143 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
143 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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An Alternative Heaven (and/or Hell)
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-----------------------------------
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It's been awhile since I've read an issue of F.U.C.K., but today I
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took a little time to peruse a few issues and found something I'd like to
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react to. Atheist writers aren't uncommon in F.U.C.K., and as a whole,
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they tend to have a very specific position on "the afterlife." That
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position is mainly "it doesn't exist." I agree very much so with this
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position, but for a different reason.
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The common atheistic standpoint on the afterlife is either "when
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you die, nothing happens at all," or "I don't know what happens when you
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die, so I won't say anything to begin with." The much understood and
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misinterpreted philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had a very interesting
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position on the "afterlife," one which is often ignored, even when he is
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the subject of discussion. His position was that there was no afterlife,
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and in fact, there was no beginning, no end, no "becoming," just everything
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in between, forever. He called it "the eternal recurrence," and few
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actually understand what it means, or give a fuck about the idea to begin
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with.
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But the implications of eternal recurrence are endless. If true,
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it would mean that there is no end to life, that at death, the same life is
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lived again. This would mean that every mistake one makes will be made
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again, every bad memory one has will be experienced again. All that sucks
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will suck forever.
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Of course there are positive implications as well. Every mother
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(who cares) gets to see her kid grow up again and again and again, every
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"first time" is experienced again and again and again. You get the point.
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I would guess that one of the reasons eternal recurrence is rarely
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(if ever) seriously considered is because it doesn't [offhand] make sense
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to a lot of people. Without really thinking about it, few people could
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see why and for what reasons the Universe would be stuck in an endless
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loop with no "hope" of escaping.
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But explaining how eternal recurrence "could be true" only requires
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two basic assumptions:
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1.The Universe repeats itself, or, "the universe exists forever, but does
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not expand forever."
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2.Randomness does not truly exist, all things are motivated by other
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things, and nothing is ever arbitrarily guided.
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Assumption #1 is basically the backbone of astrophysical/cosmological
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debate as of now. No one really can tell whether or not there is enough
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mass within the universe for it to collapse on itself. Right now the
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consensus seems to be shifting towards a Universe that expands
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indefinitely, that simply dies a pathetic "heat death" and is done with.
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But Nietzsche had a different opinion. In fact, in "The Will to Power",
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Nietzsche becomes a physicist and declares "The law of the conservation of
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energy demands eternal recurrence." In other words, heat death "cannot
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happen," for it would imply a halting of motion, and motion is energy, and
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energy cannot be destroyed. In fact, one might be able to justify a
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repeating Universe with OR without enough mass to "suck it back in," simply
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because of the laws of thermodynamics. If the universe were to truly
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expand "forever," for "infinite time," then it would HAVE to reach a point
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of infinite expansion, of zero energy. This point is a contradiction in
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itself, and so what do you have instead? Everything in between, again, and
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again, and again.
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As of now entropy tends to favor the expansion of the Universe, and we
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mistakenly confuse it with time. Entropy is what kills us; time is simply
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"a dimension in which things exist." (Including entropy) But who's to say
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that entropy can just as easily be reversed when the Universe approaches
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its "heat death," that the entire process simply reverts backwards and all
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of our lives are lived in a completely reversed motion, with us unaware the
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entire time? It would be completely natural, and completely fine. Any
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physical or chemical equation can be reversed, so why can't you? The
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playing field just happens to favor expansion right now, but looking at it
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from the other perspective, there doesn't seem to be a reason that it
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couldn't favor compression, either.
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Point #2, that "randomness does not exist," is rather hard to discuss
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in detail. One can't prove the existence or lack thereof of randomness.
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I've "learned" in Chemistry that "electrons move randomly" because of the
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Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, but what the hell does that mean? Do
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they truly move randomly because WE CAN'T SEE THEM? With the advent of
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quantum mechanics science began to favor the concept of randomness, because
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of the difficulty of prediction. But this says nothing about the Universe
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and everything about us. Just because we're too big and clunky to look at
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things without fucking them up doesn't mean they are arbitrarily moving in
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random directions. Non- randomness simply implies absolute causality;
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everything is responsible for the occurrence of anything. Calling it
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"causality" almost does a disservice to Nietzsche, for he felt that cause
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and effect were arbitrary distinctions in themselves, that there was no
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cause and effect but instead a "re-distribution of forces." True or not,
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it is merely a semantic issue and ties in with the reversal of entropy.
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While I cannot "prove" the truth of eternal recurrence, I can at
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least explain the rationale behind it. It needn't be a religious belief
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of any sort; rather it is a scientific and philosophical position. It
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rests on two assumptions, and no more.
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It presents the ultimate version of "heaven and hell," where the
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two are forever blended in a brutal and symbiotic harmony. Why aspire to
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live forever in happiness by sacrificing the pleasures of carnal existence,
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when carnal existence IS forever?
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Eternal recurrence is ruthless and brutal; it offers no hope for
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those who die young, who die painfully, who suffer throughout life. It is
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the very nature OF nature itself to give a shit whether or not a few of its
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components are satisfied with its processes. Might as well go with the
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flow, when you're a part of the flow to begin with. Beats the hell out of
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making up "God," and trying to explain how a completely loving entity also
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causes pain, suffering, anguish, etc. God will soon slit his own wrists
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with Occam's Razor. It just takes time.
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It is my position that eternal recurrence is indeed true, and I
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needn't sacrifice anything to live in accordance with that position. All
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I've got to do is live my life as I see fit, and create a comfortable niche
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for myself. After all, I'll be here forever. Might as well get comfortable.
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--Lord_H
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= Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, Submissions =
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