Re: Deconversion

On 2008-01-27, Paul <pgrieg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Another option would be a cyclic universe, where if you go
far enough into the past or future you get back to where
you started.

Nietzsche's eternal return idea. This seems unlikely -- can things
ever repeat in exactly the same way? It's also a horrible thought: "Oh
no, I have to work under that 'orrible boss again and again forever!"
It also dashes any hopes that we might have free will. It certainly
devastates any religious hopes -- you don't go to any better place you
just repeat this vale of tears again and again.

It's one idea getting thrown around that keeps Hindus happy. The one
religion I can think of with a cyclic universe, for very long cycles
in the hundreds of millions of years. (unless you're a Brahma Kumari
who seem to have combined Hindu cyclic time with Young Earth and have
a 6,000 year cycle).

I wonder who came up with that all that time ago and why. It's such an
off-the-wall idea, or was it a consequence of belief in the Yuga system?
I don't know how advanced or backward society was back then. Looking at
the poorest of India now may not be a good guide as we cannot rule out
a greater past. Hindu literature describes a greater past. To come up
with that was quite interesting (and neatly gives a counter-argument to
an argument I've heard for Christianity, that it's too amazing to have
been made up. Here's another one.)

The future you will be unaware of the past yous so it won't be too upset
about it. I'm not sure whether Brahma (I think it was) plays with his
metaphorical toys in the same way every 'day' anyway. (Obviously very
long definition of day in terms of our time scale, with the equally long
"cosmic night" to go with it before the next cycle starts)

Actually these problems, Kant's paralogisms, are I think beyond the
capacity of the human mind to solve. Although, I also think I might be
wrong about that. Fortunately my happiness (the thing of ultimate
importance) does not depend on me solving them. Being an astronomer,
I'm happy to accept time starting at the Big Bang as my working
hypothesis so I can chat to other astronomers without upsetting them
too much :-)

I do think that the more important things are here and now, yet we do
expend a lot of energy working these things out.

Back on the original topic: The book selling club at my place of work are
selling the Good News Bible. My thought on picking it up and turning
randomly to The Ressurection was "There are people who hang their
lives off this story". The world is a much bigger place than that.
Church life can offer a lot, so much more outside that one story, but
to me it is a story nevertheless. I suppose the belief, any belief,
just changes people's views. Christians see things in terms of
Christianity.

I suppose I'm starting to consider the ideal, Nibbana perhaps, as a way of
being here and now in the world, able to see things as they are without
the distortion of that kind of belief or attachment, and presumably both
able and wanting to act in the best way out of compassion for the world
that you feel so intimately part of. It's an interesting idea.

- Richard

--
_/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ Richard Corfield <Richard.Corfield@xxxxxxxxx>
_/ _/ _/ _/
_/_/ _/ _/ Time is a one way street,
_/ _/ _/_/ _/_/_/ except in the Twilight Zone
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bible far ahead of ancient astronomers!
    ... The eclipse cycle that I discovered ... Things repeat themselves but with a slight difference. ... observations to pinpoint pehaps a single unique date in several millenniums. ...
    (uk.sci.astronomy)
  • Re: A truely BIJECTIVE BWT is here!
    ... EVERY CYCLE UNIQUE so if you write the compare function ... no partition has the first and last character the same ... 0002RBOOFA with its repeat of 000 and OO and no index better than ...
    (comp.compression)
  • Re: is time periodic
    ... Arbitrated geometrical time units can be measured by clocks. ... Would you like me to repeat what I said or am I going to be a clock? ... You have a seconds dial that repeats a complete cycle every second. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Insteon Test Report
    ... Insteon is stopped dead in its tracks. ... >>> maxi controller with the DIM or BRI button wedged on for the Leviton ... >> powerline cycles + 1 idle cycle for thr RF repeat. ... >> slipping in during the 6 cycle X-10 gap between address and function. ...
    (comp.home.automation)