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RE: I can't wrap my head around this
June 23, 2014 at 7:51 pm
(This post was last modified: June 23, 2014 at 8:04 pm by Jenny A.)
(June 23, 2014 at 7:22 pm)Napoléon Wrote: (June 13, 2014 at 9:01 pm)Jenny A Wrote: I think everyone wonders this sometime or another, usually early. The answer is really very simple: BECAUSE. I wish there were a better answer, but that appears to it.
That's not an answer though. It doesn't explain anything. Least of all why.
But as science has shown us, why isn't always the best question to ask. We are no closer to understanding truly why the universe is the way it is than ancient philosophers were. The anthropic principle comes to mind when this question is asked, perhaps the same reasoning in this principle can be applied to our sense of self. If the universe were any other way, we wouldn't be here to debate it. If we were someone else, we would still be wondering why I'm me and not you. It's all infuriatingly futile in the end.
No really, the answer is because. Suppose you are dealt a hand of cards and they just happen to be 5 of spades, 5 of hearts, 5 of diamonds, 5 of clubs and ace of hearts. The chances of you being dealt this particular hand (or any other particular hand) are very very low. But they are the hand you got. There is no cosmic reason. It's just the hand you have.
Earl Gray's question is essentially the same: why was I born when and where I was with this DNA? Evolution, physics and other things limited the possibilities like the deck of cards limits the possible hands. But why he got the DNA hand he got is merely random. In other words: because.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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RE: I can't wrap my head around this
June 23, 2014 at 7:56 pm
Of course you're me. So am I. Even if you were Lucky, you'd still be me. We're all me. Ain't chemistry grand?
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RE: I can't wrap my head around this
June 23, 2014 at 8:32 pm
It's butterflies.
It's always butterflies.
In this case, the butterfly in the tropics flapped and the universe wave equation fell into the configuration in which there was a really energetic weather system in your parent's town of residence. They decided to stay home from work and voi la, there you go.
I like to post these sorts of speculations when some theist tries to foist a GIGO Bayesian calculation that life is improbable to some large negative exponent. The probability of one specific sperm and one specific egg on the whole planet uniting to make you is pretty astonishingly low. Continue the probability calculation back 3 point something billion years for all your direct ancestors and you get an even smaller probability of you being here. Yet here you are.
It's always butterflies.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat?
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RE: I can't wrap my head around this
June 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm
(June 13, 2014 at 6:50 pm)Tea Earl Grey Hot Wrote: The question whose answer eludes and perplexes me the most is "why am I me and not somebody else?" Why is my state of consciousness that of being a male born in 1990 rather than say a woman in china 4000 years ago or an alien in another part of the universe? For all I know I could have been a turtle but I'm not. I'm me!
Why?!
Does anybody else wonder this?
Does this make any sense?!
Ah no....I don't wonder it at all. However I'm not smart enough to discuss all the issues regarding genetics, DNA, and the like. But I'm sure they have something to do with it.
People don't go to heaven when they die; they're taken to a special room and burned.
