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What if everyone is partially right and the universal collective consciousness leads to God? And everyone is put into the world for a reason, and each religion has a reason?
Humans are evolving, our knowledge are abilities are increasing, our lifespans are increasing, the world population is rapidly growing. Maybe those are mostly because of science, but science is yet to prove one very important thing. And if there is a God what sort of creator would not want to see all of his children grow and mature. And as humans are growing our beliefs and our religions mature.
It may seem like a lot of fluff especially to those who are certain their religion is the right and only one, but I was just wondering what if.
It seems to me that, inherently, no one and no thing, including science, will ever prove an unfalsifiable hypothesis.
That does not make such a hypothesis worthy of belief however.
As to the question of beliefs maturing, I'm not so sure. To borrow a metaphor from Stranger Things, in many respects we live in the "upside down" these days, in which an astounding number of people feel entitled not only to their own beliefs, but to their own facts. I want to believe that humanity is gaining ground overall, but it's difficult to feel or even see that at the moment.
Can religions mature? In theory, yes, and in practice, to a limited extent, they do. I think for example that some liberal Christian and post-Christian denominations have evolved their beliefs in ways that are more compatible with intellectual honesty -- or as a wag might say, less incompatible.
What if everyone is partially right and the universal collective consciousness leads to God? And everyone is put into the world for a reason, and each religion has a reason?
Humans are evolving, our knowledge are abilities are increasing, our lifespans are increasing, the world population is rapidly growing. Maybe those are mostly because of science, but science is yet to prove one very important thing. And if there is a God what sort of creator would not want to see all of his children grow and mature. And as humans are growing our beliefs and our religions mature.
It may seem like a lot of fluff especially to those who are certain their religion is the right and only one, but I was just wondering what if.
Perhaps a test to ascertain the validity of your desire for Truth and not accept the warm and fuzzy...
It seems to me that, inherently, no one and no thing, including science, will ever prove an unfalsifiable hypothesis.
That does not make such a hypothesis worthy of belief however.
As to the question of beliefs maturing, I'm not so sure. To borrow a metaphor from Stranger Things, in many respects we live in the "upside down" these days, in which an astounding number of people feel entitled not only to their own beliefs, but to their own facts. I want to believe that humanity is gaining ground overall, but it's difficult to feel or even see that at the moment.
Can religions mature? In theory, yes, and in practice, to a limited extent, they do. I think for example that some liberal Christian and post-Christian denominations have evolved their beliefs in ways that are more compatible with intellectual honesty -- or as a wag might say, less incompatible.
This reminded me that the 2016 Oxford Word of the Year was "post-truth".
I want you to start think of creation not as Abracabra and stuff appears, which is not only part of the reason ppl disbelieve God, but not telling an accurate story.
I want you to think of existence as fragmentary.
Think of a giant Final Fantasy style crystal. Let's call this crystal Paramatma. Now, all of a sudden this crystal breaks into a zillion pieces. These pieces we'll call Atma, and they behave like seeds to souls. Rocks and other dead stuff are ajiva souls, animals and people are jiva (Hiunduism and other Asian religions). Now, would these new souls see a centralized crystal? No (atheism), not unless several crystals rejoined after leaving bodies (panentheism). They might learn that each of them has a crystal shard though (pantheism).
As time passes each crystal develops part of the truth, as long as living as part of the whole. It is possible to come up with a false truth, but only if one is warped or darkened. This is temporary, and purified by grace and/or karma.
Bottom line: if you were to tell ppl "I saw an angel yesterday, and it told me to kill ppl" not part of God's design. Practically anything can be used as part of God's plan though.
Yes, the article is pretty spot-on. The expectation of truth-as-default is gone, and people can fabricate asserted truth with total impunity. But it's not like this is a new thing under the sun, it has been done on a more compartmentalized and limited scale, for example, in religion, since forever.
The article is right in pointing out that consequences for being found out in one's lies are largely gone, and the public does not see the contempt for them coming from those in power who fabricate their unreality systems.
The key question for me is, does an end-point exist somewhere, beyond which the public awakens to the fact they've been lied to? Does the pendulum ever swing back toward bedrock substantiatable truth-beliefs? It's not certain that it does -- or how it does. There are even plausible dystopian outcomes in the mix.
It's going to be an interesting decade or two coming up. It's also nearly impossible to predict how several scientific breakthroughs we're on the verge of, will influence it all. In rough order of likelihood / significance, these are, in my mind:
Quantum computing
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
General purpose Artificial Intelligence
Breakthrough propulsion innovations like the EmDrive.
For example, Virtual Reality (VR) has now become so convincing that it's a shock to come back to the "real" world. It needs just some more standardization and miniaturization to become pervasive. If people can "live" and even earn money in virtual reality, will they simply use it to escape the actual real world? Will it simply become an extension of the intellectual ghettoes we already build for ourselves?
Augmented Reality (AR) will become ubiquitous even sooner. If it gets to the point that we all have glasses or contact lenses overlaying the real world with various "filters" will this continue to accelerate the already massive changes in how people think about reality, and how they can be influenced?
As for quantum computing, I think people are really overlooking this one. The owner of the first practical quantum computer (which is less than a decade away, if not a couple of years) had better be an honest broker because they will instantly be able to break through all existing encryption. After that, our ability to simulate chaotic systems like weather, protein folding, epigenetics, and so on, will be so enhanced that we can expect massive breakthroughs in healthcare (at least for the wealthy). Simulations that would take longer than the heat death of the universe with current technology will take days; things that now take years will take minutes or even seconds. And at much higher resolution and accuracy. These achievements will require experimenting with new software techniques and might take a bit longer than the arrival of the enabling hardware, but they will inevitably come.
Now imagine some fact-free demagogue like Trump getting ahold of technologies like these and using them for personal gain.
Or maybe don't imagine it; you probably want to sleep tonight.
The terms I used in the original post may be odd and vague but if anyone cares to read more: Gordon Allport's thoughts on mature and immature religions. Émile Durkheim thoughts on the collective conciseness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbancharlotte
What's your definition of God? I ask this because the universal collective consciousness includes everyone; from Mother Teresa to Adolf Hitler.
I'm agnostic so I'm not here to define God. I do think the fatherly, man in the sky, controlling our every move definition is getting phased out as religions mature.
I figured Hitler and evil would be brought up as that's one thing I thought about when posting. I'm not sure, life is never going to perfect and maybe certain things happen so we can learn from others. We have progressed since the 40's. How is the suffering justified -- maybe there is life beyond human life - until science proves there isn't, how could we say one way or the other?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard1965
Perhaps a test to ascertain the validity of your desire for Truth and not accept the warm and fuzzy...
Seems too selfish, irrational, narrow minded to me to believe I could know the Truth and that the vast majority of the population is wrong. Maybe accepting that I'm not sure and can't control things does reduce fear and lead to warm and fuzzy feelings. I don't think it's a bad thing and wish others could try it
It seems to me that, inherently, no one and no thing, including science, will ever prove an unfalsifiable hypothesis.
That does not make such a hypothesis worthy of belief however.
As to the question of beliefs maturing, I'm not so sure. To borrow a metaphor from Stranger Things, in many respects we live in the "upside down" these days, in which an astounding number of people feel entitled not only to their own beliefs, but to their own facts. I want to believe that humanity is gaining ground overall, but it's difficult to feel or even see that at the moment.
Can religions mature? In theory, yes, and in practice, to a limited extent, they do. I think for example that some liberal Christian and post-Christian denominations have evolved their beliefs in ways that are more compatible with intellectual honesty -- or as a wag might say, less incompatible.
I agree, but I do think some people need religion and their lives are better because of it. Of course, I realize that religion can also limit people and cause horrible things. But I'm not ready to completely agree with Marx that religion is the opium of the people yet.
I also agree that a lot seems messed up these days and the post-truth thing is troubling. It's definitely tough for anyone to feel good from sensationalized news and US politicians these days. Progress and happiness is tough to measure.
We're on the same page with mature religion which is how Gordon Allport describes it: "Mature religious beliefs is the person whose approach to religion is dynamic, open-minded, and able to maintain links between inconsistencies"
What if everyone is partially right and the universal collective consciousness leads to God? And everyone is put into the world for a reason, and each religion has a reason?
Humans are evolving, our knowledge are abilities are increasing, our lifespans are increasing, the world population is rapidly growing. Maybe those are mostly because of science, but science is yet to prove one very important thing. And if there is a God what sort of creator would not want to see all of his children grow and mature. And as humans are growing our beliefs and our religions mature.
It may seem like a lot of fluff especially to those who are certain their religion is the right and only one, but I was just wondering what if.
what did the Man say..THEY THAT HAVE AN EAR LET THEM HEAR...not everyone dances to the same music.
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