Whenever I hear a person say that they don't believe in god, I wonder what they imagine god to be. It may be that there is nothing there and that is why they don't believe. But that is precisely what god is: no thing. Now, I don't mean to say that since god is nothing that it is meaningless... quite the contrary, no-thing is god in the fullness of understanding that from nothingness all things arise. I do equate nothingness with void here... the great void that encompasses the totality of being, of consciousness, pure consciousness that understands nothing as the alpha/omega... the beginning/end, not that nothing ever had a beginning or will have an ending, but the word 'beginning' may be used as a 'point' in the approach to understanding. The point being that even though nothingness has no beginning, to understand that with our human concepts, we must necessarily have a start..a beginning of discourse.
'Beginnings' are symbolic of our own point of understanding that which has always been. We begin with a premise just as we began from a seed. That doesn't mean that the seed is the beginning of life, for life has alway been, but it does mean that we, ourself, had a beginning... this form that has manifested itself from a predescribed genetic code that is inherent to all life forms.
So we, as all life forms, begin from the fertilization of a seed. This 'matter life' is but an evolution of an atomic structure mapped thru genetics. Now we are faced with 'from where did the atoms arise?'
Science has yet to 'see' beyond the nucleus-proton-neutron-type of movement, but even these things had to arise out of nothingness, perhaps not directly, but whatever we may end up calling that which was the seed for atomic structure, had to have had 'beginning' - scientifically speaking. Science (and any other belief system) begs for beginnings... beginnings are important for mankind and our philosophies. We ponder the infinite, we ponder the eternal, but to 'prove' these things ('things' is an inappropriate word, but again we are stuck with making something out of nothing) we start with a beginning in order to define that which has no beginning, and we conclude with an ending that which has no ending, thereby invalidating that which we can only ponder as eternal (that which has no beginning or ending).
We ponder the infinite but fall short of communicating that which 'never-ceases' by ending the communicating of such ponderings because we must have both a starting point and a conclusion.
How else can we communicate these things - the eternal and the infinite? We start with 'something' drawn out of the nothingness, just as our physicality had a 'beginning' and will reach an ending (conclusion), but we know thru observing that 'nothing' never ends, because 'nothing' ever began. But by my writing it sounds as though 'nothing' is all there really is... afterall, if we can 'conclude' that "nothing ever began" what is this 'matter-life' that contains our conscience?
Does life 'matter'? Seemingly so. We have the ability to measure that which both we are, physically, and that which we live within thru the three dimensionality of our limited ability to transgress beyond. So we say that yes, life matters, even though we can also conclude that 'nothing ever began'.
These mental masturbations (exhaustions?) may stretch our imaginations into realms that we have never been engaged with, and yet they may also cause a feeling of inferiority for our struggling egos - "if I am nothing, what is the use to do anything?"
This is the crossroads of the mind/no-mind that we may attain. All this bantering thru 'beginnings and endings' truly does not exist. Infinity is our minds way of continual measuring that which never ceases..."maybe it will eventually end." We suppose that if we can "stay on the trail, the end will soon be 'there'."
Our mind, being of our physicality, necessitates beginnings and endings, just as our bodies had a beginning and will reach an ending. But even scientifically, the body-matter never ends but just continues on thru a recycling process. We humans in some cultures try to stop the body from recycling by entombment or crypts. Mummifiying is another technique. But what really happens with any of these methodolgies? Man returns to these places and opens the tombs, the crypts.. man unwraps the mummified body and eventually the body again returns to the recycling process.
There is nothing new under the sun, it has been said for generations. Our body is fed/fueled by food that's been grown from soil, made by stardust and decayed remains of life, that has consumed earth's life forms for millenium. Life forms drink water that has been of the earth for millenium. There is no new soil, but newly regenerated soil. There is no new water, just newly 'rained' water or freshly melted ice.
The only new thing is the birth of a life form at a time unique to that life form by placement of birth, and the location of the planets in our solar neighborhood. Those and those alone, are what distinguish any life form from another of the same species. This accounts for our individuality apart from our gentic code, which is basically unchanging, i.e., limited by the very fact that the chromosomes are not anything more than chromosomes.
Where does this bring us?
God is no-thing.
Nothing births everything.
Every thing is matter.
Matter is limited.
Infinite never ceases.
Eternal never began.
Life is unique thru placement and timing of birth.
Birth is not a beginning but a continuation.
Death is not an ending but a conclusion to a life form.
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mtmynd1
Understanding nothing and more
Re: Understanding nothing and more
Great OP ..thanks for being here.