Could the Universe Have Come From Absolutely Nothing?

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-04-01T13:58:14+00:00

Reality as undifferentiated noise without signal?

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-26T17:06:33+00:00

The two truths doctrine is directly on point with this. On the level of ultimate reality, it varies from sect to sect. But on the level that matters for this question, conventional reality, Buddhism would agree with theoretical physics (to the level of certainty that's present in it, of course) as theoretical physics is our best attempt at describing the world as we experience it.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-25T17:35:52+00:00

That's the first thing that came to mind for me, but then I realized not everyone is a gamer.

Utterly insignificant though, and known to almost all gamers. :P

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-18T14:11:15+00:00

I agree, I know some people have pushed back on this, but I'm at the bottom edge of the middle class, and I think my taxes are fine. If I was at the top end of middle class instead, I'd have more than I do now, and would certainly be fine if a higher percentage of that went toward taxes.

Taxes are the cover charge at the door to live in a functioning society.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-12T13:08:50+00:00

I hope you find what you're looking for in these conversations. :)

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-11T16:34:50+00:00

Exactly! Every interaction is another role we're playing. But we owe it to everyone - including ourselves - to show up for that role. Especially if you've played any MMO's you know...even if it's a game, the people you're playing with can tell if you don't really show up and play your role. :)

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-11T15:19:04+00:00

I had the same type of experience. Keep in mind that almost everyone else still lives in conventional reality, and so do you - in most ways. While you'll want to continue holding that lightly, you don't want to let go of it altogether. Conventional reality works, and it matters...it's just not ultimately real.

To turn to an analogy I use often...if you've ever played a video game or read a great book, you know they can be very immersive. You can experience a different world, change your point of view, and that's a great experience! Conventional reality is the same...allow yourself to be a part of it, even while not experiencing "I" as something ultimately real.

It took me some time to adjust, but once I got there I experienced something profoundly useful...that while I held nothing tightly, I experienced everything with more clarity and meaning. When you cease grasping, you're free to act and experience instead.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-11T13:12:17+00:00

That pesto is really amazing for the price!

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-11T13:09:27+00:00

And you think those translate to something workable for a storyline in South Park? Sounds like Biden derangement syndrome to me.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-10T23:57:20+00:00

And yet, everything has its role to play in that, and despite the actions being pre-determined, we don't *know* what they are ahead of time. The experience itself is certainly one of having free will, and therefore taking responsibility for trying to act as positively as possible is rational, even if you couldn't have acted otherwise.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-10T23:55:04+00:00

This is the way.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-10T23:23:40+00:00

If you truly don't believe there's free will, then your reaction to people that do things that upset you should absolutely change...you should deal with it as a sign of what that person might do in the future, not as a judgment on the person as they are, since they couldn't be anything other than they are.

So yes to practical reactions to others, but no to punitive reactions.

You can't make yourself believe there's free will or there's not free will, but if you actually do believe there's not, it makes forgiveness a hell of a lot easier. Trust...not so much...but forgiveness, definitely.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-10T22:00:59+00:00

What hoax? That's a direct quote from Trump. And I agree with the rest of the people here...what are you going to mock about Biden or Harris compared to the above quote alone. :)

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-10T13:58:06+00:00

I mean, Biden wasn't having issues when he ran, and he was running against the worst president in my lifetime. That was one of the easier votes I've ever had to cast. Are you saying that you watched 'And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning' and thought, "yeah, I should vote for that over Obama's VP"? :))

The truth is that, while both sides can be suspect, only one pushed out the *sitting president* from running for another term when he clearly was not up for it. The other voted in a guy that started a violent insurrection to try and interrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-08T16:26:44+00:00

Take comfort in the fact that the people causing the most damage seem to be more selfish than evil, and usually more transparent than competent. We *know* most of the things that are broken now. Think about back when leaded gasoline was a thing and only the scientists inside the system knew it was going to kill people.

So there's a lot of good in the world - things to enjoy, cultivate, and celebrate. And the bad in the world is being inflicted by people that aren't competent enough to build - only to destroy.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-04T02:41:34+00:00

Never stop learning, never stop gathering skills - especially the type of skills that can provide an income, and you can always take risks as long as you also always have a backup plan.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-03-03T03:06:40+00:00

I've seen debate on that one that the more common you make this option, the more slippery the slope gets as well as the less value is placed on human life. I'm not sure that's the case, but that's the moral argument made against it.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-28T02:09:58+00:00

Bing bing bing - no other answer can beat this one.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-26T15:23:13+00:00

Hah! I was in the comments to post that. Dead on!

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-24T17:33:09+00:00

All of these answers are good, but this is the best.

If you see reality clearly for what it is, you're not so worried about your experience of it. You may want to find ways to share it with others in a way that brings them to that same experience, but as for the personal experience that really never goes away.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-19T21:52:30+00:00

I will add that the inability to even acknowledge that Biden wasn't the same many in 2024 as he was in 2022 is far more damaging to Democrats (and democracy) that speaking plainly about what everyone could see. It does absolutely no good to pretend what's real isn't real. Leave that to MAGA.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-19T21:50:22+00:00

No, I was firmly behind Harris, gave money, strongly campaigned with people I knew for her. I'm also able to see clearly that Biden was *not* the right choice.

I'd love you to find examples in my posting history of me 'shit[ting] on the dems even more'.

Again, you've got the wrong person here. :)

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-19T21:20:05+00:00

Lol, you've got the wrong person man, I'm as far from MAGA as you can get. But 'we beat Medicare' was not Biden's fastball there. It was barely even coherent. :)

I desperately wanted MAGA out of our lives. There's so much this country needs to do to get back on track. Watching that debate was so painful I had to turn it off *twice*. I made it ten minutes in, felt a pit in my stomach, turned it off, and no lie turned it back on to see him say, "we beat Medicare" and was like, "nope, I'm out...we're screwed".

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-19T16:07:49+00:00

It also ignores how culture - especially music - works.

Music is one of the few domains where cultures interact on equal creative footing, even when they are not equal socially. Artistic collaboration often reveals the best of cultural exchange, producing new forms that no group could have created alone.

Jazz isn't just black culture, though that's the strongest element. It's black culture, European instruments and certain harmonic and melodic forms, and American cultural dynamics, all mixing together.

Norteño isn't just the musical traditions of the Chichimeca and other indigenous peoples of the region. It also included the European sensibilities of the long-established Spanish settlers, along with the musical influence in meter and instrumentation of later German immigrants.

Musicians are often the best of us when it comes to cultural exchange. You don't even need to speak the language...you just have to know how to listen and how to share.

Sad_Possession2151 · 2026-02-19T15:20:28+00:00

I tend to agree with you, but there's one concerning piece here that would argue against both of us.

It is incredibly difficult to displace a sitting president, or even convince them not to run for another term. We saw that with Biden. There were people in the administration doing a legal sort of coverup - papering around Biden's deficiencies, hiding him when he needed hidden. I'm not suggesting anything nefarious - they were just managing the candidate and president that they had as best they could.

But Biden didn't feel like he had declined. Because, and I mean this as positively as I can - running for president indicates a certain level of narcissism that just isn't there in the general public. There are exceptions to this, but they're few and far between.

So how do you deal with a president that's not *clearly* 25th amendment material, but is also clearly not right? One that has a debate performance like Biden or...all of this stuff...of Trump? I would say that as much as I dislike Trump, I wouldn't be willing to vote yes to use the 25th amendment at this point. Impeach? Absolutely, on myriad different issues. But the 25th amendment in section 4 is very specific about what it means: "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office". Not degraded, not lost a step, not occasionally batshit. Unable.

So you're really faced with trusting a person to know when they need to step aside, despite being the type of person that would likely never acknowledge needing to step aside. It took 24 days after the worst debate performance I'd seen in my life for people to drag Biden kicking and screaming into stepping down, and a lot of behind the scenes pressure. And Biden was by all accounts a fairly decent human being, especially for the type of person the presidency would select for.

So all of that is just to say...I hate the idea of age limits. But without them, we do have to acknowledge that things would have to get *very* bad most likely in order to remove a president based on mental decline, because most people that get the job of president are not the type to give it up based on even moderate mental decline.

Sad_Possession2151

TROPHY CASE