"Because throughout history
Every mystery
EVER solved has turned out to be
NOT magic."
- "Storm" by Tim Minchin

I agree, and I believe there is a practial theory that describes the material universe very eloquently, and this theory has been buried a long time ago. You see, when Newton came up with his gravity "theory", many people were asking "what is the mechanism of gravity", because Newton's "theory" was only a description of what happens, not how it happens. Well, not many people know that Newton had an adversary who gave exactly such a mechanism. Unfortunately, since this adversary was an unknown and Newton was the mathematics chair at Oxford, politics not science now dictate who's right and who's wrong. This was the greatest blunder in human history.

As normal for people who make such claims of 'information being surpressed' you failed to give a hint as to who this mysterious person was, however I'm going to assume that you are talking about Leibniz as he is the only adversary I can find reference to.

And yes, he did put forward the ideas which, in hindsight, should have been paid attention to HOWEVER at the time they were untested, untestable and speculative and were untestable until the discovery of subatomic particles and the quantum mechanics governing them. This isn't a 'politics' situation this is a 'we can test one, we cant test the other so we go with the testable one' situation aka the very basis of science.

Newton's laws could be tested and understood, Leibniz couldn't. To pick the former over the later AT THE TIME would have been tantamount to making a choice on 'faith' and not proof aka religion not science.

Yes, looking back now it is easy to say 'opps, should have gone with Leibniz...' but hindsight is always 20:20 and the fact that Newton is considered nothing more than an approximation (all be it a good one for the most part) again reenforces another point about science; the adaption of ideas to fit facts.

Also given his list of accomplishments and writings refering to him as an 'unknown' is somewhat stretching things; while his name is not widely known these days (although I suspect more so after being referenced by The Big Bang Theory) this has no impact on his importance at the time.

As CryoGenesis says, there is no reincarnation theory. There are ideas and myths. I'm not sure what you say explains deja vu - in what sense do you "relive" it? If time jumps back, then why aren't your memories lost, along with everything else? There are plenty of far better more mundane scientific explanations.

So, when it's convenient, they use the material argument, but then promptly invent exotic materials or dimensions when their equations don't work out or disagree with observation.[/quote]No, things are based on evidence and testing, rather than just making it up.

I was also thinking of how people can't imagine the universe having always been and always will be[/quote]I'm not sure that people can't imagine it - that the Universe always existed was IIRC the prevailing view at one time, but the evidence then pointed to the Universe (as we know it) having a beginning. It is still an open question as to whether the Universe will end, and I believe the latest evidence suggests that it won't.

but curiously, nobody would argue that numbers have always existed?[/quote]The whole idea of the "existence" of numbers is something that I'm sure people have debated lots.

There is even circumstantial evidence for this, which is the fact that even God cannot make 2 + 2 == 5, which negates one of the supposed powers that God is supposed to posses, namely, omnipotence.[/quote]That's a criticism against the idea of omnipotence - though I'm not sure it's really a robust argument against God.

In theory, if you have a sufficiently long number, it could define your whole life.[/quote]Only to a given level of accuracy. Which might be enough - but whether the Universe can be viewed as a computer is a matter of debate.

what actually happens is you relive the same life over and over again?

This is known as the concept of "Eternal Return". Nietzsche believed in it, even though he found the belief to be a horrifying burden, but thought that the greatest of people should long for the concept to be true.

Many people who have had the near-death-experience of "having your life flash before your eyes" have in a way been though this terror. Many of them have come out of it with a newfound dedication to altruism, with them re-living all of their slights against others with the pain that a strong empathy brings.

According to science, time as we experience it is just an illusion. You aren't a 3D shape, you're a 4D tube of that shape. Your past does 'still' exist, somewhere else in 4D space-time. The fact that we experience time as moving in a certain direction, and experience outselves as only existing in a certain moment is a consequence of our design - memories are written in the direction of entropy, so we can only remember things that are opposite this direction.
So after you die, this whole path that you've lived doesn't just disappear. The path stops progressing. It's still there. It's quite logical to say that if you're experiencing a particular moment in that life-line, then the other moments would be being experienced too. This isn't something that does and doesn't happen over time, it just is, throughout time. Your future and your past and your present are all experienced. You are not moving along this line once from past to future.
So it doesn't make sense to say that your life is experienced *once*. It just is experienced, forever, 'as long as' that 4D line exists. The line is just there.

If you "experienced" one moment after another in sequential order, it would be exactly the same as if you "experienced" them in random orders, or if they were all experienced at once - you wouldn't know, you have no way of knowing. All you can know is your memories, so none of these are true. The moments are just there and they are "experienced" without sequence (we invent the sequence ourselves), and the thing that you define as "you" is an invention of this current moment on the line. If the future or the past didn't exist and you were just experiencing a particular moment, as you do, nothing would be different - you wouldn't know.

And it doesn't make sense to use terms like 'as long as' or 'still exists', as they imply that you're working in a space where there's a changing time dimension -- if you're working above the time dimension, you can't say that any more.

In theory, if you have a sufficiently long number, it could define your whole life.

Ignoring quantum mechanics...
That 'number' is actually a quantum superposition of all possible numbers, which is pretty much infinity.
Every possible universe exists somewhere within this infinity. It's a huge epic-dimensional geometry, and our entire 4D universe is just a point somewhere within a cloud of past and future 4D universes that we branch to/from. Your whole life (or infinite variations of your life) are just dots in this geometry.

Does any of this make sense? I hope not. I actually like God, and would hate to lose a friend like that.

If it's conceivable, then it exists somewhere in this 'multiverse'. There is a reality somewhere where you get to high five Jesus riding a raptor. That's a fact.

Here's an experiment:
Just think that tomorrow you won't be here and you'll never be see or do anything ever again. Logically, you shouldn't care because when you're dead your brain is inactive and you won't care. But, you still feel that you want to do something about it.
I believe that that is to do with biology. Even so, there could be many factors contributing to it anyway.

I don't feel scared about that idea. Dying is scary, death is not.

Has anyone else had recursive deja vu... remembering you deja vued this before "I remember that I remember remembering it once already"

Yeah, I've had that before... generally only lasts for a second or two but it's strange when it happens.

All right, calm down everybody. First of all, I'm talking about La Sage, not Lebinz, so go look up "push gravity" or "shadow mechanics". Lebinz supposedly invented calculus before Newton. Then again, who knows who stole what idea from who (yes, I deliberately butcher the English language).

Phantom, stop stalking me!

Ok, I leave you with this:

I just went to the DMV to "exchange" my driver's licence, because I moved to Ohio from Florida. I still don't understand why, I live in the UNITED states.

Anyway, Ohio requires such people to take the written exam before they issue you an Ohio license.

So here we go, let's take the test. They direct me to a computer station, which they told me could read the questions for me. I told them, "thanks but no thanks, I'll read them myself"..

First question...

what is 2 + 2?

I'm not shitting you! I suppose it's a "sanity check", but given our current discussion in time, how is that a coincidence?

I wanted to laugh, but I figured if I did the cops would probably handcuff me.

This makes me believe in my original premise, which is that my life is a world onto itself, but truthfully, I don't really believe that. I'm not that smart. I couldn't have invented all this! And I learned everything I know from other people.

God bless you all..

Phantom, stop stalking me!

Two posts in one thread is stalking?

Well, I guess more proof you are a crazy person isn't a bad thing...

Phantom:

Thanks for remembering.. I know you're watching me.. Yes, 2 posts...

Hodgman:

I'm sorry.. I should have replied to you earlier. You're absolutely correct. Time does NOT exist. It is not a substance that can be "diluted" as in Einstein's theory.. The way I always explain it, is mathematicly, which is that time is a dependent variable. Dependent on the 3 spacial dimensions. We all know, distance = velocity * time, so time = distance / velocity. If there was no movement, time would "stand still".

Now, some ppl will argue that time dilation is a proven phenomenon. I agree that certain particles do experience a delayed decay, BUT, the reason for this can be explained in OTHER ways than time dilation!... Namely, if a particle is traverling faster than the surrounding SPACE, it is experiencing additional PRESSURE of the EM field. That is what keeps it GLUED longer than the other particles!

So, just because you observe something to be true, there could be MANY _different_ explanations for the phenomenon..

BUT, of course, I'm telling you things you already know.

In any case, thank you for your reply... I REALLY appreciate it..