|
Post by samsara15 on Sept 29, 2014 18:13:18 GMT -6
Does it value them?
Does it even notice them, or care?
Does it think at all, in our sense of the word?
I often wonder.
Is Nature blind, unreasoning, not even conscious, in some sort of HP Lovecraft universe? Or is Nature infinitely intelligent and wise? I'd like to think the latter was true, but wishful thinking is just that.
Or are we all just random variations on a multi-dimensional screen?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 18:28:22 GMT -6
Nature is completely neutral. If the earth continues for millions of years or ends tomorrow nature simply don't care it's neutral.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2014 6:37:23 GMT -6
I read an article in the news paper several years ago that stated 99.8% of all species that ever lived are now extinct. Reason....unable to adapt. That's what nature thinks of it's handy-work....it simply doesn't care, it's completely neutral.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 1, 2014 6:15:52 GMT -6
I think it may value them, but they are disposable. I'd like to think we enable nature to see itself, and therefore to experience feelings, and so we may have some value. One could even come up with scenarios in which the various religions, and all their sects and subsets, could be true, at the same time, within a wider context. Infinity is very open to possibility.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 6:53:41 GMT -6
As a Christian I believe our parents sold out to evil, after all God had set them in charge of his handy-work. The world we know became an evil place. Not to deny that there can be happiness but it's fleeting. As the saying goes "It's a cruel world" Indeed it is. We live in a fallen world where it can be beautiful on one hand and deadly on the other. This is not the best of all possible worlds and nature is not the best of all possible mothers.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 6:59:40 GMT -6
As a non-Christian, I dot believe the universe is evil. Cruel, yes; unfair, yes; but I have a hard time defining what evil is...it seems to be a purely human term. The best I can arrive at is anything that harms living creatures without contributing to their survival.
Not that I don't sometimes have moods in which I think the world is an evil place.
Since I don't have fixed beliefs, and am not sure the universe is a logical place, or even fully understandable to human beings, I am not consistent, and do not ever expect to be in any position where my knowledge allows me to be so.
If there is a deity, in our usual accepted terms for what that may mean, I would hope that deity tries to reduce the cruelty of the universe insofar as possible.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 7:27:30 GMT -6
Social customs in most human civilizations specify that the following are evil:
Murder and violent acts against others (except in military actions or as punishment for crimes) Marital infidelity Lying Fraud Theft
So there are standards, of a sort
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 10:34:19 GMT -6
Have you been keeping up with the news? Every so often there comes a virus that wipes out millions. We now have Enterovirus along with Ebola. It's natures answer to population control.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 15:49:14 GMT -6
The world won't miss us. We can be replaced. Enjoy life, while we have it. Perhaps nature enjoys life through our senses. Perhaps our search for meaning is meaningless, but nonetheless it is something we seem compelled to do.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 17:52:52 GMT -6
I agree, the world won't miss us but I would like to leave it a little better than I found it.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 18:48:42 GMT -6
So would we all, but the problem with that is that a lot of the other people we share this world with think our efforts make the world worse, not better, and therefore do their best to make sure our efforts are futile, because they have different beliefs, goals, and ideals than ours. You can't even fault them for doing so; they are doing, in their way, their own best effort to make the world a better place. So what we are forced to do is just to do the best we can, and accept our limitations.
|
|
|
Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 20:43:48 GMT -6
Other people teach us that we cannot make the world in our own image of what we deem, in our opinion, to be better than it was before.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 12:31:06 GMT -6
I think he's right, it's natures way of controling worlds population.
|
|
|
Post by rdlb on Oct 15, 2014 8:32:44 GMT -6
Does "nature" have a cognitive mind or a loving heart, qualities that define a human sentient being?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2014 14:33:24 GMT -6
No, I don't think it does but nature has its own laws and tends over a vast period of time to govern it's self.
|
|