What is the Force

Alive vs not-alive is an interesting one. Science delivers its answers on this matter in a reasonably well-defined way. However, there are valid alternatives.

We look at the sea and say the water is not-alive and it is the plants and animals that live in it that are alive. Yet from a more holistic perspective the sea is alive with these life-forms. The distinctions we make between these things have utility but they don’t necessarily exist separate from our analysis.

I don’t think it’s outrageous to say that life exists in the universe. It’s then just a question of where you want to draw your dividing lines. I think the sea is alive, the earth is alive, the sun is alive (we live in its ‘heliosphere’)and the universe is alive. Not because of some woo-woo theory - simply because life exists in the universe.

Sure, one can say that. But then what isn't alive? If we want to extend the definition so far as to encompass pretty much everything around us then it ceases to have any meaning. If everything is alive, then being alive is not special anymore, it's rather just the same thing as existing at all. Chances are we'd be trying to invent a new word to distinguish things that are alive by the new definition from things that were alive by the old one and we'll call it... ashmive. You and I are ashmive, but the rock isn't, the rock is just alive.
Nothing is wrong technically about doing it, but why go through the trouble if it'd just cost a bunch of effort to arrive at exactly the same place we started out on? Redefining words to the point where they don't convey ideas anymore doesn't rid us of the ideas or of the want to communicate them, it just rids us of the old words unnecessarily opening space for new ones.

Manu wrote:

Uzima Moto wrote: EVERYTHING is The Force..

Uzima Moto wrote: What is The Force, you ask? Living Light-Energy that is the foundation of ALL that exists. Natural or Super"natural"..

You state everything is the Force, but then you go on to narrow it down by saying it is "Light-Energy" (as opposed to what? Darkness, Void?) and the foundation of all that exists (so is it all that exists, or only its foundation).

The Void is emptiness. It Is, yet Is Not.. the existing nonexistence..
It's both the foundation of ALL and is ALL. This is where you enter the territory of differentiation. Where patterns, forms, and realities take shape. All being based on the nature of the root cause..

DARKNESS is not alive..

The simple fact that simple atoms, like those in a star, eventually coalesce into complex, and sometimes conscious, lifeforms. Tells me that we use the word "living" incorrectly in popular culture. I'd rather use "animate", or "having soul" to differentiate. Existence is living, having soul experiences existence, consciousness contemplates the experience of existence..

How could knowing that everything is living cheapen the experience for you? It connects me to EVERYTHING around me on a level I didn't think possible.. Maybe there's some pride in feeling special. Though I wouldn't consider people here religious. Ironically, that's the same talk I hear from Creationists. "If God didn't hand craft us, and we're just random acts of nature. Then there's nothing special about us."

Which my question that is twofold..
What is special to you?
Why do you need to feel special?

I feel aware, not special. I know that, under The Force itself, we as conscious beings are the pinnacle of Reality as far as complexity goes. We, similar to The Force, are a sum of all parts. Mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Although, The Force is generator of all parts.. yet also the consummation of them as well.. in a literal sense.. Alpha and Omega..

The Force that underlies reality is intelligent and alive.. it's the only explanation to how reality can be ordered and animated essentially almost out of nothing..

Whatever this Power is, it's always been there. The Void is the space it occupies.. not the origination point..

Uzima Moto wrote: The simple fact that simple atoms, like those in a star, eventually coalesce into complex, and sometimes conscious, lifeforms. Tells me that we use the word "living" incorrectly in popular culture. I'd rather use "animate", or "having soul" to differentiate. Existence is living, having soul experiences existence, consciousness contemplates the experience of existence..

There is no such thing as a soul.

Gisteron wrote:

Uzima Moto wrote: The simple fact that simple atoms, like those in a star, eventually coalesce into complex, and sometimes conscious, lifeforms. Tells me that we use the word "living" incorrectly in popular culture. I'd rather use "animate", or "having soul" to differentiate. Existence is living, having soul experiences existence, consciousness contemplates the experience of existence..

There is no such thing as a soul.

Well that's bleak, and really just from our current and still primitive scientific point of view....

A pity you feel that way. Alas, nature really doesn't much cater to our sensibilities. That some of us find it bleak changes very little at all about it.

Uzima Moto wrote: DARKNESS is not alive..

The simple fact that simple atoms, like those in a star, eventually coalesce into complex, and sometimes conscious, lifeforms. Tells me that we use the word "living" incorrectly in popular culture. I'd rather use "animate", or "having soul" to differentiate. Existence is living, having soul experiences existence, consciousness contemplates the experience of existence..

How could knowing that everything is living cheapen the experience for you? It connects me to EVERYTHING around me on a level I didn't think possible.. Maybe there's some pride in feeling special. Though I wouldn't consider people here religious. Ironically, that's the same talk I hear from Creationists. "If God didn't hand craft us, and we're just random acts of nature. Then there's nothing special about us."

Which my question that is twofold..
What is special to you?
Why do you need to feel special?

I feel aware, not special. I know that, under The Force itself, we as conscious beings are the pinnacle of Reality as far as complexity goes. We, similar to The Force, are a sum of all parts. Mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Although, The Force is generator of all parts.. yet also the consummation of them as well.. in a literal sense.. Alpha and Omega..

Ok. So, if the Force is everything, then why do we need to even think about “The Force” as a new term with distinct meaning, if we already have the word “everything”?

Soul is a difficult word / concept. If it is a 'thing' its probably not physical, not of the material world. I suspect Gisteron doesn't know whether it exists, or not. We have no evidence for it from science, and science can only deal with that for which there is evidence. Therefore the working theory in science, is that there is no such thing. That is different from it not existing. He may well be right that there is no such 'thing'.

The Force, as a concept, can be helpful because it allows us to view 'everything' through a different lens. Everything ceases to be 'other' and allows us to more easily see the connection between ourselves and things we had previously assumed to be separate. If you already view reality holistically then you probably don't need a new word for 'everything'. Most people don't see reality this way and therefore The Force can be a useful concept.