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I posted this as a note on facebook, thought I'd share it with everyone here, too. It's an atheist's perspective on existence and the sense of "self."
Before posting the note, I posted this status, which sparked some deep contemplation that resulted in the note.
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Here is the status: "Emptiness is not nothingness. Inherent existence is an illusion, and is the cause of afflictive emotions. Each of our existences is fully dependent on everything around us. In this way, it is impossible for anyone to exist in isolation, and we are never alone."
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Here is the note:
What am I?
When I look at my arm, my hand, my foot, it is "out there." I am not my arm. I am not my hand. I am not my foot. I am centered somewhere inside my body, but the essense of "I" cannot be separated and identified.
Am I made up of this body? The parts of my body? The matter that makes up my arms, legs, head, torso? Blood, guts, brain, bones? You can put all these things together, but still have no life. This would be a dead body; form but no function. So there is something more to me than just my physical matter.
What am I?
So if my body is not me, and none of my parts are me, then what am I? I am a conglomeration of microorganisms, working in concert. But any one of these can be separated, perhaps even a few million or billion of them at a time, and I would still exist. Remove an arm, a leg, most of my intestines, and there would still be an entity that I can call "me."
But remove certain structures, and the entity that I call "me" would sputter and die: heart, liver, brain. Sometimes we have two of a certain kind, and removal of both is needed to cease my existence: lungs, kidneys. These structures perform special functions that maintain a balance in the body.
And that balance, why do we need it? I am not the body, I am not the matter that makes up my body. I am electrochemical in nature.
I am a chemical chain reaction, part of a much larger chain reaction first set in motion at the very beginning of the universe. My memories, personality, behavior, are all energy patterns stored in the molecular spaces between the matter that makes up myself. Remove certain structures, and the chemical equation is offset. The reaction stops. I die.
The matter that makes up my body has been in existence since the beginning of time. The energy that makes up my thoughts has been in existence since the beginning of time. I am not new. I am not 34 years old. I am as old as the universe itself. And so is everyone (and everything) else.
My form is temporal and temporary. My energy pattern came into existence and is reacting with everything around it. Eventually, as I interact with other forms of energy, the essence of my pattern will decay until it ceases to be. And this is the way it should be; my matter and energy freely flows from one form to another, ad infinitum.
When "I" am destroyed, my energy and matter will become part of another pattern and chain reaction. My self-awareness will cease to exist, but everything that made up "me" is certainly still around, and always will be, forever.
Before posting the note, I posted this status, which sparked some deep contemplation that resulted in the note.
-----------------------------------------
Here is the status: "Emptiness is not nothingness. Inherent existence is an illusion, and is the cause of afflictive emotions. Each of our existences is fully dependent on everything around us. In this way, it is impossible for anyone to exist in isolation, and we are never alone."
-----------------------------------------
Here is the note:
What am I?
When I look at my arm, my hand, my foot, it is "out there." I am not my arm. I am not my hand. I am not my foot. I am centered somewhere inside my body, but the essense of "I" cannot be separated and identified.
Am I made up of this body? The parts of my body? The matter that makes up my arms, legs, head, torso? Blood, guts, brain, bones? You can put all these things together, but still have no life. This would be a dead body; form but no function. So there is something more to me than just my physical matter.
What am I?
So if my body is not me, and none of my parts are me, then what am I? I am a conglomeration of microorganisms, working in concert. But any one of these can be separated, perhaps even a few million or billion of them at a time, and I would still exist. Remove an arm, a leg, most of my intestines, and there would still be an entity that I can call "me."
But remove certain structures, and the entity that I call "me" would sputter and die: heart, liver, brain. Sometimes we have two of a certain kind, and removal of both is needed to cease my existence: lungs, kidneys. These structures perform special functions that maintain a balance in the body.
And that balance, why do we need it? I am not the body, I am not the matter that makes up my body. I am electrochemical in nature.
I am a chemical chain reaction, part of a much larger chain reaction first set in motion at the very beginning of the universe. My memories, personality, behavior, are all energy patterns stored in the molecular spaces between the matter that makes up myself. Remove certain structures, and the chemical equation is offset. The reaction stops. I die.
The matter that makes up my body has been in existence since the beginning of time. The energy that makes up my thoughts has been in existence since the beginning of time. I am not new. I am not 34 years old. I am as old as the universe itself. And so is everyone (and everything) else.
My form is temporal and temporary. My energy pattern came into existence and is reacting with everything around it. Eventually, as I interact with other forms of energy, the essence of my pattern will decay until it ceases to be. And this is the way it should be; my matter and energy freely flows from one form to another, ad infinitum.
When "I" am destroyed, my energy and matter will become part of another pattern and chain reaction. My self-awareness will cease to exist, but everything that made up "me" is certainly still around, and always will be, forever.
Admin of the Month Mar 2015
Anything is possible. Having an intelligence that is not restricted by the human limitations would get us there.
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