Random questions

[zangskar]

I think it makes good sense to imagine that our sleeping patterns represent a case of a evolving biological system adapting to it's environment over time. It's only very recently that man has been able to conquer the night so to speak, to be productive when the sun isn't around. Previous to that it would make sense to just stay inside the cave or up in the tree and relax, remove ticks from ones fellow hairy friends and try to get to sleep next to females if the big Alpha monkey isn't around. So maybe our brains just gradually adapted to such a pattern? If such processes went on for millions and millions of years then it would seem like a natural thing to happen?

It's not a real explanation of course, just a nocturnal conjecture of someone who nearly flunked biology in high school.

I bet that given a few decades or a century more of neuroscience, someone will come up with chemicals or some other brain therapy which would enable us to drastically reduce our sleeping periods without suffering any side effects.

Best wishes
Lars

[Virgo]

To me, saying we sleep because of the moon is like saying we breathe because of the air. Not an answer.

We do.

On planets with 3 moons, do they sleep 3x as much? Our own moon seems to have landed here by quite the marvelous coincidence (and is in fact very suspicious, but I digress...).

No, just three 3X as deeply (just kidding )

Kevin

[Virgo]

These all matters are very trivial.

We sleep because of the moon which stimulates and effects our energies, and we breath because there is air, and we need it.

Brahmas are up there and are not concerned with the petty trials of lower beings.

Kevin

[padma norbu]

To me, saying we sleep because of the moon is like saying we breathe because of the air. Not an answer.

We do.

Nope. The fact that air exists is not an answer to the question "why?"

[padma norbu]

These all matters are very trivial.

We sleep because of the moon which stimulates and effects our energies, and we breath because there is air, and we need it.

Brahmas are up there and are not concerned with the petty trials of lower beings.

Kevin

If you think they're trivial, then don't expend a lot of effort in multiple postings of non-answers. I'm really not interested in using more words than necessary to explain to you something I also find quite trivial, which is why I haven't bothered to use more than one or two sentences to explain that your responses are not answers.

[catmoon]

back to topic plz

[Zenda]

There's an interesting article on why we sleep here: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/hea ... o-we-sleep

More info for your contemplation of sleep.

[edearl]

Neither question can be answered with scientific precision, only by speculation. I have a third unanswerable question:

3. Why do people like to speculate about things they cannot know?

[Epistemes]

Neither question can be answered with scientific precision, only by speculation. I have a third unanswerable question:

3. Why do people like to speculate about things they cannot know?

Because "[w]e do not know who or what we are, but we do know that we would like to be someone or something....Then on top of that, in connection with being something, we would also like to know that there is something about the world or the cosmos that corresponds to this something that we are. We have a sense of finding this something that we want to know, but we actually can't understand it..."
-Trungpa Rinpoche

[Jikan]

2. This god question really has nothing to do with an evil genius idea nor does karma invalidate the possibility. If we are within a universe where we are in a vulnerable position to gods, then that is our karma and if a god can trick our experience to do his will, like a sorcerer human could, then sending us to heaven or hell isn't much different than how we have the possibility to treat animals as loved pets or tortured livestock.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you are correct.

On what grounds do we have to worry about the apocalypse as described in the Christian world (take one out of the many different versions out there)? Why that one in particular? If we are under the thumb of a sorcerer (a thought most of us attribute to paranoia), why assume that we know the identity of that sorcerer, or that said identity would correspond to that described in Paradise Lost or the Left Behind books or whatever? There's just as much ground to assume that it's Adi Da or Xenu in wrathful manifestation. Or Screamin' Jay Hawkins who put a spell on you. Nez Par?

[Epistemes]

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you are correct.

On what grounds do we have to worry about the apocalypse as described in the Christian world (take one out of the many different versions out there)? Why that one in particular? If we are under the thumb of a sorcerer (a thought most of us attribute to paranoia), why assume that we know the identity of that sorcerer, or that said identity would correspond to that described in Paradise Lost or the Left Behind books or whatever? There's just as much ground to assume that it's Adi Da or Xenu in wrathful manifestation. Or Screamin' Jay Hawkins who put a spell on you. Nez Par?

A female student asked Richard Dawkins how did he know he wasn't wrong about the non-existence of God to which Dawkins asked the young lady how did she know that she wasn't wrong: the true God could be a sea-god whose identity we don't know.

[edearl]

A female student asked Richard Dawkins how did he know he wasn't wrong about the non-existence of God to which Dawkins asked the young lady how did she know that she wasn't wrong: the true God could be a sea-god whose identity we don't know.

Is there something important about the student being female?

[Epistemes]

A female student asked Richard Dawkins how did he know he wasn't wrong about the non-existence of God to which Dawkins asked the young lady how did she know that she wasn't wrong: the true God could be a sea-god whose identity we don't know.

Is there something important about the student being female?

Just memory recall.

[Dechen Norbu]

1. Anyone figure out why we need to sleep? Buddhist teachers have often compared reality to dreaming, but I read an article not too long ago which said the need for sleep has confounded scientists the more they've learned about it. It seems most of our body reparation happens constantly, not just during sleep, so it is not really apparent why we need sleep at all since originally it was thought that for some reason the sleep stage was necessary to repair the body.

2. If there really are gods with lots of power, then who is to say the Christian Armageddon won't really happen? Does anyone know how limited a god's power is? If the Tibetan tales of magicians are true, then certainly a god must have at least as much power as a human sorcerer. If a sorcerer can trick you into believing an entire lifetime has passed with a span of a few minutes, perhaps a god could put some of us in hell and some of us in heaven after reaking havoc on the earth. I don't really think so, but I haven't really ever read anything that proved it impossible.

1) We don't know for sure. There are some theories about it, but none thoroughly explains why we need to sleep.

2)If... perhaps. I'm more worried about the "Armageddon" we can cause ourselves, us humans. We really don't need gods to do that, unfortunately...

[padma norbu]

2. This god question really has nothing to do with an evil genius idea nor does karma invalidate the possibility. If we are within a universe where we are in a vulnerable position to gods, then that is our karma and if a god can trick our experience to do his will, like a sorcerer human could, then sending us to heaven or hell isn't much different than how we have the possibility to treat animals as loved pets or tortured livestock.

Let's assume for the sake of argument that you are correct.

On what grounds do we have to worry about the apocalypse as described in the Christian world (take one out of the many different versions out there)? Why that one in particular?

This is really taking a hypothetical question too far by assuming a premise which is not found in my original question. The original question was just a brief, generic type of question and I used "armegeddon-type scenario" for mere convenience.

If we are under the thumb of a sorcerer

I didn't suggest we were. You don't always have to be under the thumb of a sorcerer for a sorcerer to manipulate you at some point in time. I was thinking of the story of Milarepa. Gods are supposed to have more powers than human sorcerers, right?

[padma norbu]

2)If... perhaps. I'm more worried about the "Armageddon" we can cause ourselves, us humans. We really don't need gods to do that, unfortunately...

Yeah, the thought that has popped in my head that millions of peoples' collective belief and worship of a particular god and religious future could potentially strengthen the god's power. It is not a thought I take seriously or actually worry about.

Of course, such belief could just plain influence human expectations and behavior until we have a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is closer to what you're getting at.

[edearl]

Another question.

Suppose one is rolling two dice, and before they roll they pray to roll snake eyes (1 on each die). They do this 36 million times, being careful to write down the results of each roll. When they tally the results they have rolled exactly 1 million snake eyes, which is statistically what they should roll according to mathematics.

Does this experiment prove anything about praying?

[Virgo]

Another question.

Suppose one is rolling two dice, and before they roll they pray to roll snake eyes (1 on each die). They do this 36 million times, being careful to write down the results of each roll. When they tally the results they have rolled exactly 1 million snake eyes, which is statistically what they should roll according to mathematics.

Does this experiment prove anything about praying?

It doesn't prove or disprove anything about prayer.

First of all, you have to pray to the right deities for the right things, and know how to contact them. Which seems to have been overlooked in this hypothetical situation.

And, it is possible that even if you did contact a deity, he or she might not be interested in helping you roll a snake eyes, which doesn't prove they might not help you out in other ways.

Kevin

[Virgo]

These all matters are very trivial.

We sleep because of the moon which stimulates and effects our energies, and we breath because there is air, and we need it.

Brahmas are up there and are not concerned with the petty trials of lower beings.

Kevin

If you think they're trivial, then don't expend a lot of effort in multiple postings of non-answers.

Hi padma, I can appreciate if you don't except the answers but I don't understand why you call them non-answers.

For example, I said we breath because there is air and we need air. Why on earth else would we breath?

I don't see the non answer aspect that you see.

Kevin

[edearl]

Hi padma, I can appreciate if you don't except the answers but I don't understand why you call them non-answers.

For example, I said we breath because there is air and we need air. Why on earth else would we breath?

I don't see the non answer aspect that you see.

Kevin

The reason, "we breath because there is air and we need air," is an observation, but IMO not an answer. IDK if there is an answer. Another observation is that our body uses food and air the same as a heat engine, such as an automobile engine. uses petrol and air. We can then ask, why does burning petrol and air make heat, and why does the heat cause motion. We can then ask other questions, and make further observations, but at some point we cannot observe because whatever occurs is submicroscopic--the domain of quantum mechanics and string theory that may never be fully explained.