Philosophical Speculations

First, I would say the adjectives "problematic" and the comparison with "political dictatorship" are inherently exclusionary, at least excluding those ways from serious consideration. No, they are not, it's only your interpretation. All that a non-exclusivist says is: "I ha...

I have always found this sentiment rather Self-defeating, pun intended. Are you not proposing an exclusive way when claiming all 'exclusive' ways are "problematic" (which I take to be another way of saying, "wrong")? Clearly you are correct that many within the Western religious...

... This is one of the most exciting topics for me - time - because there converge all the different mysteries that face us. It should be noted that the fractal picture of time is not without its merits. It doesn't reflect the full reality. For one, it presents an overly simplified tree-like hierar...

This is not our purpose - its theirs, but they conduct it in such a way that they can create a world for other beings (like us) to experience their evolution of consciousness in time. ... The gods won't change their plans because of us - it is we that should adapt to theirs. ... In this way it's po...

Cleric, good insights, thanks. Having practiced both mystical Christianity and Buddhism, IMO, they are both lacking in certain aspects, yet, they both were important steps in the development of human consciousness. You are right that Buddhism lacks the appreciation of the reality of forms and the in...

My take on this is that there is a "reality" and "truth", but as opposed to the traditional realists views, as well as anti-realist views: - The conscious experience (experiencing) itself is absolutely real, which means that there is definitely a reality of some sort. - Such real...

Interesting discussion addressing facets of realism vs anti-realism dichotomy other than purely metaphysical or ontological ones The death of realism In defense of realism Post-realism Post-realism offers a solution to a highly dangerous world of competing perspectives where everyone supposes that t...

For All, I believe the recently posted Essentia Foundation discussion with Donald Hoffman offers a great deal of scientific elaboration to my intuition that mutuality/altruism is not an evolved higher-level moral state of consciousness but, rather, it is something that has played an important survi...

I think that there would be difference between the two only if we accept time as being something fundamental . But if we assume that time is an effect of gradual implosion of states of being then we should also assume that all possible states already exist simultaneously. In that case time emerges ...

Eugene, I tend toward agreement with you about creativity as the sacred purpose of an earthly incarnation. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Creativity is both constructive and destructive and the incarnate being must learn to self-limit as well as to self-reveal. Yeah (I know) this ...