A Learning God

[Cetaceaphile]

This reminds me of that episode of Star Trek where the crew are being tormented by a supreme being, but then it turns out that the supreme being is just a child and doesn't understand what it is actually doing with the universe.

Anyways... Did I just spam?

[TruthAddict]

(02-09-2010 02:41 PM)SecularStudent Wrote:  

(01-09-2010 12:33 PM)TruthAddict Wrote:  It's like contemplating the moment of death. The point at which "you" cease to exist, and existence slips back into non-existence (for all practical purposes, existence has ended for you). You can think about for hours and never quite grasp all the implications. The human brain just simply wasn't designed for it.

I may have an answer for this. This is a theory that my Neuroscience prof gave my class, so it may be a little biased
The "you" that you mentioned, is your brain. Our brains create our reality, our thoughts, and our personalities. "We" are our brains. Thus, when our neurons stop firing, we die. Because our brains are no longer working, we cease to experience. This could be said to be the point that "we" stop existing. All that is left is a dead body. (This is also my argument against souls/spirits and an afterlife.)

I realize that this is the case, but it is extremely hard to imagine myself from a 3rd person objective stand point (thinking about myself as just a physical "thing" and my consciousness as the product of a certain level of complexity in my brain) because even doing this would require the entity of "me" to think about it, which again is just a product of the interaction of my neurons.

I don't know. Me and my friend discuss these types of things a lot. There literally was one point where we both looked at each other, we both knew what the other was thinking about the subject, but there was no way the English language could be utilized to describe exactly what we were thinking.

[2buckchuck]

Given the vast conceptual gulf that separates us from one another - we are very much alone in our heads - and the inadequacy of language, it borders on miraculous that we can communicate and share ideas as well as we do! And no, I don't see that as evidence for god, in case you were wondering!