Is there an afterlife ?

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: DangerAardvark

Originally posted by: Cerpin Taxt

Originally posted by: DangerAardvark

Originally posted by: Cerpin Taxt
It's worth noting that by the time a person reaches adulthood his consciousness has already survived the death of his body several times over, although it happens cyclically over periods of years as the cells continuously die and are replaced by new ones. Indeed, we are already literally alive amidst the constant deaths of ourselves.

Except that the consciousness hasn't survived either. If you count the cyclical death and replacement of individual cells as "death", then surely you must acknowledge that the state of your consciousness is inextricably tied to the sum of your experience and with every new experience your consciousness changes. Indeed, the person you are is not the person you were last week, or yesterday, or even one second ago. If one has experienced "the death of his body several times over" already, then one has already experienced death of the consciousness innumerable times.

I am still, and always will be myself. It's an issue of identity, not a summation of experiences.

"Well that's like... you're... opinion, man." -The Dude

If only we could make things true just by saying them...

well, there is quite a bit of redundancy worked into the whole neural network up there (like in any good machine). Sure, a lot of that redundancy is shaved off during infancy and childhood, but even at older ages, people are able to reform neurons, and thus regain memory at an older age. recent studies of coma victims have shown neural replacement in adults...previously unheard of (or simply unrealized). so, while certain groups of cells enter into senescence, there are others to "hold the fort" until the reinforcements show up.

perhaps these memories that make up our conscience are stored within these levels of redundancy? Hell, 80% of our genome is considered "junk DNA," basically packages of extinct viruses, cut up into pieces and now simply remnants of viral DNA that our species survived over the millenia (freaking crazy; but very true). Of course, that's a bit of a misnomer, as we now know that the majority of this "junk DNA" serves as promoters and inhibitors for the flanking exons (genes). so, while none of it codes for a particular protein, it often determines how neighboring genes will code...

...what was the topic again? ah...afterlife. who gives a rat's ass? We're all worm food anyway

 

[gamepad]

Better safe than sorry.

 

[Alistar7]

The only ones that truly know cannot answer that question here, so why ask?