"As we approach a big time in the year for many different religious faiths, it might be interesting to go over a peculiar belief of how the universe actually started." -Celeste, Eagleton 8th grade
THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF ALTERNATIVE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
Philosophical Idea going against religious beliefs of how the universe started and when
As we approach a big time in the year for many different religious faiths, it might be interesting to go over a peculiar belief of how the universe actually started. Or maybe, not how, but when. “Last Thursdayism” is a hypothesis or concept started by Philip Henry Gosse in 1857 that asks, what if our universe was intentionally created to be this old, diverse, and unique? Last Thursdayism is the theory that maybe we didn’t start in “the beginning” like most people think. Rather, what if the whole universe sprung into existence last Thursday? Well, to really understand what this even really means, we will have to look further into what “Last Thursdayism” really is.
According to Thomas Mulligan, a theorist and internet personality who often looks into topics similar to Last Thursdayism,“Human memory isn’t that reliable, we experience something called short-term memory illusions where your brain fills in what it thinks happened instead of what actually happened only after a few seconds.” So, we’re under the impression that we have this long history, but “the universe could have popped into existence only appearing to be old. Books, fossils, light, already on the way from other stars, and literally everything including your memories from before last Thursday were all formed at the time of creation, last Thursday.”
Let’s look into “memory being reliable.” According to Kristin Zinkl of Cove (Center of Visual Expertize), “At any given moment, you are only seeing 10% of what you think you are seeing. That means the other 90% of what appears in your visual field is being “generated” by your brain. Some of that infill is being drawn from memory, and some of it is being drawn from other sensory experiences.”
An example of this is that even though your nose is always in your field of vision, your brain chooses to ignore it to have a better view.
The Science of Memory Illusion: How Our Brain Tricks Us by Anas Bouargane has an interesting study. “In a study where participants were shown a fake advertisement for Disney World featuring Bugs Bunny, 25% of the participants claimed to have met Bugs Bunny at Disney World as children.” Bugs Bunny isn’t a Disney character. People could be easily convinced something that isn’t real actually happened.
The Mandela Effect is another example of false memory. This type of false memory happens when many people remember something that isn’t true. It refers to when many people had thought the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela had passed in prison in the 1980’s. Other famous examples of the Mandela Effect were fans of the Pokemon franchise believing the character Pikachu had a black–tipped tail, or The Fruit of the Loom logo having a cornucopia. Even the famous quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s movie was never “mirror, mirror, on the wall,” but really, “magic mirror on the wall.”
The cause of the Mandela Effect is actually quite simple. It’s most likely just caused by common suggestibility. When others make suggestions or statements that are constant, it can easily affect others' mindsets about what really happened, like the Bug’s Bunny at Disneyland study.
All your memories are based on your perspective and nobody else’s. You can’t actually see things from someone else’s view. You may see yourself as a nice person, but someone who has seen you may think you are cold. Thousands of different versions of you live in other people’s heads. Even you have many incorrect views of how someone really is. If there’s something you don’t know, which is most things, your brain will create a substitute for that blank that will make most sense for you. Like how you create a substitute
If we were created randomly, it would be impossible for us and other people to remember the same things, right? It has also been stated from many religious books, and from scientists, it has started all from the beginning. The world was created, then us. But none of us were actually there to experience that. The past is no longer real. When we say where things were "last Wednesday," we don't claim anything 'actually existed' on that date — we're just referring to a particular way those patterns looked on the day of creation.
If we were just created, like this was a simulation, who’s to say that we actually did start from the beginning? We could have been created on a random date with our universe appearing to be this old, like Last Thursday.
Philosophical Idea going against religious beliefs of how the universe started and when
As we approach a big time in the year for many different religious faiths, it might be interesting to go over a peculiar belief of how the universe actually started. Or maybe, not how, but when. “Last Thursdayism” is a hypothesis or concept started by Philip Henry Gosse in 1857 that asks, what if our universe was intentionally created to be this old, diverse, and unique? Last Thursdayism is the theory that maybe we didn’t start in “the beginning” like most people think. Rather, what if the whole universe sprung into existence last Thursday? Well, to really understand what this even really means, we will have to look further into what “Last Thursdayism” really is.
According to Thomas Mulligan, a theorist and internet personality who often looks into topics similar to Last Thursdayism,“Human memory isn’t that reliable, we experience something called short-term memory illusions where your brain fills in what it thinks happened instead of what actually happened only after a few seconds.” So, we’re under the impression that we have this long history, but “the universe could have popped into existence only appearing to be old. Books, fossils, light, already on the way from other stars, and literally everything including your memories from before last Thursday were all formed at the time of creation, last Thursday.”
Let’s look into “memory being reliable.” According to Kristin Zinkl of Cove (Center of Visual Expertize), “At any given moment, you are only seeing 10% of what you think you are seeing. That means the other 90% of what appears in your visual field is being “generated” by your brain. Some of that infill is being drawn from memory, and some of it is being drawn from other sensory experiences.”
An example of this is that even though your nose is always in your field of vision, your brain chooses to ignore it to have a better view.
The Science of Memory Illusion: How Our Brain Tricks Us by Anas Bouargane has an interesting study. “In a study where participants were shown a fake advertisement for Disney World featuring Bugs Bunny, 25% of the participants claimed to have met Bugs Bunny at Disney World as children.” Bugs Bunny isn’t a Disney character. People could be easily convinced something that isn’t real actually happened.
The Mandela Effect is another example of false memory. This type of false memory happens when many people remember something that isn’t true. It refers to when many people had thought the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela had passed in prison in the 1980’s. Other famous examples of the Mandela Effect were fans of the Pokemon franchise believing the character Pikachu had a black–tipped tail, or The Fruit of the Loom logo having a cornucopia. Even the famous quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s movie was never “mirror, mirror, on the wall,” but really, “magic mirror on the wall.”
The cause of the Mandela Effect is actually quite simple. It’s most likely just caused by common suggestibility. When others make suggestions or statements that are constant, it can easily affect others' mindsets about what really happened, like the Bug’s Bunny at Disneyland study.
All your memories are based on your perspective and nobody else’s. You can’t actually see things from someone else’s view. You may see yourself as a nice person, but someone who has seen you may think you are cold. Thousands of different versions of you live in other people’s heads. Even you have many incorrect views of how someone really is. If there’s something you don’t know, which is most things, your brain will create a substitute for that blank that will make most sense for you. Like how you create a substitute
If we were created randomly, it would be impossible for us and other people to remember the same things, right? It has also been stated from many religious books, and from scientists, it has started all from the beginning. The world was created, then us. But none of us were actually there to experience that. The past is no longer real. When we say where things were "last Wednesday," we don't claim anything 'actually existed' on that date — we're just referring to a particular way those patterns looked on the day of creation.
If we were just created, like this was a simulation, who’s to say that we actually did start from the beginning? We could have been created on a random date with our universe appearing to be this old, like Last Thursday.
