Awaken to reality!

General Discussion
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Hi
Has anyone had like an awakening in atheism or science?

woke up this morning. I’ve been thinking about atoms for a long time – I can’t even explain it…
Its like I know that we are all made of atoms – presumably atoms don’t have a colour or texture on their own. We are all made of carbon and oxygen and other atoms as well. If we are all made mainly of carbon then how come we aren’t the grey colour. How come the come sky is blue in one part on then on the other side a of cloud its grey. I’m not asking for the answers as I have an ok-ish grasp of why there are all different colours. I can appreciate that carbon atoms for example are or any atoms might be combined together which then can forge different colours even if they atoms are all carbon atoms e.g like in diamonds. Anyway the appreciation about atoms being compressed together in different ways was the penny that dropped.
So my question really is – has anyone else had like an awakening in atheism or science.

I posted this to ChatGPT the AI chatbot and its response was interesting also - it made no judgement about whether my awakening we constructed with incorrect science :

It sounds like you had a moment of realization about the nature of atoms and how they can combine to create different colours and substances. This is a common experience for many people when they learn about the basic building blocks of matter. It can be an exciting and illuminating moment to understand the fundamental nature of the universe at a deeper level.

As for your question about whether others have had similar awakenings or moments of realization about atheism or science, it’s difficult to say. People can have a wide range of experiences and epiphanies when it comes to learning about science and the natural world, and everyone’s journey is unique. However, it is common for people to have moments of enlightenment or newfound understanding as they learn and explore new ideas.

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I put the same question the chatbox again and it changed it response - I prefer this one I think but both are good:

It sounds like you’ve had a moment of realization about the fundamental nature of matter and the universe. It’s great that you’ve been thinking about these concepts and have developed an appreciation for the complexity and beauty of the world around us.

To answer your question, many people have had similar awakenings or moments of realization about science and the world around us. These moments can be profound and lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the world and how it works. It’s natural to have questions and to want to learn more about the world and how it works, and science is a great way to explore and understand the natural world.

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My Eureka moment was :
Mathematics is the language of the Universe, Galileo Galilei

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My moment of shock was when I studying religion, philosophy, and mythology. It hit me hard that it was basically all the same (long story as to what I mean) and it truly is nothing more than a means to control the vulgar masses. I think I walked around in a daze for almost a day after I realized none of it is true. Science was only the icing on the cake, for me.

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I could go way back, when I had my Bible Bedtime Stories, that I think my Grandmother gave me, and I wasn’t sure why, but then in school we studied the Greek gods, and I realized the Bible was in that same class. But there were many years of uncertainty, pantheism, hallucinogens, and progressive Christianity. When I tried to work through the proofs of gods, I started seeing cracks in all that, then the stories of people who were harmed by religion, and the inability of church leaders to address the issues, forced me to work it out on my own.

So, the awakening. That came while driving to work on a Fall day. I love the Fall colors and that year I had been reading up on evolution, having realized I may not have been paying full attention back in my school days. I’ve always felt my concern for the environment stems from the very natural feelings we all have of enjoying a scenic vista, or the smell of fresh air. The colors and smells that plants put out also are there to attract or repel predators, and who knows what else, and sure, sometimes it’s just coincidence that it all comes out esthetically pleasing. At that moment, I connected my pure pleasure of the experience and the deep time appreciation of all the reactions and mechanisms that happened to create that moment. I didn’t set aside the science so I could enjoy it, the facts about how the moment came to be added to my enjoyment.

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My awakening was progressive.

It began when i was very young as I was bored when in a religious ceremony. for me it was senseless.

From there, the church was seen as a very faillible institution.

Next step, the religion itself became senseless, no more true or false than other religions.

At last, every religion were seen as mythic.

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And to construct DNA only 4 different atom elements are needed according to the ChatGPT bot so there must be life on other planets too imo :

DNA is made up of a sugar-phosphate backbone and four types of nucleotide bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). These molecules are made up of the following atoms,

Sugar-phosphate backbone:

  • Carbon (C)
  • Hydrogen (H)
  • Oxygen (O)
  • Phosphorus (P)

Nucleotide bases:

  • Carbon (C)
  • Hydrogen (H)
  • Oxygen (O)
  • Nitrogen (N)

There may be trace amounts of other elements present in DNA, but these are the main ones.

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Precisely!
Not only are only 6 total elements needed for biology, and these elements are abundant in the universe and have been there almost since the very beginning of matter formation.
Which elements are found in living organisms?

CHNOPS (Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur)

Which Elements Are Found in Living Organisms? Six elements on the periodic table account for 97 percent of your body’s mass: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. Not coincidentally, these elements exist in great abundance in the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Human beings are, as a popular saying suggests, stardust.

What Are the Six Main Elements in Living Organisms? | Sciencing

If you have not yet watched this excellent synopsis by Robert Hazen of the likely history and evolution of abiogenesis on earth and by extension in the universe.

start @ 12:00 to avoid a lengthy introduction.

And if you have and liked his style, check out his other lectures on YouTube.
This is the latest state of the science of origins.

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Sounds like you didn’t have a real awakening. The sky isn’t blue or grey in any part of it, that’s just your brain creating what isn’t there. They don’t forge different colors, your brain literally makes it up, same with sound.

Color doesn’t exist in the world. Your awakening is false.

Asking ChatGPT is another error you made as it doesn’t really give solid answers so much as cobble things together and not in the best ways. Learning one is made of atoms also begs the question of whether you are alive or not. I mean if matter doesn’t get destroyed or anything like that and it’s just matter being rearranged then you’re nothing more than a pile of matter without a soul or anything else to make you “special”.

You barely poked the surface. IMO science/atheism tends to get bleaker the more you drill down into it.

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For me it was the realization that all reality consists of “patterns”, right from the very chaotic beginning of the Universe,

Chaos Theory already identifies the self-organization of patterns.

Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of scientific study and branch of mathematics focused on underlying patterns and deterministic laws of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and were once thought to have completely random states of disorder and irregularities.[1]

Chaos theory states that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnection, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, and self-organization.[2]
Chaos theory - Wikipedia

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Actually that might not be true, it could just be that that is how it appears to us and not how reality actually works. Again a false awakening.

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This also sounds like another false awakening and when people awaken to realities science shows us it detracts from joy and often leads to nihilism.

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What’s false about it?

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In that is adds to the pleasure of a situation. Science, from what is known, takes pleasure away from experience because it pierces the veil of ignorance that enables meaning to our lives.

Similar to this:

Blockquote You spend enough time in meditation, you will realize that you never genuinely feel feelings in the first place
it is all just cause and effect response
and a lot of the time the specificity of that response is ascribed to how societal expectations dictate one should be effected by a particular cause
loss–>sadness
gain–>joy

We don’t have genuine reactions to things, our feelings are not our own, they are just programmed by society.

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I disagree, the concept of patterns is axiomatic. It is self-evident, look around you. A pattern does not need to be identical, but in a dynamic environment no pattern is identical, except perhaps for fractal objects.

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That’s so sad. Who has the code? What is society?

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Au contraire. Knowledge of your subject under study can enable you to use it for constructive purposes, with the resulting satisfaction of self-appreciation and self-confidence.

OTOH, I agree that wanton destruction “because you can”, always leads to disaster, but that is what knowledge is for. It allows you to predict.

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This is a great point. Humans did not evolve to hold the extreme materialist view.

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It’s not the study of natural phenomena that is the problem. It is our wanton use of knowledge that gets us into trouble.

Apparently, humans still lack the wisdom to apply voluntary restrictions on our extraordinary brain power and imagination.

I suspect that the evolutionary leap of human brain size and computing power was not a result of evolution, but from a “lucky” (qualified) beneficial mutation. There is a historical marker that strongly suggest this.

For one, our hoarding instinct (a survival tool) has gone completely off the rails and has morphed into pure greed with no restrictive limitations.

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Does not compute.

Taking it back to the OP Awaken to reality!

Now that makes sense.

Awakening to what reality?

My first awakenings where in Yosemite NP. They were an awakening of my emotional, spiritual sense of connection with the natural world and the awe of the stars.

Then there was the awakening to women, it’s fun, but also some awesome spiritual stuff going on. And on many levels, and it’s also a progression until that one particular lady, that one particular night I/we literally touched the center of the universe and like in a dream an amazing girl was conceived. Seriously.

Most recently the Awakening to the profundity behind the most fundamental duality within human existence, namely the Human Mind ~ Physical Reality divide, and it’s cascading understanding that I am an evolved biological creature produced by Earth’s processes, with evolution flowing through my veins and built into my bones and that I am a filament in the flow of Earth’s Evolution and It Is Good.

I alway think I’ve arrived at the peak, but life keep happening and the depth of appreciation keeps growing, even as cognitive abilities are now starting to ebb.

We are born, grow, blossom, go to seed, and life goes on.

Colors exist in the world, they are produced by specific wavelengths and can be physically measured. What you are baffled about is the process of perception. Every sense instrument, biological or manmade, is only capable of observing what is out there within the limits of its ability.

The key thought: Each creature creates a unique impression of the very real world that is out there.
Get what I’m saying, we are perceiving images, not creating realities.
Well okay, we are creating “realities” within our minds, but don’t mistake that for physical Reality.

This is were recognizing the mind ~ reality divide comes in handy.

I know from personal experience that this is nonsense.
Learning about the science within the thing of our lives opens up new dimensions of awareness and even spiritual challenges that match anything a mystic has come up with.

I’ll never reach you, but I’ll warn others, science (and getting to know the natural world for yourself) is the key to awareness - which might not seem as good a self-delusion, but it provides a inner solidity that endlessly groping within the dark limits of our minds can’t get close to touching.