Ali, that’s a good question. Was it a “conscious act”

I’d say yes. “Conscious” isn’t an easy word though.

You are a body made up of many living parts.

Which parts have consciousness?
Do the parts have consciousness? Or the whole (you)?

I’m not saying “the universe is god” or that it’s “god’s body”

God is that which is the source of our universe (and I don’t believe that that’s itself)

God is in the NATURE (character) of the universe, not the universe. Like you are in the nature (character) of your creations, but not of your creations.

I'm being honest

oooooo yes, the mystery of consciousness.

@JPMcGlone can you vc?

@ me when you reply cause I have notis off

Can’t tonight. Add me as a friend though

Alright

I want to grill you on your belief in god sometime soon. 🙂

grill or pick his brain?

By grill I mean pick his brain

Challenge him intellectually to the best of my capability

oh okay lol verrry different concepts.

What I personally think is "consciousness" is
the ocean and i'm a fish swimming in it. The water
is all around me, the medium i move thru. but
the water is flowing in my gills "inside" me all
through me as well.. the ocean is all one. yet i
feel what flows through me as distinct.

Yeah haha probably should’ve been clearer

I understood it as playful

> Ali, that’s a good question. Was it a “conscious act”
>
> I’d say yes. “Conscious” isn’t an easy word though.
>
> You are a body made up of many living parts.
>
> Which parts have consciousness?
> Do the parts have consciousness? Or the whole (you)?
>
> I’m not saying “the universe is god” or that it’s “god’s body”
>
> God is that which is the source of our universe (and I don’t believe that that’s itself)
>
> God is in the NATURE (character) of the universe, not the universe. Like you are in the nature (character) of your creations, but not of your creations.
@JPMcGlone interesting answer. Do you believe in the Bible then?

Consciousness can't be separated, there isn't such thing as your consciousness and my consciousness .

Remember how I’m thinking of god.

I believe the Bible is inspired by that, absolutely.

Well it’s 11:30 and my brain is exhausted so I’m still trying to comprehend your words haha so bare with me

But continue

> Well it’s 11:30 and my brain is exhausted so I’m still trying to comprehend your words haha so bare with me
@kaizen
Man its plain simple dude

I think it’s useful AND also true at some level, that God engages with the universe. We tend to talk about it as though God intervenes at certain moments and not at others. But i think more accurately is: it’s constant. Always present— an analogy: an author and the characters in his book.

From the authors POV, no free will for you. From your POV (as a character in a book) total free will and adventure.

I no longer thing free will and predetermining are incomptible. They’re just incompatible from the perspective of the same entity

Probably is but I have a hard time comprehending what I read because I’m not a native English speaker> @kaizen
> Man its plain simple dude
@Homeschool dropout

Even Sam Harris would say we should act as though we have free will, implying that it offers an advantage for you (or your brain)

I think it’s impossible to act as if you don’t have free will

Since the illusion is so strong

Agreed, but some try. And some claim they don’t have free will

Well, is it an “illusion” though? Illusions are usually distortions of reality

You know you’re made up of millions of atoms, but still act like once being even though you know a certain fact

Yes because meaning isn’t found by zooming in

Yea, it’s a distortion of reality. The reality being either everything is pre determined by prior causes or that there’s a random element that “picks” what we do

Imagine zooming in that close on a statue or a painting. You’d never know what the statue or painting was of, let alone what it means

Yet we feel like we have free will

I’m very interested in this notion that everything we know, we know through stories

> You know you’re made up of millions of atoms, but still act like once being even though you know a certain fact
@kaizen
Man we should have a holistic way of looking at things. We can't separate them try to make sense Outta it

a^2 + b^2 = c^2 is a story. Of right triangles.

> You know you’re made up of millions of atoms, but still act like once being even though you know a certain fact
@kaizen
The problem with most people reasoning is that we fragment things on a number of levels

Everything we know, we know through symbols. And we use language to communicate what we know. We have language... to tell stories.

A good story can teach you more than a well documented technical paper ever can

When they say we are made in gods image, I think that includes the fact that we are storytellers

Good storytellers don’t do propaganda. They are honest, and explore the nature of their characters instead of forcing unbelievable and fake outcomes for them.