Of course God just adds another layer of complexity here. If God is said to be omniscient then He knows everything. So that must include knowing what each of us as individuals think we know about Him. So how could we not know only what He already knows that we will know?
What is the worst thing that could happen to you, Iambiguous, if you were to spend the rest of your life trying to resolve the above?
As my ex-wife once pointed out, to the extent that you spend your life pondering seemingly unanswerable questions like this, is the extent that you are not out in the world actually living your life. But here [once again] dasein kicks in. For any number of personal reasons each of us become more or less drawn to philosophy. And then for others their options become more and more depleted. They are less able to “actually live their life” out in the world with others. They sink down into themselves where questions of this sort are more likely to percolate.
Thus to ask what we all ought to do [on this thread] is still entangled in turn in the extent to which what we choose to do either is or is not only that which we ever could have chosen to do.
What is more important to you? Resolving the above which I do not really see an answer for except by taking a leap into the darkness and choosing one or the other based on how we choose to see ourselves and the world around us ~~ since we cannot ever really be certain ~~ it is just like the God thingy. We can also decide to take the way of the agnostic and realize that perhaps in the final analysis it does not matter.
Here “I” – my “I” – quickly becomes embedded in the thick fog that surrounds any attempts to really understand your own motivations and intentions. You can only remember so much about the past, and there are so many variables either beyond your understanding or control in the present, it’s like aiming a dart at the bullseyes and being lucky if you are even able to hit the board.
It’s a wild ass guess in other words. Even the most introspective among us are sure to leave many, many of the most important parts out. Or, as they say, we are so entangled in our own point of point that we lack the objectivity that others are able bring to bear.
We either see ourselves as making our own choices, being self-determined, being free or striving for freedom (even though perhaps our sub-conscious is there at work which is also a part of us and working with us). We know this.
But how we see ourselves in a wholly determined universe is only as we were ever going to see oursleves. If human consciousness [on or below the surface] is just more matter, then it will do only what matter does if in fact there are “immutable laws” of matter.
Back to dreams…
Last night I dreamed I went to the mailbox in a house I once lived in many years ago. I pulled out the mail and there was a letter from my wife. I was reading the letter. It was about our daughter.
Then when I woke up the whole “incident” just blew my fucking mind! How could my brain manufacture this letter “in my head” such that “in the moment” the “I” in the dream was reading it?!!
In other words, as though it had not been a dream at all. “In the moment” in the dream I was the man reading the letter. How is that even possible?
The world is full of ambiguity. What does matter is answering the question for one’s self": How ought I or how do I live? Are we supposed to ask that question of others regarding ourselves?
The world is filled with no ambiguity at all if what we think of as ambiguity [in this exchange] is only ever as it was ever going to be thought of.
But how do we wrap our heads around that when intuitively we seem so certain that a real me is calling the shots?
Do you ever find or sense that struggling with this question may be keeping you from asking yourself fresh new questions which can lead you to knowing, individually-speaking, “how ought I to live” or “where am I going”?
Sure, but how am I ever going to come to grips with why I do the things that I do. Besides, these questions have always fascinated me going back to my uncle introducing me to science fiction. And I sure as shit wouldn’t pursue them if they did not [still] fascinate me to no end.