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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 2:04 am
(February 12, 2015 at 2:09 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/the-s...-on-earth/
Quote:The sun won’t die for 5 billion years, so why do we have only 1 billion years left on Earth?
Quote:The Earth is a complex system – and no model is perfect. However, it seems likely that we have no more than a billion years left for life to thrive on our planet.
Everyone reading this now will have been dead a very long time by then. It makes absolutely no difference for your life or mine or for anyone else presently alive. People who are worried or upset about this are just being silly. To quote the great philosopher Epicurus:
- Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer.
from the Letter to Menoeceus, by Epicurus. I would provide a link for you, but the last 2 posts in which I posted such a link, they were deleted by a moderator because I have not been here for 30 days yet. So you must search online for yourselves, though I suggest you look at epicurus dot net.
It is disturbing how there are so many atheists who desperately cling to some hope of immortality, just like deluded religionists. It almost makes me ashamed to be an atheist. Almost.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 3:10 am
(February 12, 2015 at 2:15 pm)Alex K Wrote: I'm kinda bummed about that. If life gets killed of on earth now apart from microbes, it might not be enough to evolve an intelligent species again before everything gets fried.
... Again? 
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 3:43 am
Quote:You'd have no interest in fucking because you'd have something better.
Better?
Nah!
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 8:34 am
(February 13, 2015 at 2:04 am)Pyrrho Wrote: It is disturbing how there are so many atheists who desperately cling to some hope of immortality, just like deluded religionists. It almost makes me ashamed to be an atheist. Almost.
Where?
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 8:47 am
(February 13, 2015 at 3:43 am)Minimalist Wrote: Quote:You'd have no interest in fucking because you'd have something better.
Better?
Nah!
You say so now, but
once you've had a brain in a vat, you'll never go back!
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat? 
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 10:28 am
(February 13, 2015 at 8:34 am)Faith No More Wrote: (February 13, 2015 at 2:04 am)Pyrrho Wrote: It is disturbing how there are so many atheists who desperately cling to some hope of immortality, just like deluded religionists. It almost makes me ashamed to be an atheist. Almost.
Where?
Look for discussions about uploading brains into computers and other such attempts at immortality if you wish to find examples. Never mind the fact that a copy of a person put into a computer is a copy and not the person, so that it could not possibly give one immortality even if one could make such a copy; reality is not relevant to the thinking of those who desperately wish to live forever.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 10:41 am
(February 13, 2015 at 10:28 am)Pyrrho Wrote: Look for discussions about uploading brains into computers and other such attempts at immortality if you wish to find examples. Never mind the fact that a copy of a person put into a computer is a copy and not the person, so that it could not possibly give one immortality even if one could make such a copy; reality is not relevant to the thinking of those who desperately wish to live forever.
Well, I've already seen those discussions, and I've never really seen anyone "desperately clinging" to it. Perhaps you could be more specific?
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 11:10 am
(This post was last modified: February 13, 2015 at 11:17 am by FlyingSpaghettiMonster.)
W (February 13, 2015 at 10:28 am)Pyrrho Wrote: (February 13, 2015 at 8:34 am)Faith No More Wrote: Where?
Look for discussions about uploading brains into computers and other such attempts at immortality if you wish to find examples. Never mind the fact that a copy of a person put into a computer is a copy and not the person, so that it could not possibly give one immortality even if one could make such a copy; reality is not relevant to the thinking of those who desperately wish to live forever.
As one of those people why do you judge me? I preferably would be alive then dead, I'll try to get as long as I can get. I don't absolutely need eternal life but it would be nice to see the universe and all it has to offer, 100 years is too short, if you'd enjoy then by all means, but don't judge others for wanting more then just a meager sum.
If anything your entire argument sounds absolutely bitter, it may be hope but we aren't crazy.
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 11:48 am
(February 12, 2015 at 2:17 pm)Beccs Wrote: Well, if extinction was good enough for the dinosaurs, it's good enough for the religionists, too.
Those of us and our descendants who accept science will have long since left the planet by then.
Will a grudging acceptance suffice or must I embrace it whole heartedly and open myself to its grace? 
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RE: Well, fuck...may as well just kill ourselves!
February 13, 2015 at 12:52 pm
(February 13, 2015 at 11:10 am)FlyingSpaghettiMonster Wrote: W (February 13, 2015 at 10:28 am)Pyrrho Wrote: Look for discussions about uploading brains into computers and other such attempts at immortality if you wish to find examples. Never mind the fact that a copy of a person put into a computer is a copy and not the person, so that it could not possibly give one immortality even if one could make such a copy; reality is not relevant to the thinking of those who desperately wish to live forever.
As one of those people why do you judge me? I preferably would be alive then dead, I'll try to get as long as I can get. I don't absolutely need eternal life but it would be nice to see the universe and all it has to offer, 100 years is too short, if you'd enjoy then by all means, but don't judge others for wanting more then just a meager sum.
If anything your entire argument sounds absolutely bitter, it may be hope but we aren't crazy.
The problem occurs when people's hope for something clouds their judgement and gets them to believe what they want to believe, rather than believe what the evidence suggests. This is called "wishful thinking," and is exactly the same "reasoning" that many Christians engage in when they believe in god and heaven because the idea appeals to them. Consequently, both are equally worthy of ridicule. In the case of copying one's brain and sticking it in a computer, it should be perfectly obvious that a copy of a thing is not the original thing. And when people fail to believe what is perfectly obvious due to their hopes and fears, then they are taking a ridiculous position based on wishful thinking. When one takes a ridiculous position, one invites ridicule.
In this example, there is zero chance that the computer will make your life any longer. It may be theoretically possible to copy you, but a copy of you isn't you.
Calling my argument "bitter" is just an argumentum ad hominem. It does not help your position. Indeed, it suggests that your emotions are clouding your judgement. Otherwise, why resort to such a disreputable form of argument?
Being an atheist means one has avoided one silly superstitious belief. It does not mean that one has not fallen into countless other superstitions, nor does it mean that one does not have severely faulty thinking. And it obviously does not prevent one from having a vain hope of immortality.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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