Buddhist bedfellows

[StevieWonders]

From time to time a “religious” discussion erupts on the Forum about Buddhism. Some members claim to “be” Buddhists, others that Buddhism isn’t a religion at all.

I wonder how many of those who claim to be Buddhist have considered one of Buddhism’s central tenets - that speculation about reality (including the existence of anything including God) is pointless.

The most famous Buddhist philosopher along these lines is Nagarjuna. In his writings he said “All experienced phenomena are empty. This does not mean that they are not experienced and, therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent and eternal substance because, like a dream, they are mere projections of human consciousness”. It’s a not dissimilar thought to those expressed in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes, most famously “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”. “Projections of human consciousness” are what gives religion (and conspiracy theories - often bedfellows) its illusory substance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagarjuna

[cdnmatt]

What happens when the act of observing our reality creates our reality?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCGg543DZNQ

[StevieWonders]

Have you ever considered how much a product of random events you are? Your parents met (random event). When you were conceived (random event) a single sperm from the thousands your father’s testes produced at the particular time (random events) fertilised the one egg your mother’s ovaries released at that time (random event). And that set of random events occurred recursively in your family tree over hundreds of thousands of years.

[cdnmatt]

Have you ever considered how much a product of random events you are?

Not really, but I do find myself wondering whether or not we're a simulation fairly often. The way it was broken down to me is basically there's three possibilities:

1.) All life in the universe goes extinct for one reason or another before their technology advances to the point of being able to create full universe sized simulations.

2.) Our AI, computers and technology will eventually advance to the point we will be able to conduct full universe sized simulations, at which point we'll do just that. Setup thousands of universe simulations, and tweak some variables here and there so we can watch what happens, and better understand how to progress our civilization further.

3.) We're already in a simulation.

Goes back to the Fermi paradox of, if the universe is absolutely teeming with billions of stars and exo planets, then where is everyone? Maybe it's by design.

[StevieWonders]

Not really, but I do find myself wondering whether or not we're a simulation fairly often.

It’s much less threatening to focus on speculation than reality so I’m not surprised that is your attitude.

[cdnmatt]

It’s much less threatening to focus on speculation than reality so I’m not surprised that is your attitude.

Sorry my previous message was too intellectual for you.

[latintopxxx]

...ive got a headache now...

[gerefan2]

. When you were conceived (random event) a single sperm from the thousands your father’s testes produced at the particular time .

That being so, can you please explain how on earth you managed it??

[StevieWonders]

That being so, can you please explain how on earth you managed it??

I think you’ll find cdnmatt fancies himself as the intellectual here (I’m still laughing).