YOU WIN! CONGRATUALTIONS! No longer believe life to be an emergent property of the universe in which we live. Now what?
You have absolutely no place to go. There is but-shit nothing you can say about the emergence of life in this universe without referencing the universe itself or its contents and still make sense. Making a claim of knowing something outside the universe is pure bullshit and based on nothing but imagination.
I literally had this discussion with a coworker, who is Christian, just two nights ago. He mentioned that “Jesus came down.”
“Came down from where?” I asked.
“From Heaven.”
“Where in the hell do you think that is?”
“Out there.” (Pointing up.)
“We have sent probes ‘out there’ and no one has seen a trace of Heaven.”
“It’s beyond the universe.”
“So, Heaven is a place outside the universe?”
“How in the fuck would you know that? Did you go there in a dream? Are you experiencing revelation? Do you have a magic crystal ball? Did Jesus whisper it in your ear? How in the hell do you know what is beyond the universe when no one else in the world knows what is beyond the universe?”
(Topic Change) AWWWWW FUCK! I don’t recall what he tried to shift it to. So fucking common with the damn theists.
“Excuse me… We are not moving a step further in this conversation until you admit that you don’t have a fucking idea what is beyond the universe.”
(Topic Change 2 Attmepted)
“No. You need to admit that you have no way of knowing anything at all about anything at all that may or may not be beyond the universe,”
(Excuse Attempte…)
“Just admit that you don’t know”
(Mumbled in a very soft voice… “SERIOUSLY” ) “Okay, I don’t know.”
Then he talked about love of god and I countered with atrocities. He told me about hell by attempting a version of Pascal’s wager, I countered with being more moral than his asshole god and eternal punishment for finite crimes. The night ended with him placing his hand on my shoulder and saying he would pray for me. I told him to waste his time any way he liked, it was his life. We ended the night with a hug and well wishes, and both went on our way.
He is big on making a distinction between Christian Religion and Christianity. To be Christian is to be Christlike. I countered with, when the 32,000 Christian religions get together and actually define what it means to be Christ Like, get back to me.
He talked about love and I talked about making whips and beating people. He talked about sacrifice and salvation, I talked about condemning any town that will not listen to your message with complete annihilation. Jesus was an asshole. There was no miracle he did that can not be performed by a stage magician today and the big miracles, like the world into darkness or zombies walking the streets are not attested to by any reputable historian.
Anyway, I got carried away. More here about my conversation and not just… Knowing about shit beyond the universe. Anyone professing to know shit about shit beyond the universe is a piece of shit. They are lying because they are but-shit stupid or because they are manipulative assholes.