Life as a 'pre-recorded tape'?

As in, predestination? No free will?

Or deja vu?

Yes and no. Free will is another debate in itself, but lets consider free will to be an illusion. Is it our "free will" thats been predetermined and exists before we make certain choices?

If it's all been pre-planned then the fact that someone has religious beliefs or not has also been pre-planned.

I think religions were invented to help people feel less scared about things they didn't/couldn't understand but in your pre-planned world it would have been the plan to have me think that.

Good point. haha, "in my pre-planned world". I like the sound of that, but I hate the thought of it. If religion was pre-planned, it wouldn't be religion.

I suppose we could, but I don't care for the implication that we are then not responsible for our lives. I find that lack of responsibility with some religious friends and family. They keep saying things like "I guess this is where I am supposed to be," and "It's up to God. It's in His hands." They live as if their life is pre-recorded and pre-determined.

I want to scream at them "NO IT"S NOT! Get off your ass and do something about it. You're in this place because YOU made a decision to be here! If there is a God, do ya really think God wants you sitting around whining?"

Sorry. Ya hit a nerve. : )

I do sometimes picture us all as Simms... just for fun.

okay, here's what i did, i stuck some electrical tape over the indentation on the top of the tape, and then i taped over it

Religious people seem to have too much in common. "It's in his hands" -what a classic line.
We could be Simms...at the mercy of some sick observer who takes the ladder out of the swimming pool and watches us drown.

It is in nobody´s hands...it just it is.
Being cannot contradict its own self existing Nature...
What it is, its done...(not becoming but done already)
"God" is powerless and yet the measure of all power if seen as a phenomena through Time and Space...but out of that "Realm", as Noumena, its "Dead"...it does n´t move, it does n´t evolve, it does not create or destroy anything...its done, its Order itself and not worth to much comment.

God its Law´s of Nature...a bunch of zeros and one´s in a self circular 2 dimensional ring.
...Frozen, Alone, and "Dead" !

We could, but if there were a pre-recorded tape recorded by a sentient being they never would have pre-recorded Justin Beiber.

I dunno. I think we can all enjoy the classics, the deep thought programming, but at some point we need to pick up the remote and flip over to Comedy Central and munch some popcorn.

Are you trying to counter my Justin Beiber defense?
Well don't bother.
it's impenetrable
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Why would the "tape" and the "Being" be separate in the first place ?
...I stick with the tape alone.
A sort of a Matrix perspective of "God" in which Creation and Creator are fused together....

I think I first saw the anecdote about the guy in the flood here... seems like a good comeback to those kind of fatalistic religious types.

The one where there is a guy stuck on a roof in a flood, and prays to god to deliver him. Nothing happens. Some people come by in a rowboat, urge him to get on, and he says "No, I trust in God, he will save me." They're like OK, if you insist. He keeps praying, nothing. Then there's some firemen maybe? And a helicopter? At any rate, he keeps telling 'em he trusts in God. Nope. He drowns.

In heaven, he sees God and asks why he was forsaken. God says "I sent a rowboat, firemen, and a helicopter!!"


That of course assumes god is behind it which I don't actually think, but I like the message of get off your duff and do something, don't just hang around praying and hoping for the best.

Lack of freedom does n´t imply that you stop agency on your perspective...on the contrary it only stipulates precisely how this agency will happen...whether your conscientious or not on this, you will keep doing whatever you need to without much care.

Soz - Yeah, I like that one. : )

Re: the Simms thing... think about all the times you do things like get up and walk into the kitchen, stop, and look around baffled as you try to figure out why you went there.

Yep! Someone/ something probably did a click and drag, then realized they meant to send you to the bathroom, not the kitchen.