Why Are We Here & Why Do We Suffer? 9 Models of Reality and My Analysis of Them
Posted: September 18th, 2021, 1:12 am
We all know the timeless questions about why we are here and why we suffer in this world. From my research and study in philosophy, religion, spirituailty, occult, Gnosticism, and metaphysics, here are the models both ancient and contemporary, that try to answer these questions. Here is a summary of them below, after which I will post my analysis of the pros and cons of each model. Which do you think best fits ALL the data? Which resonates with you the most?
1. Christian Model: The world was created by a perfect all loving all powerful God who put a Forbidden Tree in the Garden of Eden to test Adam and Eve's obedience. They failed the test by sinning and eating the forbidden fruit, and that's why the world is in the mess that it is in today. The Earth is a battleground for souls between God and Satan. The saved who accept Jesus as their savior are on God's side and everyone else is on Satan's side, no matter how good they are, because no one who is unsaved is good in the eyes of God, even if they are genuinely good people in reality. We all know about this model. It's part of mainstream Western culture. In Evangelical versions, if you are saved, you go to heaven, if not you go to hell. In other versions your good works are weighed on a scale against your bad works, and whichever side is higher determines your afterlife. In the Catholic version, there is Purgatory as well, which is a temporary place between heaven and hell. Suffering exists in this world because the first humans, Adam and Eve, chose to sin in the Garden of Eden, and we are all paying the price for that in a fallen world.
2. Atheist/Materialist Model: The universe was created by a Big Bang from a void of potentiality. We were created by a combination of accident, random chance, evolution, and unguided processes, without any intelligent Creator or God or divine being of any sort. There is no purpose in the universe or life. No one knows how life began or how the first biological cells began replicating, but science may discover the answer someday. Only the material world exists. There is no spirit world or soul or God, and consciousness is just an illusion and generated by the brain only. This model is fixed and unchanging and ignores all contrary data no matter how credible or valid. In this model, there is no explanation for suffering or purpose for it.
3. New Age School of Life Model: This is the New Age model. It says that this world is a classroom to learn lessons from in each of our incarnations via the reincarnation cycle, so we can grow and ascend into higher planes of existence, such as heaven or nirvana or whatever. Unlearned lessons are taught again in the next life, until you grow into a highly evolved spiritual being or achieve enlightenment. Then you can escape the wheel of karma and reincarnation and ascend into higher dimensions or levels of heaven where you will be free of suffering and karma and can enjoy a perfect paradise where all your wishes manifest instantaneously. Suffering exists as a tool to teach us lessons or is part of karma.
4. ET Experiment Model: We were created by ancient aliens or genetially altered by them from our pre-existing state, to serve as their laboratory experiment or petri dish, for some cold calculating experiment without any regard for our suffering in this world. We are like lab rats. Another variation of this is that we are a prison colony for renegade ETs and bad souls who are selfish and corrupt, and quarantined here so our toxic nature doesn't affect the rest of the universe. Suffering is part of the experiment but the purpose is not known.
5. Soul Farm Trap Model: We are a resource to be used as food or energy by entities that feed and prey on us, both physically and energetically. This world is a human farm and we are cattle to be exploited, used, consumed, toyed with, experimented with, f***ed with, etc. by 4th dimensional entities. Just as we prey on animals and plants for food, so they do to us. They have to deceive us to keep us in the matrix though, so they create a lot of BS to keep us deceived and distracted, like religion, entertainment, New Age spirituality, Eastern spirituality, consumerism, false hope, self-help, and all kinds of BS to keep the illusion that "tomorrow will be a better day" when in reality tomorrow is usually just more of the same. But the illusion and lie has to be kept going. We are recycled at death into another body (reincarnation) so we can be kept in the soul trap farm. This is grim and there is little or no hope, so false illusions and false hope and fake optimism must constantly maintained to distract the human cattle so they will accept their predicament. The Matrix movies depict this sort of model, where humans are batteries to be used by an A.I. system. Suffering exists so the entities around us in the spirit world and 4th dimension can feed off us. They benefit from it.
6. Computer Simulation Model: We are in the matrix or virtual reality or digital universe, like in the Matrix movies. Perhaps as an experiment, or as entertainment, or a SIMS game. No one knows. We can only speculate. There is some interesting evidence for this hypothesis from science and physics. The universe also has holographic properties and digital properties as well. This model does not explain why suffering exists in the simulation, it could be part of the game or experiment or test.
7. Hindu/Buddhist Eternal Cosmic Cycle and Wheel of Karma Model: This is the Hindu/Vedic/Buddhist philosophy and cosmology. It has many variations and is taught in Eastern religions, some variants of Buddhism, Theosophy (which contains Vedic cosmology), as well as some New Age groups too. Basically, the universe is an eternal cosmic cycle of ups and downs. There is no objective good or evil, only cycles of constant change, just like the days and seasons of the year. It also includes karma and reincarnation in its Wheel of Samsara, which has a pictorial depicting how humans evolve up from plants and animals, who evolved up from rocks and minerals. If humans can shed their karma and reach enlightenment, they can ascend to higher planes where the gods reside. There are many levels of heaven in the Eastern model. But eventually even the gods and enlightened beings have to come back down again and restart the process over again, otherwise it gets stale after a while, even in paradise. If humans do bad or accrue negative karma, then they can devolve back down into the animal and plant kingdom and be reborn there. And if someone is really bad or evil, their souls will be burned up in hell and destroyed and be sent back to the rock and mineral kingdom, to start the process over again from the bottom up.
Suffering exists because of karma, desire, attachment, and craving, and is part of the law of cause and effect, which is part of the wheel of karma and rebirth. To cease suffering, one has to get rid of their karma, both good and bad, and release themselves from desire, craving, and attachment. To do that, one has to embrace the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness or impermanence. (In the Buddhist variation) Suffering also exists because it's part of the balance of polarities, represented by the iconic Ying Yang symbol, without which pleasure and joy cannot exist because everything must have an opposite to keep existence in balance between the polarity of opposites.
The Earth also has cyclical eras where mankind evolves and devoles. We are in the Kali Yuga cycle now, which is the Dark Ages and full of ignorance and materialism and scientism and is a cold/cruel world. But we are coming out of it into the Bronze Age. The Great Year Cycle consists of a 25,000 year cycle from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, then the Bronze Age, down to the Kali Yuga and then back up again. One theory says the cycle is tied to a twin star in our solar system and as our Sun gets closer to its twin star, the Golden Age arrives, and as it veers away from it, we descend back down into darkness again. When the universe ends, it goes into a cosmic sleep and darkness for a long time while nothing exists, and then reawaken again to begin the next big bang, and the cycle starts again. Unfortunately, this means that even if you go to heaven, it's not forever, as immortality gets boring and stale after a while. So once the cycle starts again, all those higher souls who ascended into heaven or nirvana or became gods, will then come down to be reborn again to suffer as humans or animals in the physical plane, so they can learn lessons and ascend again. This cycle is eternal and always changing. It had no beginning and will have no end.
8. Pantheism and God's Dream Model: This is also a Hindu/Vedic and New Age model that exists in conjunction to the previous Hindu model, and is part of the cosmology of Hinduism. It is Pantheistic in that God is everything and everything is God in this model. It says that before the universe was created, God was bored being in unity consciousness all the time. So he decided to split himself into infinite fragments that form everything in the universe and forget that he's God, so he can have experiences while rediscovering himself. So basically, we are God's dream and we are fragments of God dreaming of himself. Suffering exists because it is part of God's intention to have experiences, both good and bad, and part of the learning process to discover himself too.
9. Deism, Pandeism, Panpsychism Model: In the Deism model, God created the universe and then left it that way, without being actively involved in it. He either left and went somewhere else and let the universe run its course, or has no ability to intervene in world affairs or fix any of the world's problems. This was the popular view among 18th Century intellectuals, such as the Founding Fathers of America, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Thomas Paine, author of the great treatise exposing the Christian church "Age of Reason". Even Charles Darwin was a Deist, not an Atheist as Atheists would hope. It was also the view of great geniuses like Albert Einstein and philosophers such as Spinoza. Pandeism means that God is the universe as in Pantheism but he is not a personal God who can intervene or interact with us. Panpsychism means that not only is the universe God, but everything in the universe has consciousness, including rocks, meteors, water, and stars. It's similar to Animism, which ancient tribal cultures believed in and states that everything has a soul or spirit. In these models, there is no explanation for suffering. It's just a part of nature, perhaps a part of dualism since for pleasure to exist pain must also.
Which of these do you think best fits reality and makes the most sense? Can they all be true? Are they mutually exclusive? Can the matrix be all those things at the same time? What do you think?
I will give my analysis of the above in a later post below.
1. Christian Model: The world was created by a perfect all loving all powerful God who put a Forbidden Tree in the Garden of Eden to test Adam and Eve's obedience. They failed the test by sinning and eating the forbidden fruit, and that's why the world is in the mess that it is in today. The Earth is a battleground for souls between God and Satan. The saved who accept Jesus as their savior are on God's side and everyone else is on Satan's side, no matter how good they are, because no one who is unsaved is good in the eyes of God, even if they are genuinely good people in reality. We all know about this model. It's part of mainstream Western culture. In Evangelical versions, if you are saved, you go to heaven, if not you go to hell. In other versions your good works are weighed on a scale against your bad works, and whichever side is higher determines your afterlife. In the Catholic version, there is Purgatory as well, which is a temporary place between heaven and hell. Suffering exists in this world because the first humans, Adam and Eve, chose to sin in the Garden of Eden, and we are all paying the price for that in a fallen world.
2. Atheist/Materialist Model: The universe was created by a Big Bang from a void of potentiality. We were created by a combination of accident, random chance, evolution, and unguided processes, without any intelligent Creator or God or divine being of any sort. There is no purpose in the universe or life. No one knows how life began or how the first biological cells began replicating, but science may discover the answer someday. Only the material world exists. There is no spirit world or soul or God, and consciousness is just an illusion and generated by the brain only. This model is fixed and unchanging and ignores all contrary data no matter how credible or valid. In this model, there is no explanation for suffering or purpose for it.
3. New Age School of Life Model: This is the New Age model. It says that this world is a classroom to learn lessons from in each of our incarnations via the reincarnation cycle, so we can grow and ascend into higher planes of existence, such as heaven or nirvana or whatever. Unlearned lessons are taught again in the next life, until you grow into a highly evolved spiritual being or achieve enlightenment. Then you can escape the wheel of karma and reincarnation and ascend into higher dimensions or levels of heaven where you will be free of suffering and karma and can enjoy a perfect paradise where all your wishes manifest instantaneously. Suffering exists as a tool to teach us lessons or is part of karma.
4. ET Experiment Model: We were created by ancient aliens or genetially altered by them from our pre-existing state, to serve as their laboratory experiment or petri dish, for some cold calculating experiment without any regard for our suffering in this world. We are like lab rats. Another variation of this is that we are a prison colony for renegade ETs and bad souls who are selfish and corrupt, and quarantined here so our toxic nature doesn't affect the rest of the universe. Suffering is part of the experiment but the purpose is not known.
5. Soul Farm Trap Model: We are a resource to be used as food or energy by entities that feed and prey on us, both physically and energetically. This world is a human farm and we are cattle to be exploited, used, consumed, toyed with, experimented with, f***ed with, etc. by 4th dimensional entities. Just as we prey on animals and plants for food, so they do to us. They have to deceive us to keep us in the matrix though, so they create a lot of BS to keep us deceived and distracted, like religion, entertainment, New Age spirituality, Eastern spirituality, consumerism, false hope, self-help, and all kinds of BS to keep the illusion that "tomorrow will be a better day" when in reality tomorrow is usually just more of the same. But the illusion and lie has to be kept going. We are recycled at death into another body (reincarnation) so we can be kept in the soul trap farm. This is grim and there is little or no hope, so false illusions and false hope and fake optimism must constantly maintained to distract the human cattle so they will accept their predicament. The Matrix movies depict this sort of model, where humans are batteries to be used by an A.I. system. Suffering exists so the entities around us in the spirit world and 4th dimension can feed off us. They benefit from it.
6. Computer Simulation Model: We are in the matrix or virtual reality or digital universe, like in the Matrix movies. Perhaps as an experiment, or as entertainment, or a SIMS game. No one knows. We can only speculate. There is some interesting evidence for this hypothesis from science and physics. The universe also has holographic properties and digital properties as well. This model does not explain why suffering exists in the simulation, it could be part of the game or experiment or test.
7. Hindu/Buddhist Eternal Cosmic Cycle and Wheel of Karma Model: This is the Hindu/Vedic/Buddhist philosophy and cosmology. It has many variations and is taught in Eastern religions, some variants of Buddhism, Theosophy (which contains Vedic cosmology), as well as some New Age groups too. Basically, the universe is an eternal cosmic cycle of ups and downs. There is no objective good or evil, only cycles of constant change, just like the days and seasons of the year. It also includes karma and reincarnation in its Wheel of Samsara, which has a pictorial depicting how humans evolve up from plants and animals, who evolved up from rocks and minerals. If humans can shed their karma and reach enlightenment, they can ascend to higher planes where the gods reside. There are many levels of heaven in the Eastern model. But eventually even the gods and enlightened beings have to come back down again and restart the process over again, otherwise it gets stale after a while, even in paradise. If humans do bad or accrue negative karma, then they can devolve back down into the animal and plant kingdom and be reborn there. And if someone is really bad or evil, their souls will be burned up in hell and destroyed and be sent back to the rock and mineral kingdom, to start the process over again from the bottom up.
Suffering exists because of karma, desire, attachment, and craving, and is part of the law of cause and effect, which is part of the wheel of karma and rebirth. To cease suffering, one has to get rid of their karma, both good and bad, and release themselves from desire, craving, and attachment. To do that, one has to embrace the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness or impermanence. (In the Buddhist variation) Suffering also exists because it's part of the balance of polarities, represented by the iconic Ying Yang symbol, without which pleasure and joy cannot exist because everything must have an opposite to keep existence in balance between the polarity of opposites.
The Earth also has cyclical eras where mankind evolves and devoles. We are in the Kali Yuga cycle now, which is the Dark Ages and full of ignorance and materialism and scientism and is a cold/cruel world. But we are coming out of it into the Bronze Age. The Great Year Cycle consists of a 25,000 year cycle from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, then the Bronze Age, down to the Kali Yuga and then back up again. One theory says the cycle is tied to a twin star in our solar system and as our Sun gets closer to its twin star, the Golden Age arrives, and as it veers away from it, we descend back down into darkness again. When the universe ends, it goes into a cosmic sleep and darkness for a long time while nothing exists, and then reawaken again to begin the next big bang, and the cycle starts again. Unfortunately, this means that even if you go to heaven, it's not forever, as immortality gets boring and stale after a while. So once the cycle starts again, all those higher souls who ascended into heaven or nirvana or became gods, will then come down to be reborn again to suffer as humans or animals in the physical plane, so they can learn lessons and ascend again. This cycle is eternal and always changing. It had no beginning and will have no end.
8. Pantheism and God's Dream Model: This is also a Hindu/Vedic and New Age model that exists in conjunction to the previous Hindu model, and is part of the cosmology of Hinduism. It is Pantheistic in that God is everything and everything is God in this model. It says that before the universe was created, God was bored being in unity consciousness all the time. So he decided to split himself into infinite fragments that form everything in the universe and forget that he's God, so he can have experiences while rediscovering himself. So basically, we are God's dream and we are fragments of God dreaming of himself. Suffering exists because it is part of God's intention to have experiences, both good and bad, and part of the learning process to discover himself too.
9. Deism, Pandeism, Panpsychism Model: In the Deism model, God created the universe and then left it that way, without being actively involved in it. He either left and went somewhere else and let the universe run its course, or has no ability to intervene in world affairs or fix any of the world's problems. This was the popular view among 18th Century intellectuals, such as the Founding Fathers of America, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Thomas Paine, author of the great treatise exposing the Christian church "Age of Reason". Even Charles Darwin was a Deist, not an Atheist as Atheists would hope. It was also the view of great geniuses like Albert Einstein and philosophers such as Spinoza. Pandeism means that God is the universe as in Pantheism but he is not a personal God who can intervene or interact with us. Panpsychism means that not only is the universe God, but everything in the universe has consciousness, including rocks, meteors, water, and stars. It's similar to Animism, which ancient tribal cultures believed in and states that everything has a soul or spirit. In these models, there is no explanation for suffering. It's just a part of nature, perhaps a part of dualism since for pleasure to exist pain must also.
Which of these do you think best fits reality and makes the most sense? Can they all be true? Are they mutually exclusive? Can the matrix be all those things at the same time? What do you think?
I will give my analysis of the above in a later post below.