Maddie

Modern science appeared by rejecting the claims that had no evidence and accepting the ones that did. And now your question is answered.

Source?

Maybe because people rejected science and believed whatever popped into their head?

So you don't believe modern science or NASA, but you do believe that hunter-gatherers had a better understanding of cosmology than we do now? Well okily dokily.

We understand that the Earth rotates around the Sun and the sun around the center of the Galaxy now and we didn't used to, so yes.

I'm not sure if they understood "cosmic law" so well back then. They used to think the earth was the center of the universe and everything orbited it.

I've noticed this in the most unlikely of places. I've seen weightlifter bro dudes at the gym get to this zone, where I was looking at them and wondering to myself, did this guy achieve Samadhi? LOL

Thank you. Getting tired of the problems led a much more critical thinking mindset. Plus I was new and you don't know what you don't know LOL. 🤓

Because the way the five senses work. We become aware of conscious of something when our senses make contact with an object and register that impression in the brain. That's proven neuroscience. That's why I believe that. What I haven't seen in the evidence of however is we believe in some non-coporeal consciousness that exists separate and independently of the brain.

I get that. Belief and knowing are two different things, but I want at the very least to try to the best of my ability to make sure that my beliefs are at least well founded. For example I believe that Joe Biden is the president of the United States and lives in the White House. I've never actually met him nor have I been to the White House so I guess it technically could all be a giant conspiracy and in reality and alien lizard from Mars runs the country but I believe he's the president and he lives in the White House and I feel like I have good reason to do so even though I can't necessarily prove it. I at least feel like it's a well-founded belief.

oooooooooo I like this!!!!

Do you believe cookies are made in a tree by elves? I just ask because if no reason is necessary for you to believe something then you can believe any and everything and when we believe everything is real even if there is no reason to do so there is a word for that which I will not say here because apparently it triggers people on this site.

I try to only think something is true if a reason can be shown to demonstrate that it is true.

Then why do you believe it?

How would you define the "self" and how would you distinguish it from the "ego"? Also what causes you to think that the "self" survives death?

Something that I've wanted to ask someone that believes in the soul for a while now is, what causes you to believe that there is a soul behind consciousness as opposed to consciousness being a function of the mind. Or maybe to phrase it a different way, why do you think the soul/consciousness is a "thing" as opposed to a function?

here's the thing about the Buddha, and yes I do get asked this a lot. It does not matter if he ever existed or not. Why is this so? The teachings work. They work if he was real, they work if he was not real. I don't need to "believe" in the Buddha, I just need to practice to teachings and see if they work for myself.

he didn't say that

This isn't how the burden of proof works though. I can't disprove that absolutely no cookies are made by elves that live in trees. This is not how the burden of proof works though. It is not up to us to disprove every possibility ever, but rather if we make a claim to prove that our claim is true and correct with verifiable evidence. So I would ask, if someone believes that people in the past lived to be thousands of years old, what reason can you give to demonstrate that this is true?

Assuming for the sake of argument that this is indeed the case, then it is everyone and there is nothing remarkable about it, nor is there anything that needs to be done to achieve this since it is the case of all sentient beings. But of course usually when people speak of immortality they are speaking of a physical existence I think.

Yes they were fairy tales lol, or more accurately myths. There is absolutely no archeological evidence for people living that long.

150 years is exceptionally old, but perhaps at the theoretical range of the human life span? But what about someone that is 1000 or 10,000 years old? Surely someone would notice the guy that looked 20 when there were a child, looked 20 when their grandparents were children, and still looks 20 when they are grandparents. This could not possibly escape notice. If someone did claim to be 150 I would be skeptical (as I or anyone else should be) but would be curious to see documentation to prove this.

For example the obvious way to prove this would be if there was Bob and Mary the immortals. Walking around and everyone had known them for years and they never age and they could pull out their birth certificates and show that they were born in 1900 would be a pretty good way to prove this. But of course we never see anything like this ever. *that would make for a great Oprah interview

I think that perhaps a relevant question to ask before one asks if immortality is possible via this or that method, would be to ask, "is it even possible at all?". Considering we have never witnessed anyone that is immortal, what reason is there to believe this is even possible?

When I began my path, I had no idea that all of these practices could have such drastic negative side effects but they do! I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning and tried a little bit of all sorts of stuff. This did not work well for me as it caused me all sorts of pretty serious problems. These days I am much more cautious and tend to do a lot more purely physical practices like BJJ and Pilates.