hear things that are not there. 

We have no proof of anything in our reality. For all I know personally, I am a forty-two year old man in an insane asylum, and everything I've learned and every relationship I've experienced here is fake and all in my head.

This is a bit of a stretch, but what if when we die we wake up in a praservative tank in 2600 and pull hyper-real VR goggles off of our eyes, and everything was fake.

Science used to say that two things made our universe: Time and Space.

But recently another thought has been brought into the light: what if it was Space, Time, and Conciousness?

You see, dear reader, not only would this support many religious beliefs about the creation of the universe from a god or gods, but science supports it too.

I have two experiments I would like to show you for proof and support of this:

The first is Schrodinger's Cat experiment. Many of you have heard of it, but in short it shows how until observed, an outcome can have both outcomes happening. This is called Quantom Superposition. It says that, until oberved, say a coin flip when it lands is both heads and tails, at once. 

The second experiment is called the Double Slit Experiment. It essentially showed that when particalls were launched at a wall, with two slits. I wont go into the details, you dear reader can research it on your own.

Basically it too says that particles physically change when oberved. 

Reality is not real, at least it cant be proven to be real. Everything we are doing could all be a huge lie. I have a quote I'd like to share with you.

"Perception is not reality, it is just our tiny experience of reality, which is something very limited and flawed. Only Truth is reality, and unless we are willing to question everything that we think we know, we will never see anything but illusions and lies." -Gavin Nascimento  

What is Conciousness?

In my last post, I talked about how conciousness (maybe) helped shape the universe, but what actually is it?

I mean lets be real. We have ZERO reason to be conscious beings.

Our brain is a 3 pound organ of mush, made up of nerves floating in fluid. 

Even scientists don't know what or why we have consciousness. 

We are born with this incredible ability to think, to comprehend, to imagine, but we have no idea why.

This isn't as good as a question, and I cant go on it too much just because I don't know, either.

So I ask you, think about it, or comment about what you think thinking and consciousness really is.

I want to warn you. I love quotes. They are awesome. But what is a quote? Actually all it is, a something that someone notable has said. That began as something someone notably wise has said, but is not now. Go look up some Conye quotes. He has said some wild stuff. Sorry Ye. My point is that just because someone is famous or someone has said something does not mean it is true. Why do we live quotes then? Because often quotes are quoted because they introduce us to thiughts that we haven’t thought yet, or a perspective we haven’t viewed. That doesn’t mean it is true though. Be wary of quotes. They are not all true, no matter how wise they sound, or how unique the perspective is.

On 4/20/2024 at 7:58 AM, NameIess said:

When you think about it, would there be a difference between fate existing without us knowing it and fate not existing? Also, what does “fate” really mean? Is it some outside force that makes us do things? Or is it just the inevitable things that we will do, because of our unique personality and the situations into which we’re placed.

Personally, I think that fate does exist, or rather that someone who could know us perfectly and know everything about the universe could know exactly what actions we will take. However, we don’t know what our “fate” is, and since we don’t, there’s no reason to fall into apathy. Because from our perspective, it is almost as if fate doesn’t exist.

I like your thinking here, but I think there’s a few things you’re missing.

First off, I don’t think the Bible ever says that God was a being only since the beginning of time. Genesis 1:1 in KJV says:

”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

As far as I know, there’s no implication that God began there, or that he had a beginning anywhere.

I think your other faulty assumption is that nothing can exist outside of time. Our current understanding of the beginning of the universe is that time did not exist before it. However, you say, and rightly so, that something cannot come from nothing, and that nothing cannot exist. So since we know that the universe (something) exists now, there can never have been nothing, because then our universe would not exist.

So the question we have to answer then is: what existed before time? Is it an unbroken chain of creation, something’s making something else’s stretching all the way back into eternity? Or is there a beginning to the chain, something that has existed eternally?

For me, I think the most logical answer to the question of God’s creation is that He was not created. That He exists eternally and outside of time and created time, the universe, and everything.

On 4/21/2024 at 10:43 AM, Shardwatcher01 said:

 

Nice. All of this is also my opinion and just thoughts I've had, not a definitive answer for anything.

There's another thing. The Bible says that God is omnipotent and omnscient, meaning all powerful and all knowing.

But you see, you have no real power if you know everything, because if you know what's going to happen, it means that you cannot change anything.

Realizing that is when I came up with this theory:

There are timelines in timelines. Essentially, its this

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gods timeline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Humans' timeline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So God can see everything in his own timeline, but he can only control things in our Human timeline. This would give a reason as to how he can exist in and out of space and time, because humans can only comprehend our own space and timeline, but God can exist in and out of it, but he has his own timeline to function in. This would also be the reason he can be both omnipotent and omnscient.

edit: I know its a bit scattered and a stretch but I was in a bit of a hurry sorry

I would like to go back to what I said earlier. Just because it is reasonable to know what will happen, can I see my own furure? If I had an expanded mind, could I see what I would most likely do? Yes. I know right now I am about to eat dinner, but it is still my choice to eat dinner or not. Just because I know that I am about to choose doesn’t make it less of a choice.

On 4/23/2024 at 5:29 PM, Just-A-Stick said:

As far as our weak human brains can go, at least.

I think, at some point, we just have to accept that there are things we can't imagine pr wrap our brains around. That's where faith and trust come in. 

There's my unsensible 2 cents  

On 4/23/2024 at 7:54 PM, Shardwatcher01 said:

I mean maybe but its also the law of conservation of mass. "Matter cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another." -Albert Einstein 

A remarkable man, but was he perfect? No. I am not saying that this quote is wrong, I agree with it, but I want to use it as an example, that this could be wrong. Maybe in 100 years we find a way to do the opposite. Wisdom of the past has been proven wrong before has it not?

Sorry if I come across abyway but thoughtful. These are questions that are so interesting to cinsider and truly important. 
 

Sorry for all the typos and sentences that don’t make sense as well.

[IronMistborn]

I think that’s up to us to make our own lives. 
 

“Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.”

-Uncle Iroh. 
 

I do not think there’s one magical answer to the meaning of life. I think that’s up to us to make it individually. 
 

I am blessed to work in a field I love (cyber security) with great coworkers, so that’s a good life for me. 
 

But there’s a lot to live for. For me? It’s all the small things that make me happy and my world brighter. 
 

-Heavy metal, mosh pits, headbanging. 

-Goofing off with friends 

-Cuddling cute puppies 

-The Cosmere, of course! 

…and so on. 
 

I also genuinely believe we should find meaning in helping others. (And this is why I keep getting Edgedancer on the Radiant quiz lmao). This world storming sucks sometimes, and nobody can or should face it alone. Look for people to help. Maybe someone needs a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to their struggles over a beer or dinner. Even something as simple as taking a stranger’s cart after they’ve finished unloading their cart into their car. 
 

so. 
That’s what the meaning of life is to me. Find the joyous things in your life (provided they don’t harm others, of course), and look for people to help. 

[Mattel]

Soooo..... Where to begin? 

I am entering this conversation as a Protestant Christian, just to make that clear first.

I think the point of life is to live life. To live a life that we were meant to live, what God intended and wishes for us to do. 

I believe in objective Truth, so to me, yes, there are things that are real. I have come to accept that our world makes zero sense far too often in my opinion, and that when you really start to think about things they don't make any sense whatsoever. But I do believe in a higher force that loves us, I believe that there are other people around me right now, other conscious beings around me, and that the world does exist. For a long time now, but still a recent development, we have wondered: is what we perceive true, or real, or actually there? While this may be a fun question to talk about, to me it is rather pointless. We can never truly prove what we see is true, so no matter what arguments you come up with, we'll never know. I also don't fully understand why people debate this. "People only do what they want" - Boethius (paraphrased), so clearly people want to believe in the possibility of this not being the true world. And I don't understand why people desire that. Have they never gone on a hike up a mountain in a forest? Have they not laughed with friends? Did those philosophers sitting in dusty rooms not touch grass?? This world is amazing and wonderful, and I enjoy living. So why would I want to ruin this world with the creeping dread of suspicion that this world doesn't exist?

One of the most interesting ideas/ways of living life that a teacher presented me with is this: We must always live life like we have free will. Fate is something that I just... So you presented us with two different options about how to view fate, and while both are perfectly viable options, I believe its a both and situation. Fate does exist but that you also contain your own free will. I have been doing some research on myths recently, and it is a fascinating topic. Myths do not have to contain facts, but they are True. True myths are the stories you read that you yearn to be true, that you wish deep inside your heart were true stories. I think myths containing prophecies are good examples of how to define fate. A character is given a prophecy and they, usually, instantly think they know exactly what the cryptic verse means. But then throughout the story it turns out they either A) cause the negative outcome by trying to avoid it or B.) they run headlong into it because they sought to create their own fate, their own destiny. So the point I am making through myths is this: there is a path that you will lead, but you decide how you walk down that road.

So........ As a Christian your last question is... unnecessary. Well... no that's too harsh. Let me start again. Eternity is something that we cannot imagine or understand. We are limited and dying creatures trapped in a three dimension world and body, and are unable to understand eternity for we have not experienced it and live in a world that doesn't allow eternity. It is similar for comprehending God. God transcends everything. If there was something he belonged to then that would mean he conforms to that higher force and there cannot be a higher force than God. God exists outside of eternity! Imagine it this way: As three dimensional beings we can comprehend the one and two dimensional. But we cannot comprehend something four dimensional. We can try and visual, or use math to understand, or try to understand it. But we cannot fully come to know it. So imagine that one dimension is a ring. And then that two dimensional is a ring around that first ring. And then third dimensional is another ring surrounding the second surrounding the first. So if there were infinite dimensions then # of dimensions = infinity. But how does God fit into this? To me God = Infinity + one. If everything are just concentric circles surrounding each other, God is larger than all which means he contains them all and is outside of them. God transcends everything. If he didn't then something would be greater than him. So the question about who created God is a question we should never ask with the hope of finding out that the answer is something created God. We can puzzle over eternity and the nature of God and that is all well and fine, but personally I don't think we should ever try to find ways to put God in a box. Don't put God in Boxes. It... doesn't go well . 

 

Again these are all thoughts from a devout Christian, so I accept that I may be wrong or accidentally said something heretical, so take what I said with a pinch of salt.