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Internet Sacred Text Archive

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Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#101

Post by basil-rash »

int_19h wrote: post #90
basil-rash wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s tautological. We observe the effects, and assume they must propagate backwards under rules we think we know, then say that the theory must be true because we observe the current state is the forward propagation under those same assumed rules. It’s unfalsifiable and accordingly uninteresting.

The reason why we assume the same rules is because 1) we haven't observed anything that implies that they changed, and 2) if we assume that they did change, then any attempt to figure out what really happened is moot anyway. From a religious perspective, there's a take in e.g. some mainstream Islamic madhabs that time is an illusion that is caused by God literally recreating the entire universe moment after moment. H…

We’ve been making detailed observations about a system in a sort of “steady state” for ~100 years and have the hubris to imagine that steadiness carries back 100,000,000 times as long as the observation period, all the way through the start state, into the origin. It boggles the mind.

And yes, any attempt to figure out what happened is moot. As you detail in your second paragraph. I don’t think much of it one way or the other, besides to interject when someone makes any sort of claim that “the science” points to their particular faith’s origin story.

Can you give an example of any of the practical use cases for the Big Bang origin story?

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#102

Post by fuzztester »

rufugee wrote: post #98
fuzztester wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advaita has all-encompassed the chat. ;) See Oppenheimer quote from the Bhagavad Gita after the first atomic bomb test. https://www.google.com/search?q=Oppenheimer+quote+from+the+B... . The Gita is about Advaita. Skip the Wikipedia article about Advaita, it is somewhat crap. Go to deeper sources such as books by well-known people, preferably S. Radhakrishnan, 2nd President of India. (Or at least google a bit more if…

What book of his (or more generally, on Advaita) do you recommend specifically?

I will think and get back to you.

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#103

Post by kromem »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #66
bee_rider wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s just make our own. I’ve always thought we should come up with a new religion around quantum immortality. Some basic thoughts could be: Since you are the only immortal one from your point of view, all of your loved ones will die before you, so don’t worry too much about meddling in their affairs or changing them, just love them unconditionally. Your time with them is brief, so you may as well enjoy it. Make good…

You would probably enjoy Nietzsche's "Eternal recurrence"

Which was in turn strongly informed by the Epicurean version by way of Lucretius.

Both of which really fail to think through the concept in light of their views of continued evolution.

If humanity is but a stepping stone to something greater, then the initial events would predate its emergence but the recurrence would postdate its existence.

So the rejection of divine involvement or role in our existence based on the premise of natural origins is no longer as persuasive in a paradigm where God can end up being the product of continued evolution past the point of humanity (an uber-Übermensch), then preceding the recurrence of past events.

More concretely using modern technical parallels - even if humanity develops from natural origins, our ability to recreate or simulate versions of ourselves from the past in recurring events need not fit the identical constraints of our initial conditions by virtue of our progress from them.

Nietzsche had the right ingredients with the broad concept of the ubermensch and eternal recurrence, but his mixing of them leaves a lot to be desired.

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#104

Post by kromem »

bee_rider wrote: post #63
stonlyb wrote: post #4

I've been curious lately about the existence of any religion, mythology, folklore, etc that capture something closer to the current edges of modern physics and astrology. Basic assumption is that most/all are based on dated observations of seasons, planets, stars, etc -- things that were once mysteries in the mechanical universe. Are there any that touch on quantum weirdness or more recent astrophysics (black holes,…

Let’s just make our own. I’ve always thought we should come up with a new religion around quantum immortality. Some basic thoughts could be: Since you are the only immortal one from your point of view, all of your loved ones will die before you, so don’t worry too much about meddling in their affairs or changing them, just love them unconditionally. Your time with them is brief, so you may as well enjoy it. Make good…

I've been fairly persuaded that quantum mechanics are the side effects of simulating a continuous universe (how ours appears at macro scales).

So even though 99% of the universe models one from 'real' (mathematically) origins, that the digital (mathematically) parts at low fidelity may in fact have an element of intelligent design in them.

One of my favorite things to consider within that paradigm is that light when unobserved can be more than one thing at once, and that in that state two different observers can measure it as different results as long as separated from each other.

So when we think about things like the concept of a god of light or an afterlife or a soul, that the very fact these things are immeasurable may reflect that they don't need to be only one thing. And that given we each would observe the other side to make our own measurements separately from everyone else, that we might each end up observing very different results for everything from the existence or qualities of god(s), the nature of an afterlife, or even continued existence at all.

It's a very freeing theology consideration as there's really too much conflict around the need for confirmation from others of one's own beliefs. Maybe it's better to embrace agreeing to disagree as a foundational premise (and possibly even the entire point of our present existence - a normal and randomly distributed world in which to begin and self-define before a relative next phase).

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#106

Post by _a_a_a_ »

huytersd wrote: post #68
_a_a_a_ wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could buy it, that's what the site's for IIRC.

I guess but it’s $127 for information I can read in its entirety for free already. I’m sure if they had a more nominal price around $10-20 they would get a lot more purchases. After all it’s really an aggregation of existing texts.

> I can read in its entirety for free already

then why consider paying?

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#107

Post by cykros »

rapjr9 wrote: post #15

You can't download an entire work, you can only view HTML pages of chapters. You can indeed read the texts online but the site seems designed to prevent downloading an entire text, try Project Gutenberg or the Internet Archive first if you want a local copy. "Q: Why all the short files? I want to download the entire book in one file! A: Sorry. The short files are for technical reasons which greatly reduce the cost of…

Honestly, this site has been up for at least 20 years. I suspect the breaking into small files made a lot more sense when they first launched than it does now, given the costs of bandwidth.

Because really, when was the last time you heard someone quibble over bandwidth of text or pdf's?

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#108

Post by fuzztester »

fuzztester wrote: post #102
rufugee wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What book of his (or more generally, on Advaita) do you recommend specifically?

I will think and get back to you.

See the Bibliography section at his Wikipedia page that I linked above.

From there:

One is The Bhagavad Gita:

>The Bhagavadgītā: with an introductory essay, Sanskrit text, English translation and notes (1948), 388 pages

Another is The Principal Upanishads, also by him:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Principal_Upanishads

You could also check out another option for the Bhagavad Gita, by Eknath Easwaran. And other related books by him too:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eknath_Easwaran

The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras are all about Vedanta, including Advaita (Vedanta). In fact, they are the three main sources about Vedanta, known as the Prasthanatrayi:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi

Hope this helps.

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#109

Post by cykros »

edgyquant wrote: post #22
stonlyb wrote: post #4

I've been curious lately about the existence of any religion, mythology, folklore, etc that capture something closer to the current edges of modern physics and astrology. Basic assumption is that most/all are based on dated observations of seasons, planets, stars, etc -- things that were once mysteries in the mechanical universe. Are there any that touch on quantum weirdness or more recent astrophysics (black holes,…

>Basic assumption is that most/all are based on dated observations of seasons, planets, stars, etc -- things that were once mysteries in the mechanical universe. I think this is pretty much propaganda from anti-religious people. I have read all of the major religious texts over the last two years and If you look at most religions and their scriptures they deal very little with the physical world in general and are mo…

Considering that the Big Bang theory came from a Catholic monk (who wasn't even burnt at the stake for theorizing about it!) I'd say you're probably right there.

Sometimes folks are quick to paint religious people with the brush of the most radical of fundamentalists. Which is sort of ironic when you think about the statistics of how many actual religious people believe such nonsense as "the world is 6000 years old" and "woman was formed from the rib of a man, literally."

You'd think science minded people would have a bit more regard for statistics.

Re: Internet Sacred Text Archive

#110

Post by lifeline82 »

krapp wrote: post #99
lifeline82 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buddhism is derivated from Christian heresy called Manicheism. Created and spread in Asia from Pakistan by third generation after apostle, called Mani. There isn’t any evidence of any existing trace of Buddhism before 4th century AC, most Buddhism art are based on grec, and Syrian Christian artists who followed St Thomas the apostle into the east. Mani predated those early Christian with his fake teaching which found…

The sources I've read say that Manicheism was a syncretism of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism[0], rather than Buddhism being derived from it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Buddha_in_Manichaeism

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