Dear Keiran,

I'd like to jump in if I may. You ask 'why do so many people imagine that any self respecting teddy would make one of those (universes/worlds) with a ME in the centre? LOL'? It's as if you're suggesting that the world is so big that there is no centre. I have a friend who once thought that his Grade 7 was the centre of the universe. Later he thought that his Grade 12 year was the centre, and then later university. Like Y.B. Yeats (if I understand and remember him correctly) he asked 'where is the centre; there is no centre, the centre does not hold'.

But what if there is no one 'centre', because EVERY point is the centre?

Religious thought has long posed the existence of things that transcend the physical universe. If such things exist, as I believe they do, then the bigness of the physical universe isn't a problem for them, as it is for us. It is possible that like a circle on or in a sphere, the higher dimension acts on and through EVERY point of the lower dimension. Each and every point on every circle in a sphere, is where the sphere acts (mathematicians, please correct me here!).

Every point on the circle is really the centre of the circle so far as it is recognised as the point where the sphere acts through the circle. Current cosmology, so far as I know, casts the universe as infinite, and thus allows that each point on the circle can be conceived as its centre.

Out of curiosity, you also stated that 'if people need something more in their lives than just the material world then just study what is, and you'll find that it already is far more uplifting than anything you could imagine needing.' What exists or 'is' other than the material world?

Kind regards,

Tomess

Tomess, speaking of centres, the question of questions and perhaps our centre of interest, has always been, whence did we come from, what are the limits, to what goals do we tend, and to what place do we occupy in nature with our relations to the universe of things. AND, look how easy it is for people to disregard the major issue of guardianship of the planet with pathetic little religious wars on everything. Nature is a trillion times more important and interesting than these superstitious teddies that dumbos are so attracted to. Just seems we have to manage the change over to living with the disasters of the religious past and understand that we live in a material universe.

We need to come to terms with the enormous data bank our little tiny lonely planet has bequeathed us where all processes are irreversible, and all effects have an infinite number of material causes, where all decreases in order in one portion of the universe results in equivalent increases in order in another portion and that evolution is the process occurring at all times with respect to each electron, atom, cell, organ, organism, species, ecosystem, planet, and galaxy.

Dear Kieran,

First, I'd like to address your point that we have to understand that we live in a material universe. Does that view allow for rational thought, or reason, as an explanation of experience? If the material universe is all that there is, then what basis is there for concluding that our thoughts are not totally determined by physical, chemical, biological and other circumstances, and therefore just as meaningless as those processes when taken in themselves? If reason is totally determined by the material universe, then any conclusions we can reach appear suspect, because they're not underpinned by rational thought or reason, but merely material processes, like those that digest our food. Though they're pleasant to experience and they keep us alive, they don't mean anything in themselves. They don't claim to.

Thought itself would just be an effect of an infinite number of material causes, as you seem to suggest in your second paragraph. If so, there's no point in arguing about anything. We should really just not say anything more, turn on Big Brother, and follow the leader who promises to only protect our mortgage and keep those other, different people away from the telly.

I don't believe that's the case, because reason and rational thought instead appear to be an accurate guide to the things I experience. It seems that the more I reason, the more accurate a picture of the universe I seem to build up, one which better explains the things around me.

Finally, I'd be interested to hear more about your view of evolution, where it involves inorganic things as well as life forms.

Kind regards,

tomess

Everybody is right - In the beginning was the word (idea), and the word became god (expression) and the word was god (manifest)

aternatively.... In the beginning was the word (idea), and the word was with god (thought) and the word is god (action).

Dear Kevin,

"Everybody is right - In the beginning was the word (idea), and the word became god (expression) and the word was god (manifest)

alternatively.... In the beginning was the word (idea), and the word was with god (thought) and the word is god (action)."

Does this mean that 'god' is manifest action? Is this just power? It's pretty mystical stuff. It might have a lot of meaning and beauty for you, but if you want me to understand it, you'll need to 'unpack' it a bit.

Kind regards,

tomess