Well, I wasn't going to wade in, originally, but I'm glad to see my friend Amicus back in the thick of it, even if we disagree about the how. There's certainly no disagreeing about the what waiting for each of us at the end of the road. lol

First of all, let me explain something. I'm going to try to make it as explicit as possible since my drive to pursue mathematical symmetry and perfection is being mistaken for "new age mysticism" and metaphysics.

I'm not arguing from a metaphysical standpoint. Period.

There, that should deflate those arguments. The entire reason I look for mathematical symmetry is because mathematics doesn't care about our wants or needs. It doesn't care if we don't like the answers. It's either right or wrong. This is an important touchstone for me to keep me grounded in reality no matter how ragingly psychotic my delusions may become, if indeed delusions is what they are. Mathematics is the sword by which I cut through the ******** of my own bias, knowing fully well I may be wrong, and being okay with that.

This is because, as I've said before, mathematics is pure. It's eternal. Mathematics gives us a set of physical laws that are not only quantifiable, but testable. Any "discovery" I make in the course of my journey through inner space should be testable by others using the same mathematics as I did.

As for the binary nature of the universe, somehow, that's getting misconstrued as new age. I don't get it. I'm talking about very real fundamental forces of nature that give shape to all of reality, and which are provable and testable. Those forces exert influence on how we perceive reality because they have a very real effect on particles at the quantum level.

The way I perceive it is that yes, we live in a spectrum reality where there are always varying shades of color, and those variations--the fact that any variation exists--is caused by the fact that we exist between two poles, positive and negative, black and white. It's like...imagine for instance that our universe is a string. The length of the string is the entire age of the universe, from beginning to end. That string is in turn tied to two pencils, Pencil A (which we'll called Positive) and Pencil B (which we'll call negative). Those pencils represent the fundamental forces of nature and pull that string of reality taut. Thus, they frame the spectrum of reality, giving it shape.

Do you deny there's a positive and negative pole? A north and south pole of magnets? Why do magnets have only two poles and not three? There is an underlying reason for everything, even if it's a reason that is mundane and non-spiritual. Let me say that again, there is a fundamental, physical reason for the physical laws of the universe being what they are.

Consciousness intersects with this because we are self-aware. Yes, life may be extraordinarily commonplace and mundane--the fermi paradox comes to mind--which means extinction level events are probably fairly common, too. My guess is that most alien life hasn't contacted us because it probably wiped itself out, just as we seem wont to do. Mathematically, ELEs are being found to be more and more common.

Now, as to the science behind consciousness, whether you choose to accept it or not, there have been very real experiments done, and mathematics worked out, on how cognition occurs. I hold the same idea that the physicist, David Bohm, does, in that the brain is a sort of organic holographic storage unit. I've written about this else where and have given links in this thread, but suffice it to say, it makes logical sense when you consider that all of reality itself is holographic in nature, as well as fractal.

And lastly (and this is purely conjectural on my part), IF there is a Creator, why would He not encode clues as to the true nature of the universe in the ciphering of mathematics, which is the language of the forces of nature? Even if there isn't, I can't help but feel that there's something more that we're not seeing that exists just beyond our perception, and if that's true, the ONLY way we will find out is through mathematical proof. That is why mathematics is so important to me.

I would feel it is hypocritical of God, if He exists, to create something so mind-blowingly complex as the laws of nature, and then hide outside of that reality, leaving no clues to His existence. Those clues lay in the unexplained phenomenon that scientists cannot reconcile with our current understanding (though mathematicians are hard at work on them). Maybe the answer will be there is no God and it's all meaningless, as my friend Amicus believes. Or maybe the answer will be something we cannot even conceive of because our consciousness is limited to the system of the universe (system being used in the mathematical sense). We are stuck in this universe and perhaps the only way to perceive the whole of it is to do the impossible: step outside of it. A sort of can't see the forest from the trees scenario.

But the way I find myself fighting off existential nihilism is in the journey for answers, no matter what those answers are. It has nothing to do with metaphysics and everything to do with ultimate truth. Mathematical harmony achieved with physical theory. Yes, it may be a razor's edge to walk between the answers I want and the answers I'll get, but which scientist can say otherwise about their own theories? Mathematics, for me, will rule out bias, and if God exists, He will speak in terms of mathematical symmetry and perfection.