I have this long theory (history below) and I would like to present it to the SDMB for thorough attacks and beatings. However, it is very long, and I would like to adopt a style I have seen lately and present it in installments. If this generates a large enough response I shall continue, if not I shall take my theories else where.
Installment 1:
History and Guidlines:
It is the doldrums of summer and I am bored. VERY bored. Every year this seems to happen and every year I find some way to compensate. Last year my compensation was in the form of thinking up insane philosophical theories. I didn’t decide to create a religion, it just happened. Epiphinies and the like, I suppose. Anyways, this year I think it would be fun to pull out that old crazy thought and destroy it so I can spend some time rebuilding whatever remains, if anything, if for nothing else than a thinking exercise. Basic outlines for destroying it are as follows: 1) Some would say it relies on a theistic deity to work. This thread is not to debate wether or not there is a god. Do not destroy my theory based on theism. 2a) I suck at grammar and spelling so, unless I am lacking in clarity, try to put the pedant in the closet for the time being. 2b) As a corrolary, I do not have much confidence in this assertion so my POV may wander.
With that I present my random philosophy on why we are here…
The Theory
Put simply: what if we were to exsist inside the mind of someone else? As in, this universe exsists as the (sub)concious of someone else. This plane of exsistence is representational of another plane of exsistance which occurs in someone else’s mind.
Humans Role in this Theory
If this was the case, humans, being the only animal of it’s kind in the universe (that we know of), would be representational of thoughts for this larger mind. All human traits and characteristics would be representational to an idea that occurs in the larger mind. However we define our lives on this plane of exsistence would translate to an individual and unique idea for the larger mind. Our lives even seem to replicate the lives of ideas: we are born without much knowledge (when we first think of an idea we are not sure what the implications of it are), when we live our lives we are tested untill we hopefully find are niche (with an idea we have not yet used we test it endlessly untill we either use it or discard it), and then finally whenever we die (which would happen when an idea dies or more appropriatily, is replaced). This leads us to an important question: is this larger mind aware of its ideas being represented as people in a different plane of existence from its own?
Next (maybe) : God and Subconscious v. Conscious