Existence After Death

Perhaps he hasn't lived long enough to know better.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

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Real things always push back.
-William James

Hi, Jon.You seem to be ascribing something ineffable to identity.If a digital copy of me--memories, desires, brain function--survived me by a minute, an hour, or a day, that copy, once restored to consciousness, whether in reality or virtual reality, would rightly claim to be me, to possess my "identity." The observation of identical Omnis by others would dissipate as two lives diverged from one, but that constant change applies equally to a single, uncopied Omni.As greyseal has argued quite well, the interruption in consciousness between corporeal death and restored consciousness would not differ from the case of, say, you, as a recovered amnesiac. Does the amnesia remove your identity? Then who is the amnesiac? If amnesiac Jon is a new, second identity, what happens when memory returns? Is that a new, third identity, formed by the merger of the two who came before, or just Jon restored to full consciousness?At any rate, our memories leak like a sieve. We do things we cannot recall doing; we remember events that never happened. Surely an exactness and fullness of memory cannot be the sine qua non of identity. And if an interruption of consciousness alters identity, then we are reborn with new identities every time we pass out from whiskey or go under general anesthesia.Identity, I think, is a misleading notion, smacking of its cousin, identical. Our sense of identity appears more a side-effect of our perceptual apparatus and the need for an executive function: just as our perceptions of the rock are not the rock, our senses of identity are not objective things.We can't copy ourselves yet, but I am confident we will. With tools we learned to do more; already we've begun to make tools that can do more than we can. The brain is staggeringly complex, but it is finite. Given enough time, the technology of human back-ups and restoration seems inevitable.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

If I recall my Marvel correctly, in that case you would be Spiderman.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

Would you risk your immortal life by going to Disneyland? What if your roller coaster crashed? What if you drowned in the Tunnel of Love?It's one thing to risk a short life driving down I-95...but risk forever?We'd become a species of immortal chickens.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

And I was just making jokes instead of painting the soffits. ...but we would change our attitudes about risk a lot if we lived forever, barring accidents.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

People do weary of life: it is not only injury or illness that lead some to prefer nonexistence. Many millions of people practice not only nonattachment to their own lives but to life itself, seeking to avoid reincarnation.I find my mortality a great comfort; it is, to paraphrase one scholar, the one thing about us that the gods envy.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

​

Real things always push back.
-William James

I've always found it striking that believers here tell atheists that if there were no God, everyone could loot, pillage and rape to their hearts' content, and everyone would.Since I don't, and none of the atheists I know do, I have to wonder what prompts that notion; perhaps you believers are restraining yourselves only by your religious beliefs?Is that true?Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.

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Dost thou prate, rogue?
-Cassio

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Real things always push back.
-William James

Sure--any long-term member here will tell you that the path from my thoughts to my typing fingers is short and unimpeded.What would you like to know?BTW, I think Dr A's most heinous thoughts would pale before your God's apparent contempt for women.

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Dost thou prate, rogue?
-Cassio

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Real things always push back.
-William James

We can start with your God using menstrual cloths as a badge of filth, no?

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Dost thou prate, rogue?
-Cassio

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Real things always push back.
-William James