Almost. In the block universe, things absolutely do happen. Stars explode or conversations happen. But these only happen locally (within regions of spacetime). What does not happen is a global update of reality.  Another way of putting it (I am also explaining it to myself as I write this) is that nothing happens to the Universe as a whole but…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
The block universe gives an unbelievable account of experience. If you take it seriously, nothing actually happens, however experience consists of a cluttered stream of experiences.

Yet, we travel through spacetime at the speed of light.  So, the block universe could exist.  But I am still unable to connect the “self” with “now”.

The block universe gives an unbelievable account of experience. If you take it seriously, nothing actually happens, however experience consists of a cluttered stream of experiences.

That the account of experience it gives is counterintuitive and implausible can be explained in terms of the unreliability of experience.Nevertheless, the entire…[Read more]

Reg and Unseen:

As the Host and Robot Friends of Mystery Science Theater 3000 sometimes ask at The End of the film:

“…Or Is It???”

If all this is just a “seems,” why not the thoughts and pronouncements about it as well? 🤔🤨

Meanwhile, Atheist Zone will be back in: Newhart, Dallas, Altered States, and Everything, Everywhere, and All At…

The senses are a poor source of evidence. Our senses tell us that the world is colorful. In fact, color is in the brain, not the external world. We experience gravity as a force. We know it’s not. We experience deja vu which is a well known trick of the mind that seems real.

Some years after my mother died, I was standing on a street corner…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Fellow Unbelievers: Trump tells Iranian protesters against Islamist tyranny that “Help is on the way” two weeks after the uprising starts and after anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 Iranian citizens are dead. I’d say time and agency are pretty damn real. Can you relate?

The problem of agency regarding free will isn’t about…[Read more]

Time “marches on,” “flies,” “waits for no one” are not ontology. They are just descriptors of how humans feel but not how the Universe works.

Here are my thoughts on “Time and Momentum”.  It is not Time…but Momentum that counts. Without the latter, i.e. relational events, the former is not required. Time would not have been conceived of w…[Read more]