The holy cycle

The universe is strange place, and as science progresses, our understanding of how it works changes year by year. It seems like whenever we have a solid foundation of scientific knowledge about ur world, another theory or finding destroys what we thought we knew. For example, when I was in school, my psychics teacher would tell us that a ‘quark‘ was the smallest fundamental particle in the universe. However, for anyone with an interest in science and the confusing world of quantum physics, you’ll know that this this could very well not be the case. Thanks a lot string theory!

It’s a current belief that as we go smaller and smaller into the particles that make up this reality, we find that on a subatomic level, every piece of matter is made up of vibrational waves of energy. As physics clearly tells us, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. So if everything in the universe is made up of energy, then what does this tell us about the nature of our existence?

Well, if energy can’t be created or destroyed, then that means nothing in our observable universe can be created or destroyed, even ourselves. But how can that be possible? Nothing is eternal, humans die and physical objects eventually decay. When we die, we are gone, we longer exist, however the basic laws of physics go against this. With this in mind, I hypothesise that everything that exists within our universe, has always been here, and nothing new is ever added to it. Neither, is anything removed from it.

Think about it, all life is energy. When we die, our bodies decay and rot, we are eaten by other animals to keep them alive and reproducing. When them animals die, their bodies decay and the cycle goes on. Nothing ever ceases to exist, it is simply impossible. Rather, like physics tells us, everything that matter makes up, is just transferred into another form. Birth, growth and decay, it’s the cycle of life. This is the bigger picture we are all a part of, everything is one and connected, just in different, transferring and interchangeable forms.

This bigger picture, or cycle, is what I like to think most, if not all religions were getting at when they spoke of a ‘God.’ This ultimate truth of everything being one part of a larger picture, is God. The very essence of everything in our existence, not some almighty creator. I believe that many of the holy scriptures, such as bible, were using metaphors to describe this truth of oneness. However, humans misconstrued this stories and took them too literally, envisioning a creator or all seeing deity.

In an early Christian scripture, it was said that ‘Jesus’ quoted this, as an explanation of where God is…

“I am the light which is over all things”

“I am all”

“From me came forth, and to me all attained”

“Split a piece of wood, I am there”

“Lift up the stone, and I am there”

If one was to take this quote literally, you would bring forth the assumption that our creator ‘God,’ is everywhere at once. However, I feel that the word God itself has grown shallow and meaningless throughout time. As stated, if you dismiss all preconceptions of the word God, and take it as this cycle, or bigger picture I’m speaking of, the quote resonates with this theory. It tells us of an overall essence of all life and things, that is everything and everywhere at once. Not a concious being, rather a unity of everything.

It’s worth saying now, that thinking for yourself is one of the most valuable skills you can have. You can take what you’ve read here however you want, but please don;t form your opinions based on a single book, belief system or blog post. Look at every side of the coin from every perspective, and form your own truth. Because most of the time, you’ll find a deeper truth, hidden within what you once thought was the ultimate truth.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Free will and the butterfly effect

Do we have free will? This is a question that has plagued philosophers for generations. Ask the average person this, and they will normally tell you that, yes, we do have free will. A human being has the capacity to make a variety of choices in what they do, based on the actions that they themselves decide to act upon at there own will. When arguing this fact, many would then go on to act out something similar to this…

*holding their arm out*

“I currently have the choice to move my arm in any direction that I want to.”

*moves arm upwards*

“I decided myself to move my arm upwards, therefore I have free will.”

This is a valid argument, and who can blame anyone for thinking like this? After all, the thought of not having a say in the choices we make is scary and quite absurd. However, humans never got anywhere without questioning our natural ways of perceiving and thinking about the world, so I’m here to offer a different perspective to this problem.

Every event that happens in your current present reality, and everything that happens in the future for that matter, happened due to a previous event. Let me reiterate, everything that happens, is reliant on something happening before it. Cause and effect in other words. So with this perspective, lets look at our previous argument, for why we do have free will.

“I decided myself to move my arm upwards, therefore I have free will.”

People have a habit of focusing too much on the argument, and not the bigger picture. Lets dig deeper than the premises that brought us to this initial conclusion.

The reason you moved your arm in the first place, was to prove to someone that you do have free will. You are trying to prove that you have free will because I brought the topic forward. If I hadn’t of brought the topic forward, then you never would have moved your arm. I brought the topic forward in the past, and you cannot change the past, therefore you had no say at all in moving your arm, as the very act of moving your arm was predetermined by past events. And as we all know, past events cannot be altered in the present. Yes, one could go on to argue that it was my choice to bring up the topic of free will. However, I may have only brought up the topic because I read an article the previous week on the subject. An article that I read because because someone emailed it to me. They emailed it to me because we had a converstion the previous month about our interests in philosophy…

This could go on forever, but the fact of the matter is, every event leading up to you moving your arm, was reliant on a previous event. We have no control over the past, so we can hypothesise that we have no free will. This idea of cause and causation is called the butterfly effect, the idea that an event no matter how small causes a chain of concurrent events, which can cause significant changes in the future. Therefore, if this is the case we can work backwards from every single event that has ever happened. Everything, from the neurons that fire in your brain to your decision to eat pizza tonight, can be traced back to an endless chain of previous events which caused this current event to happen.

Of cause, all of this begs the question of what was the first ever event in our existence which set of this chain. Well theoretical science would tell us, that this would be the big bang. Is it possible that since the beginning of existence, our lives have been set out by a chain of irreversible events that predetermine our future?

Like many complex philosophical ideas, there is no way of proving this way of thinking is true, mainly due to the restraints of our current science and technology. Nor, am I suggesting this idea is true, I am simply presenting a different way of looking at things. I have presented you with an argument, however as Hilary Putman put it (no pun intended), a philosophical argument is disappointing, and to some extent worthless, without a vision. So lets take this philosophy of having no free will, and our futures being pre-determined and give it a vision. Here is how I propose we should live our lives based on the argument I have presented…

If all that happens is going to happen regardless of what we try to do in order to change it, there is no need in feeling sad and disheartened when life doesn’t work the way you want it to. Everything is pre-determined by previous events which we cannot change. Therefore, we have no choice in what happens in the present or the future. The obstacles and disappointments that life throws at us are not something we should dwell on or feel depressed about. We should accept what is, as that is all there ever will be. Enjoy happiness while it last because misery is always round the corner. Although, nothing lasts forever because will always be another link in the chain of events that alters our reality, wether it be from a utopia to a dystopia.

I would love to hear peoples thoughts on this subject.

–THE LONELY WEST–

What is god? Consciousness and the observer effect

I’m an atheist. As an atheist there is nothing worse than a Christian who relentlessly tries to force their beliefs upon you. As someone who prides himself in (hopefully) not being an asshole, there’s nothing worse than an atheist doing the same thing.

It’s easy to discredit someone beliefs just because they seem ludicrous to you. But, you’ll never learn anything if you stay stuck in the mental prison of your own stubborn ideology. Truth be told, I used to be one of those atheist who preached about the narrow-mindedness of religious types which ironically makes you more narrow minded. This is because, like I said, you get trapped in your own beliefs and don’t accept any other opinions. Well, I’ve been given this some thought and although I remain an atheist you really can’t blame people for believing in a higher power.

I mean the universe makes no sense but complete sense at the same time. Back in the day, we didn’t have science. A higher being or deity seemed the only logical explanation for the reality in which we perceive. Of cause, as we evolved we began finding patterns. That’s all science is. The study of regularly occurring patterns. Humans like patterns because they help us make sense of seemingly chaotic events beyond our control. We like control. It eats away at us when we can’t categorise, analyse and neatly label things in the world. This is what science is for. Science found that our universe is governed by certain laws. These laws neatly fit into various equations and calculations which when worked out again and again always give the same result. Gravity, velocity or density it can all be calculated. It’s almost like a computer program with physics equations as it’s code.

With all this seamlessly perfect data we can extract from our universe, it becomes apparent that it is very possible there could well be a creator. Our world is intelligently designed as if someone meant it all to fit together and consistently work again and again. It’s insane when you think that, every small calculation of these laws is so neatly perfect that out universe just works. I mean, take one piece of the code away and it all just falls apart. So, if there is a creator or what us humans refer to as “God” what is it. What is god?

Well, when people think of god I personally think that they are going about the completely wrong way. When you envision God you will normally picture some almighty deity in the sky that must be worshipped. In my opinion, this approach is lazy and disregards science. A way of simply filling in the gaps we don’t understand. The idea that we have to worship this creator also seems silly. A fallacy I personally think has been carried through the ages. A way of invoking fear in large populations so they don’t “Sin.” So what is the other way of looking at God? Well first lets take away the label of God as that already puts an image of a deity in peoples mind. The belief that we have a creator dictates that something is consciously aware of the universe in which it creates. The idea that our reality was created by conscious thought rather than pure randomness.

The Double Slit Experiment

This is where it gets mind-bendingly difficult to fully comprehend, so I will try and break it down into it’s simplest and most relevant form. In a nutshell, the double slit experiment was a study conducted in which scientist fired electrons through two tiny slits. Quantum physics dictates that the particle should act as… Well, a particle and when they collide with the wall, land as two bands in correspondence with the slits. The issue was, this did not happen. As you can see above the particles did not create two bands, rather they acted as a wave would. Completely unlike how we know particles to work, which obviously completely BAFFLED scientists. To get a better idea of what was happening they decided to use a small device to examine exactly which slits the electrons went through. Keep in mind this is on a quantum level, so up until this point nobody was observing the electrons. Rather, they were just seeing the end result. When they actually observed these particles. Well… this is when things got really strange. When scientists observed the particles, they began acting like particles again and produced two bands based of their collision with the wall. They tried again and again, observing and not observing, each time producing the same results. What does this mean? Well, it basically means the particles may be aware that they were being watched. As if they acted as we expect them too when we actually observed them. This is crazy when you think that our whole universe is made up of matter. Various particles that make up EVERYTHING we perceive, those of which their number we couldn’t even fathom. So if the variables of particles change based on our observations… Could this mean we are architects of our own reality?

When the electrons were unaware of observation they acted as a wave. Does this not dictate that the model of a wave could be their true form? If you begin reading about string theory, you will start to realise it is becoming apparent that the fundamental form of matter in our universe is countless amounts of vibrational waves.

It’s getting pretty deep now but hear me out.

Every thought you create produces a wave. That’s why they are called brain waves. Observation is formed by thought. You perceive something and your mind acknowledges it’s existence. If this is the case, than could it not be possible that we are creating our own reality whilst we live it. Our collective perception is dictating how the universe plays out and how the laws are set. Darting back to the initial question, what is God ?

Well… Maybe WE are God.

I’ll let you all collect your blown minds and you can be on your way.

–THE LONELY WEST–