Gatekeeper's universe? (Art)

by dhw, Sunday, July 06, 2014, 22:08 (3791 days ago)

GATEKEEPER (under “Contingent Evolution”): I bounce around to many areas to fast sometimes. My bad. All this stuff is linked together.-We all have similar problems, precisely because everything is linked. So we generally try to focus on one question at a time, and although most discussions tend to branch out, it does help to have a solid frame for each one. -You have asked me a particular question in your latest post, which perhaps we can focus on. You wrote: “I can't image one thing “humans have” that the universe does not have more of. Can you?”-Again I'm not sure what you mean by image, unless it's a misprint here for imagine, but I will answer all the same. From my agnostic standpoint, I can well imagine (though this is not an expression of belief) that human intelligence is unique. And so it's possible that many of our human activities are also unique - and I need only mention music, literature, philosophy, science, art, sport to give you some idea of what I think we might have more of. Even if I put on my theist hat, I have difficulty imagining Beethoven's 9th without musical instruments and the human voice, or literature without print, art without paint, sport without bodies. It's an aspect that concerns me when we discuss topics like a possible afterlife. Just what will all these souls do with themselves? And applying that to one of the discussions currently (and regularly) in the spotlight on this forum, if God exists as some kind of energy, and if this universe marks a beginning, what did HE do with himself throughout past eternity before he turned himself into matter? Any ideas?