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An infinite progress
#51
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Well that's fine. Boring, but fine. But just because you don't believe in an afterlife, doesn't mean it can't exist.

Imagining something doesn't make it a reasonable possibility.   My identity, memories, and personality emerged from living.  Everything that is "me" is destroyed when the brain ceases to operate.

One can imagine something divine that lives on, but that is just story telling, and it can't be "me".  "Me" is a physical being created by a physical existence.

Eternity is boring, anyway.
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#52
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 2:18 pm)brewer Wrote: Why, I have no psychological need of an afterlife. Some of us don't need a fantasy security blanket.

(September 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Well that's fine. Boring, but fine. But just because you don't believe in an afterlife, doesn't mean it can't exist.

If one looks at the science, there is no plausible mechanism for an afterlife.
  • No evidence that the mind can exist separate from a physical body.
  • No evidence for persistence of the mind after brain death.
  • No evidence for any alternate reality in which a disembodied mind could exist.
I consider the possibility of any sort of afterlife to be so infinitesimal, so incredibly implausible, that I just round down to zero.
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#53
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 3:11 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Well that's fine. Boring, but fine. But just because you don't believe in an afterlife, doesn't mean it can't exist.

Imagining something doesn't make it a reasonable possibility.   My identity, memories, and personality emerged from living.  Everything that is "me" is destroyed when the brain ceases to operate.

One can imagine something divine that lives on, but that is just story telling, and it can't be "me".  "Me" is a physical being created by a physical existence.

Eternity is boring, anyway.
A faulty assumption.
"Imagination, life is your creation"
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#54
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 3:44 pm)Ahriman Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 3:11 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: Imagining something doesn't make it a reasonable possibility.   My identity, memories, and personality emerged from living.  Everything that is "me" is destroyed when the brain ceases to operate.

One can imagine something divine that lives on, but that is just story telling, and it can't be "me".  "Me" is a physical being created by a physical existence.

Eternity is boring, anyway.
A faulty assumption.

No, it is a fact.  The physical structures that sustain my mind are destroyed.  That is not an assumption.

If you want to imagine that the mind is NOT situated in the physical structures of the brain, or that the mind is only temporarily residing in a brain, go ahead, but you will find no evidence for this, anywhere.  If you have evidence for this, please present it.

Rejecting evidence-free storytelling is correct logic.
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#55
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 3:48 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 3:44 pm)Ahriman Wrote: A faulty assumption.

No, it is a fact.  The physical structures that sustain my mind are destroyed.  That is not an assumption.

If you want to imagine that the mind is NOT situated in the physical structures of the brain, or that the mind is only temporarily residing in a brain, go ahead, but you will find no evidence for this, anywhere.  If you have evidence for this, please present it.

Rejecting evidence-free storytelling is correct logic.
Yeah, maybe if you're a robot.
"Imagination, life is your creation"
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#56
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 3:09 pm)Ahriman Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 2:44 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote: Based on all the available evidence, the chances of an afterlife are so small as to be not worth considering. Unless you have some evidence for it?  (by evidence I mean something that can be independantly tested and confirmed, writing in an old book of myths and stories does not count as evidence)
Near death experiences?

NEAR death... not post death
your move...
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups

Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling with a pig in mud ..... after a while you realise that the pig likes it!

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#57
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 4:11 pm)zebo-the-fat Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 3:09 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Near death experiences?

NEAR death... not post death
your move...
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.

But you definitely won't be flying into space within this lifetime. So when do you plan on flying to the stars?
"Imagination, life is your creation"
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#58
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm)Ahriman Wrote:
(September 7, 2021 at 2:18 pm)brewer Wrote: Why, I have no psychological need of an afterlife. Some of us don't need a fantasy security blanket.
Well that's fine. Boring, but fine. But just because you don't believe in an afterlife, doesn't mean it can't exist.

Magical thinking does not make it exist either. Magical thinking only makes magical thinking exist.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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#59
RE: An infinite progress
But, but...but, I believe it with all my heart. Doesn't that matter? Doesn't it?
Why is it so?
~Julius Sumner Miller
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#60
RE: An infinite progress
(September 7, 2021 at 2:24 pm)Ahriman Wrote: Well that's fine. Boring, but fine. But just because you don't believe in an afterlife, doesn't mean it can't exist.

Probability is never a valid reason to shelve skepticism.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
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