Stefan
07-08-2012, 03:13 AM
Many theists think it must be a horrible thing to be an atheist. Mostly, because the main purpose of the formation of religion is the consolation of the fact that humans are conscious of death. It is meant as a relief of anxiety, biologically. Of course, it's much more detailed than that with moral and ethical implications, but that is what most scientist agree on for the origins of religious views, which are seemingly irrational stories in the modern society. So in the end, theists believe that it must suck to be an athiest, because athiests don't particularly believe in an afterlife.
For me, the universe is more than what we can observe and perceive as humans. Remember this: the world we see and experience is only a model of the actual world created by our brains. The actual world could be more detailed than our brains are able to manage, and much of what we see isn't typically how things should work, due to a need for coherence.
I view the universe in terms of information. In computer systems, there is a whole study of information and how it's transferred, used, and so on. The universe works similarly. At the macro-scales our universe is analog or non-quantized, fluid, continuous; at the sub-atomic scales our universe is digital, pixelated or quantized, hence the study of how things work at such a scale called Quantum Mechanics.
Time works similarly. In the sub-atomic world time is far less fluid, if you want to use such a word. Many of the rules of causality seem to work in different ways, future events can affect past events, and so on. At the core, we can probably describe time as the measurements of change. Time is how the universe seemingly progresses from an ordered state to a disordered state, which we measure in the concept of entropy. This is generally referred to as the "arrow of time."
So one must wonder, what has this all got to do with death? It has to do with death because I think causality is just a manifestation of our consciousness and the decoherence which causes our different perspective in the macroscopic world. In reality, the universe should be pictured more along the lines of many frames or snapshots. They're ordered by the total entropy of the closed system, the universe, and we perceive it as such due to the biological advantages of recognizing causality as living beings which become more ordered rather than less ordered, as the entire system of our universe delineates. In reality, the universe is just a collection of states, and time is the measurement of change in each state. These states being manifestations of disturbances in the vacuum.
What are the implications of this? While it hasn't happened yet, and I can't accurately say "right now I am dead", there does exists a state of our universe in which I am dead. When I am dead, there will exist a state of our universe in which I am alive.
While this isn't some paradise or heaven, I take great consolation in this fact. Mostly, because I am a determinist, and this makes a lot of sense to me as a determinist that all possible states of our universe occur from its beginning to its end, with the effects of causality already pre-determined. Furthermore, it means I exist in all my forms; dead and alive, old and young, sick and healthy. Such a view of the universe is just beautiful to me. It is a lot more beautiful and logical to me than a perspective of the universe that is described in theism.
Anyway, sorry for all the science terms, I really can't use any more common terms to describe these concepts without writing a book in the process. Plus I don't fully understand them, so if I tried to accurately explain them I'd probably fail.
For me, the universe is more than what we can observe and perceive as humans. Remember this: the world we see and experience is only a model of the actual world created by our brains. The actual world could be more detailed than our brains are able to manage, and much of what we see isn't typically how things should work, due to a need for coherence.
I view the universe in terms of information. In computer systems, there is a whole study of information and how it's transferred, used, and so on. The universe works similarly. At the macro-scales our universe is analog or non-quantized, fluid, continuous; at the sub-atomic scales our universe is digital, pixelated or quantized, hence the study of how things work at such a scale called Quantum Mechanics.
Time works similarly. In the sub-atomic world time is far less fluid, if you want to use such a word. Many of the rules of causality seem to work in different ways, future events can affect past events, and so on. At the core, we can probably describe time as the measurements of change. Time is how the universe seemingly progresses from an ordered state to a disordered state, which we measure in the concept of entropy. This is generally referred to as the "arrow of time."
So one must wonder, what has this all got to do with death? It has to do with death because I think causality is just a manifestation of our consciousness and the decoherence which causes our different perspective in the macroscopic world. In reality, the universe should be pictured more along the lines of many frames or snapshots. They're ordered by the total entropy of the closed system, the universe, and we perceive it as such due to the biological advantages of recognizing causality as living beings which become more ordered rather than less ordered, as the entire system of our universe delineates. In reality, the universe is just a collection of states, and time is the measurement of change in each state. These states being manifestations of disturbances in the vacuum.
What are the implications of this? While it hasn't happened yet, and I can't accurately say "right now I am dead", there does exists a state of our universe in which I am dead. When I am dead, there will exist a state of our universe in which I am alive.
While this isn't some paradise or heaven, I take great consolation in this fact. Mostly, because I am a determinist, and this makes a lot of sense to me as a determinist that all possible states of our universe occur from its beginning to its end, with the effects of causality already pre-determined. Furthermore, it means I exist in all my forms; dead and alive, old and young, sick and healthy. Such a view of the universe is just beautiful to me. It is a lot more beautiful and logical to me than a perspective of the universe that is described in theism.
Anyway, sorry for all the science terms, I really can't use any more common terms to describe these concepts without writing a book in the process. Plus I don't fully understand them, so if I tried to accurately explain them I'd probably fail.