Who are we as individual human beings?

[MineralMan]

All evidence points toward the fact that our individual identity as we recognize it is really just chemistry and brain activity. We are as we think. When thinking ceases due to brain activity ending, we no longer exist. At least that's what the evidence shows. There is no evidence for any other phenomenon that can be called an individual personality or existence.

Our bodies, as interesting as they are, are merely a system to supply blood, oxygen and nutrients to our brains, where all individual ideation and function originate. If our brains do not function, our body dies. If our body dies for other reasons, our brains cease to function. Either way, the individual ceases to exist, according to all actual evidence.

I've seen nothing presented by anyone to indicate otherwise. Since I am one of those human identities, what I am saying applies to me, as well. My brain is creating this post and signaling my fingers to use habitual, learned motions to deliver it to my computer, which displays it on the screen. I'm reading the post as I type, and correcting errors as I go.

If my brain stops working, I will no longer be able to form ideas nor type on a keyboard. I won't know that, because I won't know anything at all any longer. That's what evidence teaches me. That's fine with me, really. I've had and am still having a nice long run as a human being. It's fun. I learn things and utter things.

When my brain and body cease to function, that will be it. I don't care. I won't care. It won't matter to me, because what is me will no longer exist. Since I won't care then, I don't care now. Instead, I'm trying to take advantage of being me as long as I can. Why wouldn't I? I'm typing a message to post on DU. After I click the button on the screen, a few hundred other living humans will see it and read it. Their brains and bodies are still functioning, as well. How cool is that?

[dweller]

1. break it down even further still

we're just energy interpreting energy at large ... thou art that

🙏🏻

[MineralMan]

3. Yabbut, that's sort of an advanced way to look at it.

All that quantum stuff is hard for many people to understand.

[dweller]

21. well, not really ...

it's only hard to understand because it's usually worded in scientific wordspeak, and terms not understood... but the logistics and mechanisms are fairly plain ...
I tend to think of it like a mirror which we are all accustomed to, or any reflective surface, a sheet of glass in the right light, or water, even a simple puddle of rain

just photons engaging my retina, stimulating my brain so it translates/reacts to the stimulus... then it's up to my consciousness to render it with my interpretation ... so it's feedback, gigo, (garbage in, garbage out)

my role is to raise the level of go (garbage out) that in turn elevates the level of garbage in's vibration (after all, it's just energy) to a higher plane...

yabbut, sometimes it just take a bit of reflection
🙏🏻

[guillaumeb]

2. Yet another opinion piece dealing with the physical aspects of life.

And opinions are good things to have, but they prove nothing except that they are opinions.

My personal opinion is that the Creator holds a different opinion.

[MineralMan]

4. Lacking concrete evidence, all we have to offer is opinions, isn't it?

Yes, I have my own opinions. Unlike some, I don't just copy the opinions of others and put them here.

Read my signature line.

[sprinkleeninow]

7. I told myself to refrain from entering into threads of 'this' nature

because I keep running outta aspirin.

Guillaume, you are loved and admired by my spirit in The Holy Spirit, Who we 'know'.

I align myself with your opinion.

A blessed remainder of our Prefeast/Advent be yours!

[guillaumeb]

8. And to you also. Thank you for your kind words,

and if you have not heard this particular song:

I like this version. If you do also, please share it with others.

[sprinkleeninow]

9. Very nice!

They have a -whoa!- Southern twang.

Ima borned/raised up North, but am fond of bluegrass. Used to go to a barn in Wilton, CT whose owner hosted many bluegrass jams.

Slavic people like their balalaika, Greeks their bouzouki, and others their mandolin. It's all good!

[MineralMan]

11. And did you comment on the topic of the thread?

I didn't see that, if you did. Like most threads on DU, this one is about something. It's odd that you started a new conversation in the thread that had nothing to do with the topic. I'd be interested in what you think about what I said in the opening post.

[sprinkleeninow]

12. What do you think I would say 'knowing' what you 'know' of me.

You had a fun run and you hold that 'that' is it.

Sorry I commandeered 'your' thread.

I do not hold that this life is it. "Thee End."

There is a spiritual 'world'.

People that are not 'believers' ascribe to that.

I could never -me, myself and I- convince you of what I hold as a spiritual reality, if you will.

See ya l8r, bye.

[MineralMan]

13. I know nothing of you, except that you attempted to hijack

my thread. I will call people who do that to account within the thread itself.

I don't do txtspch.

[sprinkleeninow]

14. I dint do it on porpoise. Please forgive me!

[Voltaire2]

10. there is plenty of evidence that mental processes are physical

there is zero evidence that mental processes are anything other than physical.

Some opinions are more valid than others.

[guillaumeb]

17. Yours obviously being among the "more valid" ones, I will guess.

No surprise there.

[Voltaire2]

19. no, opinions backed by evidence are generally more valid than opinions not backed by evidence.

That seems sort of obvious. But I guess not to you.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Enough power to create but not enough power to make that different opinion known.

What an amazing god.


If I want to know your god, I have to just assume it exists, on just your word, and no evidence. How convenient.

[guillaumeb]

23. Or no motive to make the opinion known. eom

[AtheistCrusader]

24. According to the bible, the abrahamic god has plenty of motives, and no compunctions about slaughter

ing millions to achieve those motives.

Curious.

Which god do you believe in again? I forget.

[EvilAL]

22. It's not an opinion that when we die, we're dead.

It's a fact.
If heaven/hell were real, they would be knowable. They would exist in reality.
If they exist outside of our reality, they can't exist in reality.
Same with God.

[Eliot Rosewater]

5. I wish there was a god, if there was people like Trump not only would not be in charge

they would be homeless.

But alas, there is not. Kind of a silly notion in 2017, but I do NOT mean any disrespect , sincerely I dont.

I get the need to believe in something, anything, I do.

But go ahead and pray, pray for world peace and pray for me, if you want, I will take it.

Hey, I know lets pretend there is a god, I mean there are how many DIFFERENT religions all CERTAIN that THEIR god is the only TRUE god?

Find me one person anywhere in any religion, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. and there are hundreds more, who actually lives the life dictated by their teachings, do you know even ONE?

(Aware the OP is not preaching god)

[MineralMan]

6. I never expect any other person to behave in any particular way.

I wait until they behave some way, and then consider them based on that. It rarely has anything to do with any religious beliefs they hold, though. It's more closely related to the behaviors modeled by others during childhood and youth. We're smart monkeys, but we still copy what we see most of the time.

[sprinkleeninow]

15. I yam accused of thread commandeering. Again.

If you don't have an aversion to me remembering you in my intercessions, then be assured of my doing so.

And I do not take this lightly or in a flippant manner.

Peace be unto you.

[guillaumeb]

18. Thread hijacking happens constantly in this group.

When the choir does it, it is acceptable, but when another voice disrupts the harmony, the resultant discord is painful to some here.

[Mariana]

20. It doesn't necessarily follow that if gods were real

that evil people would not prosper. If a god exists, there's no reason it couldn't be malevolent. People like Trump could bask in its favor and be rewarded.