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posted by martyb on Sunday December 02 2018, @04:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.
 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @06:33PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @06:33PM (#768938)

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but when you don't exist, you don't experience anything. The conscious dies with the body. Your faith and wishful (vengeful) thinking is the same as all the hateful religions your disparage.

    Do yourself a favor, forget about him, he's dead (Jim), the stress isn't worth it.

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday December 02 2018, @07:46PM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 02 2018, @07:46PM (#768959) Journal

    There's no acceptable evidence either way. It's difficult to conceive of what evidence *could* exist. So why do you have an opinion?

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @08:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @08:02PM (#768962)

      I go with what is most plausible. Who's the guy that said, *You throw out the bullshit, and whatever is left is probably the truth*?

    • (Score: 2) by r1348 on Sunday December 02 2018, @09:16PM

      by r1348 (5988) on Sunday December 02 2018, @09:16PM (#768978)

      This is not how burden of proof works, and you know it.
      An atheist might claim that our consciousness is the result of sufficiently complex electro-chemical processing in our nervous system, and when that system stops functioning, consciousness is lost with it. He doesn't have to prove what lies beyond death because he claims that nothing lies there. And assuming all physical evidence that we have, there's no indication of any furthering of our conscious information after death.
      A religious person might claim different things happen after death, depending on belief system, to my knowledge there's no religious system that claims cease of existence after death, but feel free to contradict me here. Still, this person has to bring evidence of what he's claiming, and so far nothing even remotely rational was brought.

      So yes, technically speaking we're all worm food, but don't see this as cynical. Our contribution to the species lives on after our demise, in form of both genetic inheritance and cultural contribution, or even for the simple reason of having participated in a productive system sustaining us whole as a species. Our consciousness is lost, our memory will be lost, but our impact on the planet's ecosystem lives forever.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 03 2018, @06:25PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 03 2018, @06:25PM (#769226)

    And if our consciousness does exist in some other dimension?

    I have no problem with people taking a scientific approach, but at least have the decency to admit when you don't know something. Currently there is zero scientific consensus on consciousness. Possibly we are just emergent properties of a self-sustaining propagating system (life) or possibly life was influenced to develop by consciousness.

    There is currently no answer so please don't go around like some newly de-baptized Christian trying to wake up everyone else with the New Testatruth!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:02AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:02AM (#769341)

      And if our consciousness does exist in some other dimension?

      Did it exist before you were born? Don't be stupid. Consciousness emerges from the meat. It is the meat, nothing more. You only doubt this because you are afraid of the preachers, subconsciously or not.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:38AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:38AM (#769405)

        Not true, I had the benefit of growing up without any religion shoved in my face. I learned about them but never once had to go to church or listen to a preacher. I think the first time I went to a real church service was for my great grandma's funeral.

        In college I studied hard science and the concept of consciousness bugged me. Is it possible to arbitrarily make a choice?

        There are two typical answers. Yes and no.

        If you say yes then there is something more than mechanistic processes at work. Possibly it is an emergent phenomena that dies with the body, possibly it is energy in a different dimension that interacts with our universe for a short time.

        If you say no then there is no free will, we are just complicated machines that think we're alive.

        The real point is that we don't know, and to just ASSUME the answer is the height of stupidity while you treat it like the most obvious common sense thing around.

        Personally I believe there is more to life than our three dimensions, but I won't go around preaching that like it is the Truth. You should be equally cautious with your own unproven beliefs. Since you fit the stereotype check out Rick and Morty: A Rickle in Time, the relevant bit is where Rick starts praying to God as he is about to die and truly realizes that he doesn't have all the answers. Not that it is proof of anything, just an example of how a towering intellect is faced with the cold hard truth of ignorance.

        So maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, but at least realize when you are making baseless assumptions that are actually just popularized belief.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @02:53AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @02:53AM (#771008)

          You're engaging in furious mental masturbation. That's just some thing the brain does because it can't sit still for half a second, so don't take it personally. You find that you will learn much more by not thinking at all. Try to quiet all those voices in your head, and actually listen.