Gods, Consciousness and Free Will...

First, I'd like to say that it is refreshing having someone to talk to about this that isn't a religious believer. I am surprised at just how many people these days still take Christianity/Islam seriously, though polls do show that the number of non-believers are slowly starting to grow.

Now to break it down...

I have quite a different view of reality than most. I believe we are all essentially "god," experiencing itself an infinite number of times in an infinite number of realities forever.

I used to think in a very similar vein... I used to think of us, that is, consciousness, as manifestations of "god" ... Multiple facets of a single complex diamond, experiencing ourselves... A kind of pantheism (god is everything... The matter of the universe being god's body and consciousness, wherever it may be in the universe, as god's mind).

Now, however, I feel that this way of thinking of a god is just... superfluous. What does it actually mean to say "we are god, experiencing itself in an infinite number of ways..."...? (There are those, in fact, that say that actually, the term 'god' is completely meaningless. Google "theological non-cognitivism" and also "ignosticism").

It's much more efficient to simply remove the term 'god' altogether and just think about the universe and consciousness themselves. A kind of collective consciousness might exist, but there is no evidence whatsoever of this.

Coming down to the smaller scale of only human consciousness, I do fantasise of a future where we as a species might indeed develop, through technological means, a way of becoming a kind of collective consciousness, where our minds are all connected to each other through something like what our internet is today (Elon Musk's company "Neuralink" might very well be the seed for this very future). But what such a thing would feel like and what it would mean for our future is anyone's guess.

I question the notion of free will for more of a deterministic chaotic reality. I truly believe if I was you, with your exact genetics, experiences and geographical location, I'd do essentially every single thing you have done. This doesn't justify immoral actions, however.

I agree 100% as far as how much I've studied on the subject of free will, which unfortunately isn't much. I've been meaning to read Daniel Dennett's and Sam Harris's work on the subject for some time. But my very rough idea of things when I think about it as an amateur, is that free will most likely doesn't exist.

I think we as humans, with our limited senses with which we perceive the reality we've found ourselves in, have the illusion of free will, because for us, time seems linear. We remember, so there's a "past", and we dream and anticipate, so there is a "future", but really, there is only now. The present.

Time is nothing but the relation between changes in the present, relative to where we are. A "day" feels like a certain amount of time for us, whereas to a butterfly, a day feels much, much longer. And to some other hypothetical being, a million years might "feel like" a day.

Though now that I read that, I'm not sure how the relativity of time supports the idea of free will being an illusion... ;P I must do more reading on this! ... It's lunch time here. I'll continue soon. (And for you, it will of course be instant! ;P)

I also don't believe that there is an omnipotent being that knows the results of all actions. If there is some type of intelligent creator (I feel like believing in the presence is just as assuming as believing in the absence of such a being, therefore I tend towards the agnostic side of things), it would probably be more like a scientific researcher, testing out literally every variable possible throughout all realities.

I agree with the first sentence, but I disagree completely with the notion that not-believing in a god of some sort is just as good as believing in one. I used to think this, and thus called myself agnostic for many years, but then I realised...: Burden of Proof. I wrote about this in this post a few weeks ago.

Basically, it is the responsibility of the one claiming something to show that it is true. Not the other way around. I don't have to prove that there isn't a god. There's no evidence to suggest that such a being exists. If you believe it, it's up to you to defend your belief, especially if you want others to adopt the same belief. Why would (and should) I or anyone believe something without evidence??

Then there's the possibility this whole thing is a simulation, so......... Who knows brother! lol

=) - Who knows, indeed! ^^ To me, this is the best attitude. To be aware of one's uncertainty. As I get older, I fear getting fixed in my paradigms, as I've seen happen with many people, so I'm trying to be aware of this, always questioning myself any time I feel myself too sure about something.

With the simulation theory... Again, it could very well be! But just like god, it might just be an unfalsifiable concept (that is, there is no way to test it) and therefore not worth being taken seriously. Still, it's fun to muse upon the idea! And Elon Musk reckons it is very, very likely that we are in a simulation.

Even if we are living in one... Even if we ourselves are simulated... So what? If I'm this complex as a simulation, I count as real, no matter how I've come to exist ;P