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The Buddhists and Hindus thought of this thousands of years ago, but they went into much greater depth and came to the realization that humans (and anything else) can't live (exist) without anything else. It is perfectly OK to say that the universe (and you) depends on just a single grain of sand (and vice versa).

See:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtya...

Though the wiki doesn't do a very good job discussing the topic. See also the section there "Madhyamaka and Pratityasamutpada" which goes a bit further in depth, but I recommend outside reading as well if you're interested.

What's interesting about this, is that when you put it that way some people are put off and call it "mysticism", when actually it is very precise and scientific, and in fact is simply another way of stating the First Law of thermodynamics.




I think that I and the universe can do just fine without that single grain of sand :)


I assure you, your existence depends on that grain of sand.

You're welcome to disagree, similarly as a child would insist on the existence of Santa Claus or a Christian on the existence of a paternal God-head.

Though that's not a perfect analogy, as proving either of those postulates wrong is impossible, and here we have a situation where there actually is strong evidence for the existence of sand granules (I hope you'll agree).

So in this case it actually is rather easy to see if you're correct. If you can "do just fine without it" then go and erase it out of existence. Come back when you are through and you'll have proven me wrong. :-)




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