You’re sorry you have an actual life? I should think you would be happy to have one!

Just kidding I know what you meant… you were too busy to try to answer my stupid question. But I wonder if the question is really that stupid, or… maybe… It appears too difficult to answer, and so you were just treating it as though it were stupid, to get out of trying to answer it. Just saying…

The question is, and it is not a pointless one, “who (exactly) are ‘we’?” Conceiving of ourselves as some sort of “center of action.“ (as we normally do) then obviously all the “ huffing and puffing“ in the world is not going to have the least affect on the universe as a whole.

However, conceived of as “continuous with” The larger universe, “we“ are doing whatever “it“ is doing. That is, if we think of reality, not as being composed of bits and pieces, but ass, in a real sense, being… Seamless, like a single organism, or better yet as one great thinker put it, the “only true atom” in The original sense of the word, as indivisible. That which may only be divided in the mind, but that which “continues to do its own thing” without regard to any “outside influence.” For when we are talking about “reality“ or “the universe,” how could there BE any “outside“ influence?

And “we“ as just an aspect of this one reality, are (quite naturally) “going along“ “with” “it” simply doing whatever “it“ is doing, again, apart from any “outside“ “causes.“ so in this sense, I conceive of the universe as acting utterly freely, and hence, we to our acting freely. This is the sense in which I believe in “free will.“
For neither we nor any other aspect of nature is acting under some constraint. We (along with the rest of nature) are simply “doing our own thing, freely, and utterly… Spontaneously“! Does that make any sense?

@MajesticHero I think it was Thomas Edison who said: " We are that which ask the question". All our senses are outward bound and we experience the world within ourselves and we are part of a larger field of myriad processes.

Is importance of our life (or the importance of anything, including the importance of the universe itself) to be judged simply on the basis of… Longevity. For after all The earth, the sun, and the universe itself, we are told, will not last forever. Does that mean that nothing whatsoever has any consequence or importance? Or do only things lasting a very very long time have significance? Time itself needs to be looked at; because, as near as I can tell, the past has no real material existence, nor does some projected dream of a future have any real existence. What exists, only exists, right now. Including us, as well as everything else in the universe… Kind of puts us on equal footing in the way, with all those things expected to live such a very long time. Subatomic particles aside, and simply focusing on other life forms, we could say our lives are so much more important than those of other living beings, because our lives are so much longer than many of theirs. But I think all such comparisons beg the question. Is the significance of life to be found in…how long it lasts? Or is life more like dancing, in which at every moment it is the dance itself wherein lies its significance. And life, like the dance, finds its significance in how it is lived in the only time that has ever existed and will ever exist… The present moment.

Read Schrodinger's "What s life?" I think you will e surprised at the answer there.

@dalefvictor I will look for it.

I think this is a good moment to resort to some… RE AL skepticism, not just your garden-variety skepticism. Now would be a good time to doubt… One’s own… Doubt. And instead to pose the question, “How do you know“? That is, how do you know the universe does not exist? Or better yet, who put that bee in your bonnet? Since most of us have not come up with our ideas about life on our own…

I am reading it as we speak and will get back to you when I have finished. Thank you. I am dying to know the answer…

@MajesticHero Too much skepticism will cause paranoia, which will lead to anxiety, so I prefer to remind myself none of this matters. When I die so does this story.

@rainmanjr how much skepticism is too much? And you make it sound like you are a frayed to… Be afraid. As the doubting certain things would cause you to become anxious and paranoid, and so you seek the solace of reminding yourself that none of this matters. Are you trying to say life is unimportant? If so, I think you are wrong.

@rainmanjr afraid… to BE afraid he he

@MajesticHero You are allowed to disagree with me. I think it's actually logical and scientific that this is an illusion within the vibration of electrons. That each one of us are an electron that has clumped to others and sharing an illusion. If that's just because it soothes my nerves then I'll take it.

Are you sure?

@MajesticHero I have no great knowledge to be sure of anything. It is my best guess and consistent with all else that I experience, or think, so I go with it.

Perhaps… But… Who said it was bounded? And who died and made them God? Ha ha

@MajesticHero Your comment makes no sense.

@wordywalt could you be more specific? Was it my comment about the universe possibly being unbounded? Or the part about Someone dying and making… someone else God? I don’t understand which you find so nonsensical. But I would be curious to know… And why? Not that I find either of them particularly… sensical. Ha ha