The Inevitable and Eternal Now
(Top Posts - Philosophy (General) - 032701)

'Tis some stimuli for you, here. How you respond to it will be
based on an incalculably vast array of stimuli you have been
exposed to 'til now, in addition to succeeding stimuli you will
be exposed to in future nows. Such is the nature of the manner
in which we reduce an unfathomably vast array of stimuli to an
illusion of "choice" regarding the past/present/future, which is
really nothing more than an inevitable result of all that has taken
place in the eternal now.

Speaking of "choice", when is an activity a "choice" and when
is it part of an inevitable flow? Consider this, get a watch or a
time piece which displays seconds, and for one minute, try to
sit in your chair and do what you would call nothing. I'll wait ...

...

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OK, now think about what just transpired and ponder the
concept of reductionism. Between the time I made the sug-
gestion, and now, how many seconds have passed? How
many "choices" were made?

In other words, isn't our assignment of choice a mere after
the fact designation for an inevitable event, one of innumer-
able events based on how small you wish to time-splice the
decision tree, a characterization for a single point in time that
is only significant by virtue of our having assigned it a deci-
sion-point?

Put another way, once you recognize the inevitable nature
of now, the fact that we're all stimuli-response entities and
nothing we do is magically apart from our incalculably vast
stimuli, absolutely nothing, once you recognize the eternal
nature of now, the fact we all live in the now, always, all the
time, all our experiences, all our activity, a constant eternal
now, you cannot - it's impossible to legitimize the concepts
of power/control/choice/responsibility/guilt in the manner
society is accustomed to.

We are trapped, prisoners of now, always living in the now.
Every now is an inevitable consequence of all stimuli which
has transpired before that now. No past now can be changed.
No future now exists, yet. We're always enveloped in - sur-
rounded by - engulfed in the now, and every single now is
but a continuation, a flow, a progression, from every previous
now ...

Now is a solid single immovable fixed inalterable inevitable
constant oneness. It's eternal. It's always here. You're, we're,
to the extent we exist, always in it. At no point in time can
anyone step outside of now. We're frozen in the now and in
the now is a constancy of connection to/from previous nows.

Now is always here, but once we look at it and think about it,
all we're doing is pondering a past now for now never sits still
and is yet forever. An ultimate paradox and ...

Within that paradox we've wrapped the illusion of power/control/
guilt/responsibility/choice such that we've eliminated almost all
the vast stimuli, the vast previous nows, and chosen to pick
pieces of that vast picture and elevate them to something far
removed from the actual nature of existence.

Power/control/guilt/responsibility/choice are denials of the actual
nature of how events occur. They are denials of our connected-
ness/common thread of existence/helplessness in the eternal now.

We are, we always have been, we always will be, on an absolute
level, a result of an incalculably vast array of stimuli and no
thought, no deed, no act, no now exists apart from or as a result
of anything apart from *all* previous nows, always.

Paradoxical and whether or not you consider it as empowering
or enslaving, it is a reflection of the actual nature of being which
should at the very least bring you to reconsider/re-evaluate the
overwhelmingly erroneous oversimplified manner in which
humankind has, to date, treated the enormously complex array
of stimuli which results in any event as something far apart from
what it really is.

Is religion of help in determining the actual nature of the eternal
now?

Many of us have dropped religion due to its inadequacy/illogic
in our particular universe. Some of us refuse to state there is no
out there out there. I propose that if there is any out there out
there that it's natural and our universe/state is a part of an entirely
naturalistic existence.

Religions propose that there are all sorts of magic beings and
domains behaving in all sorts of supernaturalistic ways, inter-
acting with naturalism/our universe with rules somehow/some-
times ... maybe ... well (see particular religion for spin control,
most of which defy logic, all of which are absent evidence,
and all of which reserve a unique and special place for human
beings based on simplistic self-centered concepts mating to
ancient views of unknowns and superstition) ...

Some have proposed a quantum random factor is involved in
"free will" but I just don't see how something random apart
from the flow, something totally outside our control in any way,
how that can impart anything but less control, not more.

Perhaps the theory is based on "blank slate" = "control",
trying to assign non-stimuli activity on our parts by virtue of
parts of the brain being "cleaned" via quantum random acts
and our actions, thereafter, controlled by sheer godlike human
will/purpose/intent divorced from any precedent/stimuli.

Sure, it would add an element not dependent on prior events,
but still, a random event adding control? I've yet to compre-
hend that 'cause after all, the brain matter used to invoke acts
would be point-in-fact genetically-derived and thereby would
be outside one's control it would seem, and I've yet to run
across an evidentiary tie-in theory whereby "free will" advo-
cates have detailed how a random event would impart free
will (based on godlike non-stimuli choice/control) in the
macro world.

Any insight anyone has on that would be deeply appreciated.

Here's a post I made quite awhile back (updated recently)
on my understanding of the quantum world and my lack of
comprehension regarding how that world would impart "free
will" to the macro world, as some have postulated:
http://prohuman.net/science/quantum.htm

Some have suggested a non-closed universe is at play in the
"free will" equation. I don't see that as a factor, as it's not
really a closed/non-closed issue, it's a what/how issue.

I just reached up and scratched an itch just inside my right
ear, just now. Didn't really have to think about it much and
whatever words I wrap around that action don't change the
fact that it was a stimuli-response activity, one undertaken
by a wide range of animals on the planet at times the itch
stimuli is provided, simply based on stimuli and responding
to it in a natural way.

This post, right here, right now, same deal, only it takes some
thought to construct it. My life genes/memes/life experiences
have provided stimuli and this post is a result of all of that,
not a godlike creation apart from all of that.

We err when we call a result (which really is a naturalistic and
inevitable part of the flow) a choice as if it's somehow godlike
outside the flow.

I could not be typing these words, using these funny shapes
we call letters, putting them together in all sorts of ways we
call words and grammar, had I not been taught how to do
so, provided stimuli which was, in fact, a result of efforts
by a vast number of stimuli/beings over __________ (pick
a time here, as it's difficult to arrive at an endpoint to the
stimuli process which resulted in this aggregation of shapes
and forms).

In truth, then, what we would call a choice, my scratching my
ear or writing this post, is in fact a result of an enormous array
of stimuli factors. You see how we've been taught to divorce
ourselves from what's really going on in order to pretend some-
thing magical, only in the now, is happening when that is so far
from the truth as to be nothing more than a mass illusion that
we engage in repeatedly thru each day of our lives?

Furthermore, based on that illusion, we assign an inordinate
level of guilt/responsibility on each of us as if we're godlike
entities who must, alone, bear total burden for any activity
our aggregate of atoms commits at any inevitable point in the
flow.

Truth is, whatever happens is inevitable when looked at after
the fact, and can only be prevented in the future via stimuli
before a future event occurs. In essence, whatever any of us
results in is caused by our genes/memes/life experiences and
whoever/whatever resulted in that is, in truth, the complex vast
cause of that act.

Since there is no godlike act by anyone, there is no way to justly
single out anyone for glory/gain or harm/rebuke and our entire
system of living on this planet, at this time, in this life is a mere
farce, a make believe aggregation of stimuli-response activities
which discards the truth of the inevitable and eternal now as if
it's just too difficult to deal with life from the standpoint of verity,
so pretend and make believe and treating pretension as reality,
that's the manner most live out our one and only *sure* chance
at it, surrounded by systems of lies/deceit/denial of the enor-
mously complex way things really are.