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

Unless every path we cross pre exists and our free will leads us to take one or the other.
I think we might be slipping into alternative universes now.

There would be so many paths crossing over each other that the path itself would become irrelevant.

Alternate Universes? No such thing, what reason would there be for them.

That's maybe because you are viewing it with physical eyes and imagining physical paths.
Take a look at a mandelbrot set. ( my spelling could be off !)
What is the point of THIS Universe?

I think everybody has a soul. Something that makes a person that person. This soul is unique, there are no two souls the exact same. If alternate universes existed this would mean that there would be an infinite number of souls which are the exact same. So you see I cannot believe in the existence of alternate universes.

Also the fact that these universes would just pop into existence because somebody has decided to drink coke instead of pepsi makes it even harder to believe.

Yay, debate debate debate!!!

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him! (Voltaire)

Damn right. But some things really aren't neccessary.

It seems to me that *dirtydingo* is on the right track with predetermined paths.

Each creature makes choices or takes actions that logically could predetermine what happens for the balance of life. However, seconds, minutes, hours later, another choice or action taken completely voids the previous path and starts another. A "what if" scenario ad infinitum.

A fellow gets a cappucino and decides to sit at one of the cafe's outside tables. He chooses a seat in the shade which puts his back to the street. Seconds later, a car jumps the curb and smashes into his table.

Now, "what if?" Because he can see into the cafe, he spots an old girlfriend he hasn't seen in years. He decides to ask her to join him and enters to cafe to meet her. She prefers an inside booth, he joins her. The car swerves to miss the outside table. The couple find the romance is still there, decide to marry, raise a family and live happily ever after.

Is it fate or the dynamic of choices and actions constantly changing the fabric and interaction of lives?

"Everybody has a soul. Something that makes a person that person. The soul is unique."

Dirtydingo - if you substitute in "genes" for "souls" the argument is the same, surely? We do not need a supernatural part of ourselves to make us unique, since we are naturally different. (I'm not a biologist - I don't know the exact details, but I think I've got the gist of it) If there are two people who are identical in different universes because they are genetically the same, there is no moral problem.

Actually, the problem I have with understanding alternate universes is that there are supposed to be an infinite number of them. Think about it for a minute - that means that /anything/ that can happen will have happened somewhere. Not just simple things like someone drinking a different drink, or a different president being elected - surely if there are an infinite number, /everything/ including universes where the Earth is inhabited by purple elephants singing opera, anything you can imagine is possible. So in some universe everything is identical to Terry Pratchett's discworld. This sounds absurd, but isn't that what "an infinite number of alternate universes" is suggesting?

Now I've gone and forgotten my point.

~~A~~

No answer to the question what's the point of this universe then?
You can't see a reason for alternative Universes but can you see a reason for the Universe you ARE conscious of?
I have no idesa why an alternative number of universes would automatically mean extra souls in other places.

Is a soul something tiny you carry about with you? Or is it part of something much bigger?

I have no idea why infinity seems so small to some people.

I have to say again that a predetermined path, means no free will and that means no point to my way of thinking.
I mean why bother thinking about anything - pepsi or coke- if you're predetermined to drink one or the other, you'll do it anyway.
so sit back and watch the show, because nothing you will ever do in this hopeless scenerio will ever make any difference !

Is that really how we all live?
Not so much an improbability drive then an extremely probable drive with no area for deviation?

dirtydingo

Do you believe the soul cannot evolve? No two people may have the same soul but do you think your soul is exactly the same as it was when you were 5? If our intelligence, our morals, our beliefs etc etc can change, why can't our souls - which i believe is the sum of all the above - change?
So even if there were alternative universes, your soul - the essence that makes you spiritually individual may change at that split second due to the choice that you make.
I think it was the esteemed Mr Pratchett that said that you slide down one trouser of time at moments of monumental decision - decisions that will change your life. So maybe the choice of drinking coke or pepsi wont create such a schism but deciding if you are to become a doctor or an accountant, whether you will stop smoking or not, whether you pull the trigger etc etc .. these sort of decisions will.

Individual genes die with us (some people don't reproduce, those that do mix their genes with another)
There's a belief that the soul goes on to another level of existance unlike genes . So i don't thuink they are the same thing.
One physical another spiritual for want of a much better word

If there isn't an alternate universe, where are all the people that believe in Heaven going to go. I think that is a good reason for an alternate uni don't you, even though alternate universe is an oxymoron, but we know what we mean, don't we?

When people die, their souls do not go to an alternate universe they go to a different plane in this universe. - Just because we can't see it doesn't mean its not there.

Also, yes the soul may mature and grow as a person does. However if there is an alternate universe created even for huge personal decisions as pulling the trigger or not, or wheter you decide to be a soldier or a doctor, this still leads to an infinite number of universes, or multiverses, where people keep making the same decisions again and again and again, leading to identical souls in different universes.

Which I don't accept.

Probably kinda hypocrytical(??) but thats they way it is.

Different planes, different universe since we can't detect it with our own senses, the www is a kind of universe in itself.

Yes it is.
an alternatrive reality, an alternative universe
yhe way i look at things anything is possible and quite likely probable

Yes it is.
an alternatrive reality, an alternative universe
The way i look at things anything is possible and quite likely probable

Fate was invented when something wonderful happened to someone and they wanted to placate the person who didn't have something wonderful happen to them. Or it was invented by the unfortunate one to prevent themselves from throttling the fortunate one.

Or fate was invented whn something horrible happened to someone to make them feel better abut it.
The key word here is invented !
If we invent something does that mean it isn't real?

Take a look around you and you'll see that the world is full of invented things that began in the mind and took on substance

"Who knows does not speak; who speaks does not know." (Lao Tzu)

What can I say?