Do we exist?

I read this piece twice before publishing it and I think it is probably the boldest piece of philosophy I ever wrote. The reason is that the ideas in it were not criticized well; I seek your forgiveness, dear reader, for I am currently out of philosophical people around me. Therefore, I transfer the burden of criticism and objection to your logical wit.

If I told you, dear reader, that I exist, what am I telling you about myself? In other words what are the characteristics that are derived from the fact that I exist.

To me existence is all about effect. We say that something “Exists” if it affects us and/or gets affected by us. This definition suggests the relativity of existence and implies that nothing has absolute existence that is independent of personal perception.

For example, unicorns exist in my mind as an idea but it has no physical existence because I didn’t sense it with my physical receptors. On the other hand I exist as a physical entity relative to myself because I can sense my physical existence. However, my absolute existence cannot be proven nor disproven because in absolute terms I could be part of somebody else’s dream, and I do not believe that dreams have any physical existence.

The concept can be applied to God. God as a creator has no physical existence because we cannot sense him with our physical receptors. Moreover, for believers, God has a spiritual existence, which is his effect on believers. Notice that I do not think God exists at the same level to everybody. For example, God does not exist to atheists as a creator but he still exists as an idea.

Notice that everything we think about has a form of existence and the form depends on the way we perceive it. The flying spaghetti monster exists as an idea, and it could exist as a God relative to you if you believed and lived your life according to such. It won’t surprise me if it even heals from illness just like other forms of God. In short, we decide whether things exist physically, as an idea, or as a spirit through our perception and it is all relative to the perceiver.

Radi Alzayer

July 25th, 2011

Picture (wikipedia): In 2005, Oregon State physics graduate Bobby Henderson wrote an open letter about a "Flying Spaghetti Monster" as a satirical protest against the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to permit the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public schools.

Warning: The red pill of truth is poison.

Dreams are often a reflection of reality. Sometimes we have to think deep of the reality the dream resembles. Today I had a weird dream; we were 4 guys living in a weird apartment that has only one room and connected to a small living room with no bathroom. For some reason I was the only one who is not a drug addict among them but I was their only source of drugs.

One of them, happened to be my best friend in the dream, asked me for the best drug in the market. I gave him two pills, a red one and a blue one. I told him choose one, they are both a very good drug but I don’t know which one does what. He took the red one and went crazy, and because I have a job to do somewhere I had to lock him up with the other guys in the room, who wants 3 drugged up guys around?

I came back to find out that my best friend, who got the pill, died of overdose. I only left for a while but it seems the drug was so strong it looked like he has been there, dead, for days. It looked like his mouth and eyes have been bleeding for a while, for blood was dry.
I took him like I expected the result and carried him to the garbage. Something told me that nobody will come asking about him.

Now I am thinking about this dream, and I found out it is very connected to real life. The pills of truth or happiness, the red pill of truth, death, and the fact that nobody asked, they all happened in real life metaphorically. The question remains, why did I know the result in the dream? Was the red pill poison? Did I know subconsciously that I am feeding my best friend poison that would definitely result in the ugly death? Most importantly, am I to blame for his choices (Note that I am not sure what would happen if he had chosen the blue one, I just know it is a drug too)…

Stations and Stories

What Happened in Dubai?

I am in Dubai, and Kant’s understanding of ethics revisited me. He said “If you believe that an action is right if everybody else does it, it is ethical for you” for example if you believe that it is ok for everybody to throw garbage on the street, and you accept the repercussion, it is ethical for you.

This definition was appealing to me but then I visited a broker’s home in Dubai. I have seen his car, his house, his booze, and the restaurants, bars and night clubs he goes to. I was worried that I didn’t see in myself any glimpse of wanting to be him. Even though I know that his life would be very appealing to any other guy.

Let’s apply Kant’s rule of ethics on “me not wanting the broker’s life”. If everybody was me, we would not reach the level of technology we have now. I cannot accept the repercussion of my desire, therefore to me “not wanting the broker’s life” is Not Ethical! From this point I reject Kant’s definition because I think personal desires of life style cannot be unethical.
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To Chocolate and Espresso

Two weeks ago I went with a good friend to a chocolate place, and Starbucks in khobar’s korniche. I had too much chocolate and coffee in my system. When we started walking on the korniche, I had the feeling that everybody around me was an illusion, people, objects, and myself. I touched a guy with my finger to make sure that he is real, but the feeling did not convince me. I was in an utter state of madness, according to the normal general consensus.

I started asking random people about general philosophical questions like “What is the purpose of life” and I got interesting answers like “ I don’t know” or “ to leave life”. Those answers convinced me more that we might not exist; we might be a creation of some dreamer.

I reached the conclusion that if I can prove my existence I might be able to prove God’s existence with logic rather than mere belief. I discovered that my existence cannot be proven or disprove. I could be a dream in somebody else’ mind, created by his brain just like God might be created by our brain.

I think we live under the illusion of having a solid ground under our feet. I did skydive, I know that after some time of falling, a man lose the sense of going down and it starts to seem normal. Allow yourself to feel the wind playing with your hair while you are falling down… scary, most people would rather believe in the illusion of stability they put themselves into… are they right? Am I right? I don’t know!
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Transition: fowl thieves, God, and Ethics.

I discovered that current writers steal old philosophers’ ideas without referencing to them. I thought the following thieves were significant before I discovered their misconduct:

1- Nassim Talib: the black Swan.. The whole story of a Christmas turkey not knowing that the everyday food it is provided with will end by a knife was first made up by Hume. The fact that Talib took “Chicken” and put “Turkey” does not make him the inventor.

2- Abdulkareem Surush: in his book “Brain and freedom; العقل والحرية” surush talked about freedom and how freedom will allow only the good idea to survive. This idea was first made up by Hegel.

Philosophy is bringing me closer to God but further from religion.

A prayer for money, cure, driving Satan away from your food, protect you in the bathroom..etc. Those makes sense in the uncertain world we used to live in. Imaging if a lot of people die in the bathroom, wouldn’t you like to know that God is watching over you there because you read the prayer? Is this real comfort or only the illusion of comfort? Do you know? I don’t...

In my opinion they turned God to a grocery keeper. Somebody needs to speak up and reform Islam; otherwise we will face an ethic-less generation soon. I think people will start taking off the religious clothes, as with more education liberalism prevails. The problem strikes when liberalism comes without a notion of ethics.

I fear the generation that believes liberalism means drinking, clubbing, and sex even though the ability to do that is part of liberalism. We need a generation that believes in the liberalism of ideas, and knowledge and produce work out of that liberalism.
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Tigger, The bouncy tiger

I visited Shaikh Numor Al Numor in Awamia this weekend. The Shaikh is known to be an extreme form of Shia opposition in Saudi Arabia. He is very oriented and very smart, even though the Sunni-Shia divide is engraved in his brain. He sees it everywhere but he did not fight back when I discussed with him that the divide in Saudi is not Sunni-Shia, it is more government-people. The idea of Shia integral tendency to fight opposition is another issue we discussed. He is too smart to believe in the crap people demand to hear from him. The dirt of politics…

Radi Alzayer June 19th 2011
Pic from: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=chocolate+matrix#/dqfesc

ترنُّح

دبابيس حادة
تتناهش عظمي..ة
آخر القطيع..ة
أعرج
تشفق الأسود
من نهش لحمي..ة
ترافق العمر
لموت بطيء..ة
أوصال تقطعت
من زيف جسمي..ة
ضريحي يصرخ
مابال هذي الجثة..ة
تأبى رحمي..ة
تترنح طمعاً
وشبقاً..ة
وتصرخ كذباً.. ة
بالخلاص..ة
***
أذانٌ..ة
أين ومتى بدأ؟
يزلزل
في علو النخيل
الصدأ..ة
مللت
من ختام القصص..ة
لكفري
طعمٌ آخرٌ..ة
يدفء أديم الأرضِ..ة
لجسدي ِ..ة
مطرك..ة
يخفي تحت رحمته
غرقاً..ة
يبعد الأوراق التي
أخفت شبقاً...ة
وأول زائر للأعماق..سفينتي

رضي الزاير
16th of May 2011
Two friends in one week is it too much?

Pic from: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=ashintherainbow#/d1xebkf