(November 12, 2011 at 8:16 pm)Norfolk And Chance Wrote: I have no answers but I ponder the same thing and grasp exactly what you mean.
Why aren't you me. Why aren't I you? Why am I me now, not somebody else in 1700. It is brain bursting.
Those that answer "your brain, electical circuitry creates consciousness" are failing to grasp the concept of the question. We can seek to explain what consciousness is and how it works through science, but why me...?
You could just as easily be a fly that gets squashed after a day of existence. Or a dog or cat, or other human.
I think that most understand the question. It is the consciousness/awareness that we identify with as 'me' created by the physiology of the body.
Why am I not someone in 1700? Random chance. To believe otherwise is to believe in 'choice' and then, 'who' made that 'choice'?
The 'real' question is, "What is 'me'?". For the god-folk, a simple answer, but for the atheists, not so simple.
If our awareness is nothing more than the complex physiology and biochemical responses of the body/brain, then that is reasonably simple, but if our awareness is something beyond the physiology of the body, how does an atheist validate such without invoking a god/soul?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
