I got into reading about near death experiences and it seems a common theme is that we’re all one. Like each and every one of us is really just part of some omniscient god that’s so omniscient and great that god isn’t even a good enough name for it: experiencing what it’s like to be small. Sure, why not. That’s sort of intuitive to me. Given that I can’t verify the universe exists and can only verify my experience it doesn’t seem that crazy to say experience is fundamental.
But if that’s the case then I’m just left with an overwhelming sense of why. Why make a universe with three spatial dimensions? Why make yourself experience suffering? Why make yourself experience hate? Why filter your consciousness through a talking chimpanzee? If I’m an omniscient entity why would I choose this? Surely there’s got to be infinitely more interesting things to do. If we’re all god then surely we’d never get bored just doing god things.
So you can take the obvious answer that everything exists. But then you’re left with other questions. Why are we in a universe that makes sense? Why don’t we live in a cartoon operating on cartoon logic? Does that mean there’s a sentient SpongeBob? And then there’s the more pressing concern of astronomical suffering. Are there universes where people are experiencing hyperpain? Surely god wouldn’t want to experience I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It doesn’t seem likely to me that there are sentiences living in cartoons, so I’ll use that to take the psychologically comforting position that not everything we can imagine exists.
But if that’s the case then why this? Why this universe? Why this amount of suffering? If there’s a no-go zone of experience where is it? I have so many questions and I don’t know where the answers are.
I got into reading about near death experiences and it seems a common theme is that we’re all one. Like each and every one of us is really just part of some omniscient god that’s so omniscient and great that god isn’t even a good enough name for it: experiencing what it’s like to be small. Sure, why not. That’s sort of intuitive to me. Given that I can’t verify the universe exists and can only verify my experience it doesn’t seem that crazy to say experience is fundamental.
But if that’s the case then I’m just left with an overwhelming sense of why. Why make a universe with three spatial dimensions? Why make yourself experience suffering? Why make yourself experience hate? Why filter your consciousness through a talking chimpanzee? If I’m an omniscient entity why would I choose this? Surely there’s got to be infinitely more interesting things to do. If we’re all god then surely we’d never get bored just doing god things.
So you can take the obvious answer that everything exists. But then you’re left with other questions. Why are we in a universe that makes sense? Why don’t we live in a cartoon operating on cartoon logic? Does that mean there’s a sentient SpongeBob? And then there’s the more pressing concern of astronomical suffering. Are there universes where people are experiencing hyperpain? Surely god wouldn’t want to experience I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It doesn’t seem likely to me that there are sentiences living in cartoons, so I’ll use that to take the psychologically comforting position that not everything we can imagine exists.
But if that’s the case then why this? Why this universe? Why this amount of suffering? If there’s a no-go zone of experience where is it? I have so many questions and I don’t know where the answers are.