LOL!

Alright, assuming that it's true that all life is conscious, and not just us, and every aspect of nature is in equilibrium with its surrounding environment, than what makes us so different? If free will is a requisite of consciousness, and all things are conscious, we must assume all living beings have free will, to some extent at least. Why does every being on earth other than humanity adapt to it's environment while we constantly force the environment to "adapt" to us? Are we just an anomaly? Or does the fact that we even have the option to do so make us more conscious, or superior to other life?

Does the fact that we're conscious invalidate the idea of other life being conscious as well, at least to our level of understanding?

Just some food for thought

I'm thinking more along the lines of consciousness being something that isn't restrictive to the individual. I mean if God is in everything living thing and all people, is it not fair to say that all of the things with God "in" it are, in essence, conscious?

I'm not saying that everything in the bible happened exactly how it's told. It doesn't make it untrue, just needs to be read in the frame of mind of people who have never seen the things we've seen over the last 2000 years. Especially within out understanding of astronomy and space.

I have an interesting hypothetical pertaining to this: What if (and again, not saying this is how it happened) this colossal battle between heaven and hell, (God and Satan, whatever) was something as (relatively) explainable as describing an impact event with some sort of asteroid or comet. How would people of that time describe such an event with virtually no knowledge of science, astronomy and physics. Would it not make sense to personify these astral bodies in order to educate future generations of the event, without knowing the raw data behind it? Remember, stories, legends and history books have been edited, changed and told through a different light over time.

A scenario that they would describe as Satan "rivalling" God (celestial body becoming brighter than the sun due to its proximity) and being cast to earth (impact.) If something like this did happen in our distant past, and was written in ancient texts for all to see, than how would those people describe it?

I'm not saying by any means that that's what happened, and quite frankly, we may never really know. But what did our ancestors know that we seem unable to understand?

That's the way it should be. If people could simply understand that, and started formulating opinions and ideas for themselves, instead of being subjected to consistent brainwashing, we'd be better for it.

Well said, man. :)

You have a very good point, and I'm inclined to agree for the most part. What people do is what people do and everything that we do affects everything that is to come. That's the very nature of causality itself. No matter what we do now, we've already drastically changed the landscape and ecosystem, and all of the damage we've done is irreversible. I don't think we necessarily "owe fealty" to anything or anyone either, whether it be nature or otherwise.

But I can't help but wonder is we're capable of a better, more sustainable way of life that's not just beneficial to us as human beings, but for nature as a whole. Actually, I have no doubt that something like that was probably possible in the past, and we simply chose to gorge ourselves on resources and useless crap to the point that it's having an adverse effect on life as we know it.

I'd like to think that there is consciousness beyond what we perceive "consciousness" to be. We tend to think of it as a human quality that's generated from our brains and provides us with the sense of reality that we do.

It's not necessarily wrong, but what if (hypothetically) every living organism on earth is conscious and capable of making decisions based on the context of their environment. What if these organisms are simply a part of a greater organism we call Earth, which is part of a greater organism we call the cosmos. If that were the case, with us being the apex of evolution as we know it, what purpose would this greater organism have for us? Or are we smart enough, and powerful enough to define purpose for ourselves?

I'm not saying this is an absolute fact or "truth" of any kind, like I said, just entertaining an idea.

Thank you :) You too!

Sure would. Chuck your cell phone in the lake, while you're at it. (Not sarcasm lol)

I just think we should give nature more credit than that, I mean. The earth has survived asteroid impacts, geographic and geological change, and many other, extremely severe natural phenomena. Even after life has existed on earth, all of this catastrophe that has happened to the planet over billions of years, life still survives.

I do agree that we're killing this planet. I'm mostly just exploring a hypothetical. If humanity went extinct tomorrow, or even 50 or 100 years from now, I'm sure that life on earth will continue as long as it would otherwise, but it wouldn't necessarily be optimal, or even life as we currently know it.

I think if we continue to do what we're doing we are done for. All of us and everything. But will the planet be completely lifeless forever? It's just an interesting thought...

You may be right, but for the most part, judging by your example anyway, what was the cause of that? I was thinking more along the lines of the chain ov events that have happened all throughout our society's history. Individual decisions and plans carried out over generations are relatively short term, and one of two things happen as a result of any given problem: it gets better, or it gets worse.

By an organic change, I meant that because of the bad, oppressive decisions made against humanity over time we've progressively made things worse and worse. You're absolutely right, we watched it all happen, but I highly doubt the original intention of civilized culture was oppression. It just sort of happened as a result of poor decision-making and crimes against people. It still goes on today, arguably worse than ever. But when people acquire power in a state, they don't act in the best interest of the people, they act in the best interest of the state, which is what they're (unfortunately, and unethically) paid to do.

Basically, we did this to ourselves. So what do we do?

Sorry for the double post, but to add to that previous point, many indigenous tribes were slaughtered and overcome by new people from other areas with different philosophies of life and death. Humanity has been historically closed minded to accepting new ideals and saw those people who believed differently to be inferior. Over time, the newer philosophies overcame the teachings of the ancient people.

Well, many people throughout history, including many indigenous tribes percieved physical reality and death as just phases,or parts of a greater cycle of life. So death in many cases was seen as a "step forward" in their lives, or consciousness, so they celebrated the departure of the "dying" as a means of celebrating this transition through the greater life cycle.

Pretty cool concept if you ask me lol.

Perhaps. I'm inclined to think the NWO or something similar to that is likely being conscrtructed, or already has and been set into motion. I'm just not sure if it's a by-product of our cultural paradigm, since the dawn of civilization, of there are a few evil people at the top who just want everything and to kill us all in the process.

I don't really think it's the latter. It could very well be a result of how we've built ourselves up as a people. People, mostly, are good people carrying out what they believe to be the best options, whether it be for personal, societal or monetary gain is fundamentally irrelevant. I think the new world order has almost become an organism on it's own, evolved from a patriarchal, greed-based society. If humans are the apex of evolution in nature as we know it, think of the NWO as the apex of evolution in a corrupt society.

It could have just happened organically.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the human impact on nature. Our destructive behaviour, our lust for chaos and progress at the expense of nature. Do we have an ethical responsibility to care for this planet?

I think, over time, Mother Nature can essentially handle anything we could possibly conceive of doing to hurt our ecological environment. Over tens of thousands or millions of years, assuming we stop the damage we're doing, it will eventually get "healed" over time. So our focus, inevitably must shift to the impact it can have on life as we know it, during our "time," I suppose. Are we bad at living harmoniously with nature, or do we just not care?

I'd like to hear some of your thoughts on this. I don't believe that God is anything external to or greater than humanity, but the very existence of consciousness itself. I think ancient passages from all over the world indirectly spoke of it, using imagery and allegory.

The one thing people fail to do with the bible to get an actual portrayal of what happened, is to read it from the context of someone reading it in the time it was written. If we apply our knowledge of our current understanding of reality, physics and hard science and use that knowledge to read ancient texts, would it not be easier to understand what it really is they were trying to describe?

Anyone out here into conspiracies, NWO, Doomsday scenarios?

Well, I'm not Keanu, but I am looking for a nice, spiritual, intelligent, open-minded, and non-materialistic girl to hang out, chat and hopefully develop a relationship with.

I do tend to take things a bit slow, but I consider myself to be an intuitive, caring and honest person, and I'm hoping to find someone out there who will like, respect and accept me for the kind of person that I am.

I don't like to label myself as a stereotype of any kind, nor do I like it when people categorized themselves. I mean, what's so bad about being just a human being trying to find their place in the world?

I write, play guitar, sing, cook, smoke weed, and enjoy the occasional video game. I don't drink or do any unnatural drugs. (I don't even like taking perscriptions and medication.) I love all things about nature, from plants and animals to humanity itself.

That being said, I do have a lot of opinions and beliefs about this world people sometimes find... eccentric, or crazy. You don't have to agree with me, but all I ask is to be open-minded and understanding. I just have these burning questions in my mind like: who are we and what is our real purpose here? I'm hoping to find someone with that same sense of wonder and appreciation for life. I'm a dreamer, through and through, and hoping to meet like-minded people.

If you're looking for someone to gaze at the stars with, wondering into the night sky if there's someone else out there, looking back, and want to talk about it, drop me a line. :)