h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Very true, however people who smoke basically accept the dangers, and dying from something you choose to do and something that happens to you is totally different. In fact today the Geological Society placed a paper before the Scientific Advisors asking what the Gov. will do if a Volcanic Winter befalls us (well most will starve, but not me (once I have finished setting it all up so someone else out there is trying to do something (well trying to get someone else to do something, lazy bassa's
BCNU - Crescent

I chose bad examples - what I am getting at is that you should concentrate on the risks to you as an individual rather than risks to the species as a whole.

Incidentally, even if you do hoard several years worth of food; a volcanic winter will precipitate a total breakdown in law and order and a massive increase in disease both of which may kill you.

Anyhow - I think thread ramble has set in...I've got to reread this to see what it's got to do with belief.

I'm currently studying the precepts of Yoga(not the physical exercise)of Patanjali, and this discussion is very interesting because it asks age old questions. The concept of conditioning is something I'm trying very hard to wrap my brain around. I've succeeded in stretching it greatly! In a synchronistic way, I opened my 'Art of Integration' book, and found the following passage..."Every object , every individual, in the universe has a uniqueness which is not shared by any other object or any other individual. This uniqueness is the incomparable quality of things and individuals and it exists in the midst of apparent sameness. Even when things cannot be distinguished by class, characteristics or position there is a uniqueness which imparts to it a distinction which the mind, accustomed to see everything in the framework of classification, cannot perceive. Uniqueness is incomparable and therefore defies all attempts at classification. It is Wisdom alone that enables one to perceive the uniqueness of all things, and uniqueness is indeed the quality of things. The mind moves only on the plane of quantity of things." ....I think I may have confused the issue of the 'chair' for myself!

..."Every object , every individual, in the universe has a uniqueness which is not shared by any other object or any other individual..."

This has the ring of semantics to me, since by definition an "individual" must be unique, at least in terms of spatial and temporal positioning - if you imagine two identical objects at the same location in space and time they become in effect one object - an "individual", or undividable object...?

A passing but irrelevant thought - If, by some quirk of space curvature, an object could be proved to be in two locations at the same time, would it be two objects for the duration of the phenomenon, or would it still be an "individual"?

Actually, I grok this. I think there is something to be said for the aesthetic qualities of nature. What had me going for a long time was trying to figure out if that aestheticness was something inherent in the system itself or a function of the consciousness assigning such a value to said system. Then I figured out there's not much of a distinction

There is some experiment which uses laser light and "Young's slits" to prove that a photon can be in two different parallel universes at the same time and is always considered to be the same photon....if that helps.