tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7390514093446490907..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Life after the Red Pill - (More Matrix) - Cypher as representative modern ManBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-31126669791561021332018-10-11T19:04:46.105+01:002018-10-11T19:04:46.105+01:00@CCL - Good points - likewise modern Man is confli...@CCL - Good points - likewise modern Man is conflicted. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-23359766717669949522018-10-11T18:24:21.438+01:002018-10-11T18:24:21.438+01:00And yet, Cypher doesn't really believe it. Hi...And yet, Cypher doesn't <i>really</i> believe it. His most crucial and emphatic demand is that he not remember his crimes.<br /><br />He <i>knows</i> what he's doing is <i>wrong</i> and that he won't be able to live with the conscious knowledge of his choice.<br /><br />At some level, he must even be conscious that what he's choosing is the second death, which is described in scripture as a lake of fire and brimstone symbolizing the final separation of the spirit from all righteousness, but is actually indescribably worse. The second death is actually death, <i>real</i> death, not the sleep of the mortal body that living beings fear by a mix of instinct and confusion about eternity.<br /><br />But the idea of euthanasia has made a correct concept of the nature of the second death impossible to most humans. The key analogy is to a black hole, a Schwartzschild singularity. It is called a black 'hole' because the curvature of spacetime around it produces the illusion of an infinitely deep hole in space down which objects drawn into the singularity fall forever at a speed that approaches infinity (the direction of the hole is arbitrary, it looks like a hole oriented away from the point of observation). These objects are, in the process, torn apart by tidal forces that are eventually so great that they even destroy atoms and component particles by tearing them apart (which is one of several reasons black holes aren't really black). Ordinary calculation tells us that anything drawn into a black hole does indeed cross the event horizon at some point in time, but relativistic effects mean this cannot ever be observed from outside the event horizon.<br /><br />The second death is like this, except in the reverse of perspectives afforded the outside observer and the victim. The outside observer sees the end of the process, but the person suffering the second death never can because of the loss of conceptual awareness of time and process, which are necessary elements of righteousness. To the dying spirit, there is no perceivable end, only infinite suffering unrelieved by any grace of God (such as forgetfulness of one's sins).<br /><br />Cypher is making the classic error of thinking that the way to forget his sins can be found outside of admitting, repenting, and <i>forsaking</i> them. He wishes to live in sin while being distracted from his guilt...but that always has been impossible (it also directly contradicts the only possible motive the Agents have for actually keeping their side of the bargain, the use of Cypher as an example of what they can offer a traitor).<br /><br />Making the knowledge unconscious won't make it any easier to endure. On this truth all competent therapy agrees with the religious approach. Cypher is trying to go back to sleep, but if it were that easy he wouldn't actually mind being awake. What he's choosing is spiritual death.Chiu ChunLinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03519192610708043962noreply@blogger.com