Square One

After posting my latest rant last night in the comments section I turned to my wife and said, "blah.. blah.. blah.. outrageous.. blah.. Can you believe that?!"

She made me realize something that I had totally missed. I provoked people into a discussion (purposefully) but then all I did was rant! I was so focused on proving everyone wrong that I wasn't listening. That's not discussing. And it isn't fun, which defeated the purpose.

If I want to have fun, then I have to discuss. Discussion shouldn't be about changing beliefs, it should be about exploring them.

So, if anyone is still interested, I'd like to have a discussion and actually listen to you.

My Understanding of Life

This hypothesis is put together from a bunch of different sources and my imagination.

I think humans have three parts:

• The body, which we perceive right now, that also dies and decomposes.
• The soul, which is our individual personality that gives us an identity that makes us unique.
• The spirit, which is what we really are, and which had no beginning and can't die.

These also correspond to the Trinity concept of God:

• The Father, the unique identity that controls everything
• The Son, the body that is the physical part that eventually dies and goes away
• The Holy Spirit - The infinite spirit that we can't see, but that is what we are made of, and which is permanent.

My Understanding of the World

By "world" I mean both Earth and the physical universe. All the stuff here we can observe and interact with. When I can't explain something literally I use metaphors, so don't get hung up on my inadequate descriptions.

• The world has a beginning and an end, like the body
• The world has a definite purpose, which I will explain later
•  The world has a set of rules that can't be broken (We can't fly, we can't be invisible, if something hits us it hurts, etc.)
• Our bodies are like characters in a video game. Our spirit is like the player of the game, immersed in it, but existing outside of it.
• Our video game character gets only one life to play.
• Our characters can be killed in the game and then we don't get to play anymore
• Our character (body) getting killed in the game (the world) does not affect us as the players on the outside. 
• We can watch the game after our character dies, but while it's going on we can't interact.
• God is always watching the game, but can't play unless he creates a character with a body to play "for" him.
• The game started to get stupid and nobody was having fun.
• The characters forgot about their player, and thought they WERE the player.
• When they forgot about their players they began to do anything they could to stay alive, including killing other characters, making them slaves, etc.
• God was sitting there watching the game take a bad turn, and He Sayeth, "OH MY... um... SELF! What are these idiots doing?"
• So, God created a character that he played for about 33 years, and he spent some time reminding us of the rules, but also reminding us that even if our character dies, our spirit(the player) is still alive outside the game.
• Before he left, he gave us some clues and some power-ups that would remind us that it is only a game.

Why are we playing this game?

I believe our spirit-selves hang out in heaven with God. I think about 14 billion years ago we were all sitting around and were bored. We had peace, bliss, and we knew EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. Nothing bad ever happened. There was nothing interesting to do.

I think we (or God or whoever) came up with a game to play. Since we knew everything about heaven, the only interesting thing to do was to put ourselves into a game and find out everything we didn't know, and find out what heaven is NOT.

We could have made a movie, but a 14 billion-year movie would be boring. It would be almost as long as Titanic.

It would only be interesting if we could actually insert ourselves into the game. It's the difference between sitting there and watching your brother play, and grabbing a controller yourself.

The more interactive the game was, the more fun it was.

Just like a game it was only fun if everybody had to play by the same rules. We came up with the rules (or God did) and we all agreed to them.

What are the Rules?

Some of the rules I'm sure about, some of them I'm not sure about, but that all has to do with Rule 1.

1. Everybody has to play at the highest difficulty setting. This means totally forgetting who you really are and where you came from. No cheat codes, no do-overs.
2. You have to be fully immersed and experience what your character experiences.
3. You don't know the identity of the other characters (because in real life we know everybody already)
4. You actions in the game affect other characters in the game.
5. The game has to progress naturally. There is no pre-determined outcome.
6. There is no winning or losing. Our point was to explore and experience.
7. You get to play until your character dies, or turns 80 (or whatever) so other people can play.
8. The more you help other players, the more you enjoy the game, and the longer you survive.
9. If you go around killing other players for shits and giggles, you are going to get whacked.
10. There is a manual, but a lot of us didn't were too ADHD to read it so we just started playing. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth because we had NO IDEA what the hell was going on.
11. Because the game does not have a defined endpoint it has to develop naturally and the course of the game can be altered by the characters, particularly if a bunch of them group together for a common task.
12. Because the game is still in Beta, there are bugs and artifacts. Some are unpredictable, like natural disasters. Some are purposely created by spawn campers who have a sick fascination with having masses of people play for them. They do this by finding n00bs and giving them a manual they wrote, and telling them, "STFU, RTFM!" and the n00bs do it (because they are n00bs and want to have an advantage).
13. If you play it safe and never go out and experience the best and worst of the game, you will hate it. You are a n00b and you will get pwn3d. Then you will be watching your brother play again and go, "I didn't realize that level was there."
14. FINALLY - It is only a game. When the game is over you go about your normal business. Since it is only a game there are no consequences to you in real life for how you played, although the characters in the game will remember you as a real jerkface.

Realizing this is only a metaphor, what do you think? Does some of it sound plausible, or is the whole thing jacked up?

Thanks!