Chapter 2628 Dream and Reality
"And when we die, the destination of the soul is neither in the brain pool nor heaven to rest in. Either it is completely annihilated, or it is swallowed by the higher life that dominates our dreams, just like you just swallowed the water in the vat. brain."
Joan stopped to think for a while, and then explained his doubts.
"We might as well push this idea to the extreme. Maybe even your 'spiritual princess' is not a real object, but an image I imagined in the tank."
"Of course, the reverse is also the same. I probably don't exist. Just because you want a friend like me, you created such a character named Gnostic in your dream."
"Brother Gnostic, you have raised an interesting question, and I can try to answer it."
Metatron thought for a while, then slowly said: "When you start to think about whether you exist, it has already shown that you are real, otherwise you will not be able to think at all."
The argument of "Spirit Princess" can be boiled down to one sentence, "I think, therefore I am", but Joan does not agree with this concept.
"You take the ability to think as the essence of life, and use your ability to think to prove your existence. This is actually a circular argument."
"In fact, existence precedes thinking, prior perception, prior to all other essences."
"It's like the brains in a vat in your laboratory. They all think and have a complete set of views on the world they live in, but they don't live in reality. In the same way, you can't prove that you are not in another vat. The brain is not contained in a higher dimensional jar."
Hearing Joan's rebuttal, Metatron shrugged and spread his hands with a wry smile.
"I have to admit that your criticism hits the nail on the head, Brother Gnostics, what we have now is an unfalsifiable problem that cannot be solved by scientific experiments or other rational tools."
"For this problem, most intelligent races have two attitudes."
"First of all, it is based on the principle of empiricism, and all such metaphysical propositions are not helpful to solve practical problems such as eating, drinking and drinking, and are not worthy of serious discussion."
"This attitude is like 'blindfolding and pretending it's dark'. It's pure self-deception. When you feel anxious about a problem, even if others say it's not important, it won't relieve you from anxiety."
"Another point of view is to turn to religious belief. As long as you are willing to believe that there is an omniscient and omnipotent god who created the entire world and all living beings with great power beyond comprehension by mortals, and all questions can be traced back to the source. There is nothing to doubt, because all destiny is arranged by God, as long as you have a sincere belief, you can gain peace of mind, and your soul after death will also ascend to the promised land commensurate with your belief."
"If you don't want to avoid problems, and don't want to anesthetize yourself with beliefs, there is only the third path left, which is the path that our mind flayers insist on—using collective life to hedge against individual emptiness."
"Brother Gnostics, look at me, look at the compatriots around you, and open up your heart to communicate with your compatriots. When you realize that you are not the only one who is confused by such problems, will you feel more at ease?"
"Being alone is a sin, privacy is a source of pain, and living in a group, fellow citizens will help you share all the confusion and pain."
"If life is an illusory dream, so what? Anyway, you are not the only one who is deceived, but everyone is like this. Your tragedy is not special. A tragedy that is not special is not worthy of our special sadness."
"For the problems I can't solve, there will always be compatriots who are smarter than me to solve them. Even if no one can answer the doubts for the time being, at least there are people who can help me share the disappointment and frustration. At least when I am dying, I can still use my knowledge Is it easier to think about it if you integrate it and confusion into the main brain, pass it on, and leave it to future generations to solve?"
"The destruction of a person is a tragedy, and the end of a race is heroism. In order to avoid heroism, sometimes we have to suffer tragedy."
"Brother Gnostics, I can't answer your question, but I believe that our descendants will definitely be smarter and more knowledgeable than our generation. Standing on the shoulders of their predecessors, they can see farther. One day a satisfactory answer can be given, for which it is necessary to give our offspring a chance to be born and grow up healthily, even at the expense of our generation.”
"If every generation of compatriots has the same awareness, our race will have a bright future, and there will be no problems that can keep us from evolving towards a higher level of civilization!"
Metatron became more and more excited as he spoke, and walked straight to Joan, his eyes sparkling, and he hugged his shoulders vigorously, as if he wanted to imprint his ideas deeply in his mind.
"My dear Gnostic brothers, don't take yourself too seriously. After all, you and I are just a thinking reed in the universe. When you doubt whether you really exist, doubt the value of life, and don't know yourself. When you should live for the goal, you should learn to live for the compatriots around you.”
"Everyone is for one, and one is for everyone. This is the panacea for our mind flayers to fight against nihilism since ancient times!"
Metatron's impassioned speech seemed to pour into Qiao An's heart like a hot current, which moved him deeply.
If he had been a mind flayer by nature, if he had been younger and more easily influenced by others, perhaps he would have really taken Metatron's views seriously and devoted himself to the collective cause without worrying about it.
Unfortunately he is not.
From the pessimistic grandfather to the optimistic master Rawls, from Mr. Jefferson who drafted the "Declaration of Independence" to Sir Custis who had ups and downs in his life, from Mrs. Josephine who is sophisticated in the world, to the cynical and deviant Professor Moriarty ...
Over the years, Qiao An has experienced many ideological shocks in the world, and has been influenced by many teachers. At the same time, he has also reflected on and even criticized the views of the teachers, and will no longer be easily persuaded by any seemingly perfect ideas.
The premise of Metatron's idea is to believe that society is always progressing, at least in a spiral, generally speaking, "one generation is stronger than the next", until it reaches the "absolute spirit" advocated by the mind flayers.
However, in Joan's view, this idea is also a kind of religion in essence. It just replaces the worship of divine power with the worship of reason, and replaces the expectation of gods with the expectation of compatriots and future generations.
However, civilization may not always rise, and the descendants may not always be more outstanding than the ancestors. Metatron completely did not consider the unexpected factors that interrupt the social evolution of the mind flayers, and accidents... will always occur.