A personal theory on human spirituality, the universe, and the gods

[alanford]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a personal theory and hear your thoughts on it, this might also be more common belief then I realize, but I haven’t come across anyone talking about it before. I’d also love to hear other perspectives if anyone is interested

I do not know why this universe exists—if it was even purposefully created by any beings at all. But I strongly believe that its creation had nothing to do with us. I think humanity is more or less a coincidence. Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, which is about 9 billion years after the Big Bang. Since then, life on this planet has gone through countless stages and eras (like the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Permian), filled with species that came and went long before humans arrived.

To me, it doesn't make sense that some divine force would wait over 13 billion years just for humans to appear—especially considering that there are an estimated 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

What I do believe is that, at some point, certain gods or spiritual entities may have noticed that humans possess a unique spiritual potential or consciousness. Perhaps 50 or so thousand years ago, they began communicating through especially intuitive or "psychic" individuals, leading to the formation of early tribal religions and later, major spiritual traditions.

I don’t fully understand why they’d do this—maybe they benefit from human gratitude or worship energetically, or maybe they simply want to help guide us. Because of this, I tend to think that most deities from various traditions—Hindu, Pagan, Shinto etc.—are “real” in some way, perhaps as different entities interacting with different cultures across time.

However, I don't believe in a single, all-powerful god that created everything. The idea of countless universes, dimensions, and timelines—potentially with different laws of physics—makes it hard for me to believe there's one ultimate source behind it all. It feels more like a vast, complex reality than a unified intentional plan.

Do you think I’m more right than wrong or vice versa? What are your own theories?

 

[Anziel_Merkaba]

My current theory is that reality is just a collective illusion that grows as we learn about it. The idea is that in the beginning everything was formless and as things formed laws were created to give order to the chaos, and as we discover more about the world the more laws retroactively come into existence.

Basically, laws retroactively have always existed from when we seek to find them, and before the laws were created the world was less rigid, and newer laws override older laws. Coincidentally, with the world becoming more rigid with more laws, magic has become lesser because it works within the gaps between laws. Before we discovered quantum mechanics we worked under the framework of general relativity, and before that was Newtonian physics, and before that was the various philosophers of different ages, and before that was the untamed chaos of a world with only a skeleton of the framework of laws we currently have.

I don't know if the laws will retroactively cease to exist if there was no longer anyone who knew about them or any writings about them. It all started as formlessness, so would it not return to formlessness in the end?

 

[MidnightProphet]

There was, at a point in history, an initial impulse which put all things into motion.

The rest, with all due respect, has nothing to do with magic except for that the possibility for another reality can exist. We can use this to our benefit, but only if we cease from all other vain contemplation.

 

[alanford]

My current theory is that reality is just a collective illusion that grows as we learn about it. The idea is that in the beginning everything was formless and as things formed laws were created to give order to the chaos, and as we discover more about the world the more laws retroactively come into existence.

Basically, laws retroactively have always existed from when we seek to find them, and before the laws were created the world was less rigid, and newer laws override older laws. Coincidentally, with the world becoming more rigid with more laws, magic has become lesser because it works within the gaps between laws. Before we discovered quantum mechanics we worked under the framework of general relativity, and before that was Newtonian physics, and before that was the various philosophers of different ages, and before that was the untamed chaos of a world with only a skeleton of the framework of laws we currently have.

I don't know if the laws will retroactively cease to exist if there was no longer anyone who knew about them or any writings about them. It all started as formlessness, so would it not return to formlessness in the end?

Thats very interesting, it makes sense in a lot of ways.

Post automatically merged: May 10, 2025

There was, at a point in history, an initial impulse which put all things into motion.

The rest, with all due respect, has nothing to do with magic except for that the possibility for another reality can exist. We can use this to our benefit, but only if we cease from all other vain contemplation.

You are right, I should have posted this under the philosophy thread because this has very little to do with magic

 

[MidnightProphet]

Thats very interesting, it makes sense in a lot of ways.

Post automatically merged: May 10, 2025

You are right, I should have posted this under the philosophy thread because this has very little to do with magic

Not at all, not at all. What I meant to convey was that regardless of its trueness or falseness it has no impact on our ability to bring about a different reality in our own sphere.

 

[alanford]

Not at all, not at all. What I meant to convey was that regardless of its trueness or falseness it has no impact on our ability to bring about a different reality in our own sphere.

Thats true, but what if we could travel to another reality?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a personal theory and hear your thoughts on it, this might also be more common belief then I realize, but I haven’t come across anyone talking about it before. I’d also love to hear other perspectives if anyone is interested

I do not know why this universe exists—if it was even purposefully created by any beings at all. But I strongly believe that its creation had nothing to do with us. I think humanity is more or less a coincidence. Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago, which is about 9 billion years after the Big Bang. Since then, life on this planet has gone through countless stages and eras (like the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Permian), filled with species that came and went long before humans arrived.

To me, it doesn't make sense that some divine force would wait over 13 billion years just for humans to appear—especially considering that there are an estimated 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

What I do believe is that, at some point, certain gods or spiritual entities may have noticed that humans possess a unique spiritual potential or consciousness. Perhaps 50 or so thousand years ago, they began communicating through especially intuitive or "psychic" individuals, leading to the formation of early tribal religions and later, major spiritual traditions.

I don’t fully understand why they’d do this—maybe they benefit from human gratitude or worship energetically, or maybe they simply want to help guide us. Because of this, I tend to think that most deities from various traditions—Hindu, Pagan, Shinto etc.—are “real” in some way, perhaps as different entities interacting with different cultures across time.

However, I don't believe in a single, all-powerful god that created everything. The idea of countless universes, dimensions, and timelines—potentially with different laws of physics—makes it hard for me to believe there's one ultimate source behind it all. It feels more like a vast, complex reality than a unified intentional plan.

Do you think I’m more right than wrong or vice versa? What are your own theories?

There is a theory - more of a truism really - called "The Weak Anthropic Theory" which basically says that if conditions in the Universe weren't conducive to our form of intelligent life, we wouldn't be here to talk about it. Basically it's a rebuttal to the watchmaker hypothesis.

I personally don't believe there to be anything supernatural, only natural things which we can't yet explain. Calling anything 'supernatural' only throws into sharp relief how little we understand that thing. If you have something you don't understand, and you try to explain it with something else you don't understand, you now have two things to explain instead of one.

I believe (much of) religion to be a two part entity: 1) a moral code; don't kill people, don't sleep with your sister, try to be a better person etc. and 2) a variable (and usually not very good) way of doing magic. As the Chaos Magicians have it: Magic requires a belief system, but it doesn't matter what that belief system is - you just have to believe it. Thus, I also believe magic to be a side effect of the process of normal human consciousness, in the same way that the wheel, New York, wars etc. are also side effects of that process.

As for the reality of deities, it is possible for things to be real, and yet not actually exist. The concrete example I always give is money. Money is certainly real. Does it actually exist? Cryptobros would like you to think so, and yet when it says on a British banknote "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of X pounds" what are you going to get if you march into the Bank of England and demand your X pounds?

Post automatically merged: May 12, 2025

Thats true, but what if we could travel to another reality?

I like to think that we are travelling to different realities all the time, like frames in a movie. There is no privileged observer, as they say in physics.