I've said nothing that is not true. Like Douglas Adam's puddle analogy, I am just a part of all that is. I came from the universe and I return to the universe. This makes no assertion that the universe is alive or it is my god or anything like that. Like everything else I am a process and not a thing. Every part of my being came from the universe and to the universe returns. I do not consider this view spiritual at all but simply factual.
I was not created and put into the universe, but rather, I came from it. Is this not an appropriate atheist view of the world around us? Your thoughts?
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carbon, oxygen, iron, nitrogen etc, were created from stars.
every atom in your body comes from stars that have gone supernova.
so yes, you are right.
In the words of NDT:
https://youtu.be/9D05ej8u-gU
You are the universe? Huh? You are IN the universe. You are NOT the universe
MCD is right, you're part of the universe, you're in the universe, you're not IT itself. It sounds a bit egomaniac in fact. No offense intented, @Cognostic
And you're right about the universe not being a concious entinty or alive by any means.
'It sounds a bit egomaniac in fact.'
I disagree, in fact it is quite the opposite.The fact that we are made up of the same stuff everything else in the universe is made up of, is quite humbling.It just goes to demonstrate that we are not in any way special.And also if you are in the universe ,you are also a part of it.
"We = the Universe" could sound poetic, but it's simply not true. I guess this could be considered a false equivalence, as for me "to be the Universe" means to be the proper Universe itself, by taking a part as the whole. We are composed by elements which are found in the stars, an it's an amazing thought, but that doesn't mean "we are the stars" either, and @Mohammad Ali, I agree it's humbling to know we are stardust, and part of our universe, but again, that's not remotely the same as being the proper Universe. And which universe btw? Just ours?
The day we, human beings, become extinct, the Universe will still stand. This one and others that may exist.
MDT SAID: You are the universe? Huh? You are IN the universe. You are NOT the universe.
This is the mistake most people make. Every atom in your body came from the stars. The chemicals in your body are distributed just as they are in the universe. You are not a thing but a process. A living process. You are a part of all that is. You came from the universe and you have never left it. It is an illusion to imagine yourself separate from all that is. This is not mystical or spiritual. It is a verifiable and valid observation. You were not put into the universe. You grew from it.
If we imagine the universe as a giant fruit cake, but with clusters of elements instead of candied raisins, I am simply a single raisin or cranberry, just like any other human, or individual item. We're all fruitcake. Cheers, motherfuckers.
Just as a wave is not in the ocean. A wave is part of the ocean. We are not a result of the universe, we are part of the process. I get ya!
To quote Lawrence Krauss... Forget Jesus, the Stars died, so you could be here today :)
Kraus's quote is a great quote. What is most amazing about "us" is that we are a process and not a thing. Like fire we need fuel (things) to exist and then we burn out. We are a process like all that is and divisions (the stuff that makes us up and makes up the universe) are only necessary delusions. Ways that we make sense of being. If divisions are chosen wisely they influence all that we think ourselves to be and we influence them. Chosen unwisely and we are their slaves. A dance between energy and mass that eventually transforms and then transforms again and even that will change.
This silly rant is over for me now. Back to being.
It is not absolutely amazing where atheist thought can run? How do we understand ourselves and the universe from which we grew? Will atheism not lead us to something different? To new ways of thinking?
As an atheist who attempts to follow the truth, that statement "I am the universe" is technically false. Of all non-faith groups, atheists attempt to put out a clear message. We spend hours attempting to make others understand that we do not deny, we just do not believe. So to throw out such a bold and inaccurate assertion actually hurts the atheist cause.
David Killens: Explain false. You are a part of the universe. Every atom in your body came from the stars. You are energy in motion. Where is the bold, inaccurate assertion? All you have done is make a bold inaccurate assertion. How do you think you are separate from all that is? What makes you think you are special? Please explain your assertion. Mine, frankly appears self evident. Even the chemicals that make up your body are shared in the same quantities as those of the universe. How are you not the universe? How are you not dynamically connected to and a part of everything around you? More than that? What is it about you that you think belongs to you or that you somehow have mastery over. You are just a process of the universe. You are it. A droplet of water that finds itself on a leaf for a moment but that will soon fall back into the river. While you imagine you have left the water cycle for that brief period of life, you were always part of it and leaving it is only imagination.
I am part of the universe, I am not the universe.
Arbitrary distinction. The same laws of physics apply regardless. It's all the same process. It's like a drop of water randomly pulled from the ocean and then claiming, I am not the ocean.
What is the difference between a songbird singing in a cage and one singing on the branch of a tree?
(The Size of the Cage).
Yes, you are also a part of the universe --- and so much more....