Who are we?

[neytirifanboy]

Originally Posted by Eltu

[I][SIZE="1"]Our bodies are made up of billions of cells... each cell, a living organism in itself. Together they form a larger consciousness, a human being. We, in turn, are also living organisms - and like the cells... together, are we all a part of another, larger consciousness?

The cells of our body lack the physical senses to understand that they are a part of something larger. Are we the same? Do our physical senses prevent us from understanding the real state of the world, of our universe – because we are blinded by thinking that they are all we have?

Interesting. I have always looked at our existence in the way you describe above. If I hit my own arm, I will effectivley cause a disaster that will kill countless cells. Although I feel a little pain, that incident does not bother me. But it does make me consider the nature of God. I can affect the health of the individual cells by the way I live. To each individual cell in my body, I am an immortal God. But even as the living God of my own body, I am also ultimately mortal and ruled by the laws of nature.

Originally Posted by Devourment

In short, we're highly intelligent mammals who like to think we have purpose other than reproduction.

Yes, agreed. This is effectively what we are. This is what we will always be.

But I also like to believe that we effectively part of the Universe's self-conciousness. By having consciounsess ourselves we naturally try to understand the Universe in which we live. That does not mean we are chosen or unique, we just are. So in a sense, I do not believe that the eyes of God are looking at us, but that in fact in some way we are the eyes of God, or more acurately, one of the many eyes of God.

The problem for humanity in understanding the Universe is that we are extremely inward-looking (an Avatar is equally an inward looking movie). We always judge and assess the Universe in human terms. This is ultimately true with religion which is human-centric. But science is not much better as everything we do or study relates to ourselves in some way or form. Just about every scientific asks the same question (although these questions branch out into more complexity): "Where do we come from? Who are we? How are we like other animals? Where are we going?

This means that we may be missing very important or useful information because we do not have the perception to see things beyond our own existence. Unfortuntaly, we will never proceed if we can look at the Unverse more ojectively. And we are not at that stage yet.