Free Will, Decision making and religion

[JuliaL]

I analogize the conscious self to a river, in that both change, and yet remain selfsame.

I find the idea of an unchanging self to be frighteningly static, myself.

I don't think the idea of an unchanging self is compatible with the knowledge we have about the brain or its contents, especially the personal experience of growing conscious of your surroundings and the mechanics that comprise any semblance of understanding them.

It could be argued that even if everything, every atom, wave and relevant parameter but one were to remain fixed, that the self was changed because it now exists at a later time.
Yet I identify myself as the same person I was 20,30 or more years ago. This could be mostly illusion and false memory, but at least the experience is of continuity.

I like the river analogy. One much like that is the example of a lenticular cloud stationary over a mountaintop. The cloud stays in one place despite the fact that there is a wind of perhaps 100kt blowing through it. Every particle in the cloud is replaced over a period of seconds yet the cloud remains in place, unchanged.