A belief about death
A belief about death
Folks,
Do you have a belief about death?
After decades of reading philosophy and theology books I’ve had a stab at clearing my mind on the subject. This is it:
‘There are no words, written or spoken, that can enlighten us to the passage from this world’.
I can’t justify this belief, but it is genuinely what I believe on the subject.
What’s yours?
D.
Do you have a belief about death?
After decades of reading philosophy and theology books I’ve had a stab at clearing my mind on the subject. This is it:
‘There are no words, written or spoken, that can enlighten us to the passage from this world’.
I can’t justify this belief, but it is genuinely what I believe on the subject.
What’s yours?
D.
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Re: A belief about death
I've expounded on my theory of consciousness/self/etc here before. The tl;dr version is that at the very least we die every night when we go to sleep, and more likely die millions of times a day in between moments of discrete awareness processing. So the fact that we die at the end of our biological life shouldn't itself be something that causes us unease. If we look at it like this, then the thing that has the greatest potential to cause unease is that we won't wake up after that particular death. But if you consider what actually happens when we wake up from sleep, then we shouldn't even fear not waking up. When we wake up after sleep, it is like a new birth. A potentially different self, for a split second. The only reason we have a sense of the same self after waking up is that we construct it from the memories of the selves that existed on the previous days of our biological life. The "you" from yesterday that hoped (s)he would wake up from sleep is gone. So basically we have a blank slate on the Plank-second that we wake up, and then essentially make a copy of yesterday's self by recalling its memories. So what? you might say. Well imagine instead of the same biological human reconstructing your self from the previous day, that a different biological human, or indeed a machine, assumed your self from the previous day. Would you be as comfortable going to sleep then? Instinctively most people will say no. But the process is exactly the same. The mind is what makes us a "self", not the body. And then bring this back to biological death. Imagine just before we suffered our final (biological) death that we are able to upload an exact copy of our mind to a computer, which will, upon our biological death, copy it over to a robot that will, upon being switched on, believe it is you. This is no different to going to sleep each night. Yet most people would fear this result just as much as the same result but without the uploading and then copying of your mind.
The moral of this story is that you should panic each night before going to sleep.
Disclaimer: I may have no fucking idea what I am talking about.
The moral of this story is that you should panic each night before going to sleep.
Disclaimer: I may have no fucking idea what I am talking about.
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"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
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"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
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Re: A belief about death
The main thing about death is that you are dead after.
WTF is so difficult about that?
WTF is so difficult about that?
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
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Re: A belief about death
I have fainted a couple of times in my life. I've al;so been in total anaesthetic twice. Losing consciousness while fainting is a bit scary but being put under isn't - to me anyway. The only real difference in terms of awareness is that when you die it doesn't come back. Its shit but there you go.
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Re: A belief about death
Yes. If there is some form of life after death I have yet to see any evidence for it.Dworkin wrote:Do you have a belief about death?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould
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Re: A belief about death
I believe death is the end of life.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Details on how to do that can be found here.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."
Frank Zappa
"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: A belief about death
I wouldn't know where to begin.
--should this be in the philosophy section? Or is its being here in the religion section more than an accident?
--should this be in the philosophy section? Or is its being here in the religion section more than an accident?
Re: A belief about death
Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.
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Re: A belief about death
Death is just death. Like thwacking a fly its dead. End of story.Sean Hayden wrote:I wouldn't know where to begin.
--should this be in the philosophy section? Or is its being here in the religion section more than an accident?
"Wat is het een gezellig boel hier".
Re: A belief about death
I like this; it sort of links in with the transporter "death" idea in Star Trek, the question about transporting the soul.pErvin wrote:I've expounded on my theory of consciousness/self/etc here before. The tl;dr version is that at the very least we die every night when we go to sleep, and more likely die millions of times a day in between moments of discrete awareness processing. So the fact that we die at the end of our biological life shouldn't itself be something that causes us unease. If we look at it like this, then the thing that has the greatest potential to cause unease is that we won't wake up after that particular death. But if you consider what actually happens when we wake up from sleep, then we shouldn't even fear not waking up. When we wake up after sleep, it is like a new birth. A potentially different self, for a split second. The only reason we have a sense of the same self after waking up is that we construct it from the memories of the selves that existed on the previous days of our biological life. The "you" from yesterday that hoped (s)he would wake up from sleep is gone. So basically we have a blank slate on the Plank-second that we wake up, and then essentially make a copy of yesterday's self by recalling its memories. So what? you might say. Well imagine instead of the same biological human reconstructing your self from the previous day, that a different biological human, or indeed a machine, assumed your self from the previous day. Would you be as comfortable going to sleep then? Instinctively most people will say no. But the process is exactly the same. The mind is what makes us a "self", not the body. And then bring this back to biological death. Imagine just before we suffered our final (biological) death that we are able to upload an exact copy of our mind to a computer, which will, upon our biological death, copy it over to a robot that will, upon being switched on, believe it is you. This is no different to going to sleep each night. Yet most people would fear this result just as much as the same result but without the uploading and then copying of your mind.
The moral of this story is that you should panic each night before going to sleep.
Disclaimer: I may have no fucking idea what I am talking about.
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Re: A belief about death
I suppose I'll eventually get around to it, when I can be bothered...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
And my gin!
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Re: A belief about death
Some maps are better than other maps.
What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
Re: A belief about death
Rum,Rum wrote:I have fainted a couple of times in my life. I've al;so been in total anaesthetic twice. Losing consciousness while fainting is a bit scary but being put under isn't - to me anyway. The only real difference in terms of awareness is that when you die it doesn't come back. Its shit but there you go.
Good point. I've had two bad motorcycle accidents in recent years. Concussion both times and complete memory loss. Thankfully, I have no memory of the events, just total blank. Nothing to fear there and of course I can continue riding without flashbacks!
D.
Re: A belief about death
pErvyn,pErvin wrote:I've expounded on my theory of consciousness/self/etc here before. The tl;dr version is that at the very least we die every night when we go to sleep, and more likely die millions of times a day in between moments of discrete awareness processing. So the fact that we die at the end of our biological life shouldn't itself be something that causes us unease. If we look at it like this, then the thing that has the greatest potential to cause unease is that we won't wake up after that particular death. But if you consider what actually happens when we wake up from sleep, then we shouldn't even fear not waking up. When we wake up after sleep, it is like a new birth. A potentially different self, for a split second. The only reason we have a sense of the same self after waking up is that we construct it from the memories of the selves that existed on the previous days of our biological life. The "you" from yesterday that hoped (s)he would wake up from sleep is gone. So basically we have a blank slate on the Plank-second that we wake up, and then essentially make a copy of yesterday's self by recalling its memories. So what? you might say. Well imagine instead of the same biological human reconstructing your self from the previous day, that a different biological human, or indeed a machine, assumed your self from the previous day. Would you be as comfortable going to sleep then? Instinctively most people will say no. But the process is exactly the same. The mind is what makes us a "self", not the body. And then bring this back to biological death. Imagine just before we suffered our final (biological) death that we are able to upload an exact copy of our mind to a computer, which will, upon our biological death, copy it over to a robot that will, upon being switched on, believe it is you. This is no different to going to sleep each night. Yet most people would fear this result just as much as the same result but without the uploading and then copying of your mind.
The moral of this story is that you should panic each night before going to sleep.
Disclaimer: I may have no fucking idea what I am talking about.
Interesting stuff. Your post reminds me of Derek Parfit, ('Reasons and Persons'), who developed a similar theory coming out of Buddhist thinking.
D.
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Re: A belief about death
I recall that name from the past. I have a nagging suspicion it wasn't in a good light. I will wiki him later. But the idea for my view comes from a philosopher who I can't remember now, who envisaged the 'self' as analogous to a really long string of pearls with each pearl being one discreet moment of awareness. When I'm on the laptop later I'll see if I can find who it was.
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
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