The Conscious Universe

u·ni·verse

ˈyo͞onəˌvərs/

noun

1. all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.

con·scious

ˈkän(t)SHəs/

adjective

1. aware of and responding to one's surroundings; awake.

   synonyms:

   aware, awake, alert, responsive, sentient, compos mentis "the patient was conscious"

   • having knowledge of something; aware.

     "we are conscious of the extent of the problem"

     synonyms:

     aware, mindful, sensible; More

   • painfully aware of; sensitive to.

     "he was very conscious of his appearance"

   
   

Consciousness

We often think of consciousness as something that only animals posess. We enter endless debates about its nature and where it comes from, but seldom do we ever consider the broader implications of its existence. If we are to presume the Big Bang Theory is correct, the consciousness itself arose from a singularity, before which the current laws of physics as we know them could not have existed. 

People generally disagree as to whether everything is pre-determined or if things can happen by chance. Even science has not been able to provide a clear answer on this one, having at some points determined that everything must follow one specific path; at other points it has determined that random occurances can indeed happen. Personally, I am against the notion that things can happen by chance. I am aware that this goes against the grain of prevailing scientific knowledge, yet I remain unconvinced. There is a powerful motivation to believe the future is wide open, as most people cannot handle the idea that all of their endeavors are essentially pointless and their very thoughts determined by nothing more than a domino effect. 

When we look at past history, we see time and again where people have explained the unexplained as having some sort of quality outside of any logical rule system. We create our myths in order to feel comfortable with and make use of the unexplained phenomena. At the very least if we have some sort of myth, we can feel like we can influence the unexplained. It must be magic, or God, or chaos. In math, one must calculate in unknown factors. This can easily be confused for random chance, but it is not so. What it is, is a representation of the amount of things we do not know. To further confuse people, we have quantum mechanics to deal with, which appears to be at least as strange as any magic we have dreamt up in myth and legend. While all of this is very fascinating, having unexplained phenomena that looks totally random does not mean that it actually is random. 

There is an order to the universe. It allows us to make predictions, perform engineering feats, and generally exist. If we accept that everything follows some logical order, then our own existence was inevitable since the domino effect started. 

Pro-Choice

Pro-Choice (Re-Post from July 2011)

Here is a subject most people don't want to debate about.  I call this the silent majority. They have their opinions but don't want to enter the fray. Well, I have my thoughts and would like to share them. Please, hear me out.

To decide first if we are pro-choice or pro-life, we must first have a solid grasp on what it means to take such a position. What are we arguing for and against, and why? Interestingly enough, there are people with identical beliefs that can consider themselves members if either camp, depending only on what they perceive their camp stands for.

What is pro-choice in favor of?  From what I can tell, it's this: A woman should have access to safe and legal abortions whenever she wants for whatever reason she deems fit.

Why is pro-choice in favor of this? I've seen it put this way: A woman has a right to do whatever she wants with her own body and womb.

Using this argument, suicide and unlimited drug use should be supported by those in this camp, as well as many other acts that are currently illegal. While I do believe a person should have the right to their own body, even the majority of people that consider themselves pro-choice don't in fact believe a person should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies, so this argument falls flat on it's face.

What is pro-life in favor of? Abortion should be illegal at all times except perhaps a life is at stake, and an abortion would save it.

Why do pro-lifers believe this? Abortion is murder and life  begins at conception.

Interesting... Using this argument, most babies die. It's sad, horrible, and true. Many die without their mothers ever knowing they existed. They were never named, had no funerals, and were never loved. If they truly believe that life begins at conception, and knew about every time they conceived, many women would be in a constant state if mourning.

So, what do a majority of people really believe? I think this is an ugly truth nobody wants to hear. Most people believe in a woman's right to do what she feels is necessary. It's an ugly thing, necessity. It doesn't indicate freedom of choice, but rather limited choices, the choice between one hell or another. The woman gets to choose between having a bright future, or keeping a child she'd otherwise want. She chooses between the pain of having a child she can't support, or having it torn away from her, often never knowing if the child really had a better life, and if it will hate her for giving it up.  She can choose between having a rapists child and being tormented by knowing there's a person that's just as much him as they are her. Abortion is usually about hard, painful, and limited choices, not freedom. What the woman needs to do is usually given priority, not what she wants to do, for which she is usually chided for as irresponsible. It's time to face the ugly, ugly truth. Most of us implore a woman to do the right thing for herself, and don't support what she really wants and wishes she could do, regardless of our pro-life or pro-choice stance.

What do a majority of us believe? We have a human right to do what we feel is necessary and practical for our survival and well-being. I call it the pro-necessity stance.

When Pigs Fly

According to Wikipedia, The phrase "when pigs fly" is an adynaton. Adynaton (plural adynata) is a figure of speech in the form of hyperbole taken to such extreme lengths as to insinuate a complete impossibility.

The question then becomes, "What is or is not possible?"

It is obvious from the start, that for the phrase "when pigs fly" to have become an adynaton, someone must have thought that this was a completely impossible event. When you look at the facts though, it is clear that in the most literal sense, pigs are flying all the time. Furthermore, due to advances in science and technology, it is not impossible that an actual pig could sprout functional wings in the future. The idea that there will always be barriers in place to such an event is extremely pessimistic and underestimates the endless possibilities that lie ahead of us.

As a skeptical optimist, I believe in possibilities, but have my doubts. I question everything, yet believe that if something is not proven impossible, then it must of course be possible. That leaves open a lot of possibilities! To an outsider, it could look like I trust people easily. In fact, what I do is take a leap of faith. I have an extremely difficult time trusting people, however, I have seen that paranoia can be severely damaging. People can really be surprising sometimes, in both good ways and bad. I have not always gotten what I expected, so I stopped expecting so much and started to just wait and see how things would play out. I often proceed with caution, but try not to be so quick to accuse someone of deceit and ill intent. After all, they could very well be telling the truth! If they are being deceitful, the question then becomes one of motive and intent. If an elaborate explanation to justify accusations of ill intent is necessary.. then I seriously doubt that there could be much truth to the accusation. The simplest answer is still typically the right one. Conspiracy theories are fun for debate, but likely shouldn't be directed towards friends and family.

I think someday I will go to Mars, but in all likelihood, the pigs will fly there first.