RE: Gods, Consciousness and Free Will...
What a thoughtful response as always! As far as the term "god," I use that very loosely as most people are comfortable with that term. You could also say "the creator," or even "physics," if you wanted.
From what I can tell is that we are a culmination of basically our own universe that has gained it's own sense of consciousness, so I can't say that this doesn't translate macroscopically forever (fractal levels of consciousness, if you will). I'd like to think that there are hyper conscious beings out there, and I'd also like to think that our experiences and consciousness is somehow "recorded," or "combined" somewhere. With the uprising of VR technology and neuro-synthetic links, I can't help but think that the universe devised this ability on it's own a long time ago, and we are somehow the product of that. But again, who knows! Basically none of that is testable, but given where human consciousness is, I can't help but acknowledge the possibility of greater levels of consciousness.
A lot of this existential stuff is ultimately untestable, but still intriguing to converse about. Thanks for taking a trip down the rabbit hole with me, @mandelsage ;)
Nah... I still don't think using 'god' or 'creator' is a good idea... Firstly, these terms imply some sort of agency behind them. Secondly, this fact combined with the religious connotations make me using them a passive supporter of belief in things without evidence. I truly think such ways of thinking about the world are dangerous, or at the very least, inhibit further progress of our species towards a more complete understanding the nature of reality.
As for levels of consciousness... shrugs shoulders ... Something way beyond us could exist... But we have as much chance of noticing them/it as an a bacteria has of noticing us humans. And actually... With this way of thinking, you'd expect there to be intermediate stages... Like, say, cats to humans... Who are we cats to? And surely we'd have noticed such beings, if not understood them...
But yes, as you say, it is intriguing to hypothesise over the untestable! Thank you, too. May we have many more trips like this ;P
I can see that for sure. I'm all about communicating more efficiently, and tend to use terms that almost all people are comfortable with, especially when referring to things of this nature. I find "god" to be a friendly term that allows me to meet someone with a different belief than mine in some type of common ground. I guess I define the term "god" and "creator" a little differently than most, and don't have a problem with friendly terms, even if we define them differently. How people want to define "god" is their own problem, but we all agree we are referring to forces beyond our comprehension.
My theory of levels of consciousness is fun to think about. We would obviously have no way of knowing this is true, or being aware of these other levels. In my mind it makes sense. I've been thinking a lot more about quantum entanglement, particle wave duality, and the possibility that infinite universes exist. There's probably some really funky realities out there lol. Things start to get pretty weird when going to the quantum level of reality.
I am also drafting a philosophical post for you to check out. I'd like to see what you think about my topic, and it can sort of bleed into our talk here, too. It'll take me a couple days to finalize :)