agentquantum - // an infinite mastery, is the Force.
the chosen one
alwyn!
raffles junior college
08 08 '89
leo
star wars fan
Judoka
wishlist :
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume
The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose
The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
Matter and Consciousness by Paul Churchland
Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Life of the Cosmos by Lee Smolin
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Betrayal
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines
Star Wars Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice
Games:
Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne by Triumph Studios
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic by Triumph Studios
Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood by Spellbound
Myth III: The Wolf Age by MumboJumbo
The Bard's Tale by InXile Entertainment
Dragon Age by Bioware
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir by Obsidian Entertainment
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Places I'd Like to Visit:
Sweden
Switzerland
Italy
France
Thailand
Brazil
South Korea
Japan (again!)
Norway
Costa Rica
click for more =)
"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural that all the ghosts and gods are
myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the
sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the
dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I
was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide
world, not even in infinite space. I was free.
free to think, to express my thoughts
free to live to my own ideal
free to live for myself and those I loved
free to use all my faculties, all my senses
free to spread imagination's wings
free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope
free to judge and determine for myself
free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have
produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past
free from popes and priests
free from all the "called" and "set apart"
free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies
free from the fear of eternal pain
free from the winged monsters of night
free from devils, ghosts, and gods
For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of my
thought, no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings
no chains for my limbs
no lashes for my back
no fires for my flesh
no master's frown or threat
no following another's steps
no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words.
I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds. And then my heart
was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes,
the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain for the freedom of
labor and thought
to those who fell on the fierce fields of war
to those who died in dungeons bound with chains
to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs
to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn
to those by fire consumed
to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given
freedom to the sons of men.
And I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might
conquer darkness still."
-Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899), "Why Am I An Agnostic?", 1896 Click to join Atheisthaven
We are part of the universe. Our earth was created from the universe and will one day be reabsorbed into the universe.
We are made of the same matter as the universe. We are not in exile here: we are at home. It is here and nowhere else that we can see the divine face to face. If we erect barriers in our imagination - if we believe our real home is not here but in a land that lies beyond death - if we believe that the divine is found only in old books, or old buildings, or inside our head - then we will see this real, vibrant, luminous world as if through a glass darkly.
The universe creates us, preserves us, destroys us.
We are part of nature. Nature made us and at our death we will be reabsorbed into nature. We are at home in nature and in our bodies. This is where we belong; this is where we must find and make our paradise, not in some spirit world on the other side of the grave. If nature is the only paradise, then separation from nature is the only hell. When we destroy nature, we create hell on earth for other species and for ourselves.
Nature is our mother, our home, our security, our peace, our past and our future.
Science is inherently materialist. It always seek material explanations. It never accepts as an explanation that some spiritual force was at work - if it did, then science and technology would come to an end. Disease was once thought to be caused by witchcraft. Science gave it a material explanation which allowed us to control it. Magnetism at one time seemed like a spiritual force - Thales of Miletus thought that magnets were full of spirits. But then science provided a material explanation.
In the same way scientific pantheism believes that everything that exists is matter or energy in one form or another. Nothing can exist, be perceived, or act on other things if it is not matter or energy. That does not mean that spiritual phenomena or forces cannot exist. It means that, if they do, they must in fact be material.
In scientific pantheism, science becomes a part of the religious quest: the pursuit of deeper understanding of the Reality of which we are all part, deeper knowledge about the awe-inspiring cosmos in which we live, deeper knowledge of nature and the environment, so that we can better preserve the earth's wealth of natural diversity.
In scientific pantheism, cognitive openness - listening to reality, to new evidence, to all the evidence, to other people's needs and feelings - becomes a sacred duty in all aspects of life from science to politics to domestic life.
Of course, we cannot say that science endorses pantheism. Many religions today state their beliefs in ways that no-one can disprove, so they can and do co-exist with science.
But scientific pantheism positively thrives on science. scientific discoveries continually underline the wonder and the mystery of Being, the immensity of the universe, and the complexity of nature.
no creativity = violate other people's intellectual property. i know it's already the third time i'm doing this, but well, i like it.
His empty center rings with anger and mistrust and hungry triumph: the emotions of the World Brain, which has caught the former friend who tried to murder it.
The former friend it had trusted, and by whom it had been betrayed.
Mobile teeth like swords protrude from humps of muscle like multiple tongues, and began to circle and clash within the tentacle-ringed mouth.
Jacen can only answer with regret and sadness.
Yes. I betrayed you. I taught you to trust, and I taught you what it means to trust a traitor.
He cannot teach it forgiveness. He has not learned that lesson yet himself: there is too much he will never forgive.
The tentacles contract, drawing him into the gaping maw, and the sword-teeth close upon his flesh.
He does not recoil in fear.
He does not resist.
He does not struggle.
Instead, he opens himself. In his most secret center, that gap in his being that once fed him pain, he offers an embrace.
Into the hollow in his center, he pours compassion. Absolute empathy. Perfect understanding.
He accepts the pain he has caused the dhuryam with his betrayal; he shares with the dhuryam the pain that betrayal has caused him.
He shares with the dhuryam all his experience with the spectrum of life: the featureless whiteout of agony, the red tide of rage, the black hole of despair, the gamma-sleet of loss... and the lush verdure of growing things, the grays of stone and duracrete, the glisten of gemstones and transparisteel, the blue-white sizzle of the noonday sun and it's exact echo in a lightsaber's blade.
He shares how much he loves it all: for all these things are all one thing: pain and joy, loss and reunion, life and death. To love any is to love all, for none can exist without every other.
The Universe.
The Force.
All is one.
The Yuuzhan Vong and the species of the New Republic.
Jacen and the World Brain.
When I betrayed you, I betrayed myself. When I killed your siblings, I killed pieces of myself. You may kill me, but I will live on in you.
We are One.
And Jacen cannot tell if those words come from him to the World Brain, or from the World Brain to him, for Jacen and the World Brain are only different faces of the same thing. Call it the Universe, or the Force, or Existence: those are only words.
They are half-truths. Less.
They are lies.
The truth is always greater than the words we use to describe it.
---
Jacen was surprised by life.
The teeth of the World Brain had not closed upon him. Its tentacles had not ripped the flesh from his bones. He had not drowned in the slime pool, asphyxiating on phosphorescent goo. No Yuuzhan Vong warriors swarmed around him to drag him from the slime and carve the life from him with amphistaffs.
Instead, a bubble of air had formed around him, and tentacles had cradled him like a sleeping child, and lips had closed over sword edged teeth to touch him with a kiss.
Because he was the World Brain, and the World Brain was him, and each was everything else, and Jacen had learned that one can meet the Universe and all its irrational pain-- which means meeting oneself-- with fear, or with hatred, or with despair.
Or one can choose to meet it with love.
-Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Traitor
spacetime rip! by agent quantum , quite possibly
at
3/22/2006 11:21:00 pm :)
