Before this life, where were you? (agnostic, Catholic, beliefs, Adam)
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"We" are merely the result of our brain processes that lead to sentience. Thus before my brain was developed, there was no "me".
Quote:
Originally Posted by FunkyMonk
This theory sounds reasonable, I used to think his way too. But now I think that there is probably something more to it. I think that life does have some sacred aspect to it.
I find it hard to believe that before this life, there was nothing of me. It just goes against my own wisdom and feelings I suppose. It's on faith for sure.
But it's that "I find it hard to believe" part that I continuously rant against. Why must there necessarily have to have been something of us before this life? It is the ultimate expression of man's arrogance to think ourselves so very important that, surely, we had to have existed in a pre- (and later, an after-) life. Why?
The evolution of our ability to think abstractly accounts for all of this theistic illusion, of our need for a godly explanation, because, in effect, we assume that role for ourselves here on Earth. You know, "man made in God's images, with dominion over the beasts, yada yada yada...."
Such conceit is not only conceptually appalling, but functionally so as well. Just look around at what we've done to this planet so far, and we've only just begun to get a good head of steam up with the good old metaphorical bulldozer!
Thankfully, the ecosystem will exert appropriate feedback controls.
Where was I before I was conceived? The molecules that assembled in me as I grew as a fetus and beyond were in the foods my mother ate and drank, and in the air I breathed. My consciousness was an outcome of the assembly of the vastly complex nervous networks in my head. When I die, it will all disassemble, (under heat, in my case), and go up mostly in steam, smoke and heat energy, and I will have ceased to be.
Except for the posts I've left here on C-D of course; they will go on for eternity!
But it's that "I find it hard to believe" part that I continuously rant against. Why must there necessarily have to have been something of us before this life? It is the ultimate expression of man's arrogance to think ourselves so very important that, surely, we had to have existed in a pre- (and later, an after-) life. Why?
The evolution of our ability to think abstractly accounts for all of this theistic illusion, of our need for a godly explanation, because, in effect, we assume that role for ourselves here on Earth. You know, "man made in God's images, with dominion over the beasts, yada yada yada...."
Such conceit is not only conceptually appalling, but functionally so as well. Just look around at what we've done to this planet so far, and we've only just begun to get a good head of steam up with the good old metaphorical bulldozer!
Thankfully, the ecosystem will exert appropriate feedback controls.
Where was I before I was conceived? The molecules that assembled in me as I grew as a fetus and beyond were in the foods my mother ate and drank, and in the air I breathed. My consciousness was an outcome of the assembly of the vastly complex nervous networks in my head. When I die, it will all disassemble, (under heat, in my case), and go up mostly in steam, smoke and heat energy, and I will have ceased to be.
Except for the posts I've left here on C-D of course; they will go on for eternity!
I don't understand why so many people on this forum have to take this argumentative, condesceding tone. Is this really where we are at these days? This is the religion forum, yet almost nobody here has any love or spiritual energy that I can see...... it's just egomania and argueing.
Anyway, I don't think that it is arrogance. You are focusing on mankind and man's arrogance. Yet man is only one living creature. I look at all life as being part of the same group, man is not seperate.
I just see it as a reasonable thought, that since I am here, now, in this living organized manner, I think it's a logical assumption that this state of organization is repeated and cyclical. A lot of it is just based on my instincts. I think that our consciousness is part of something greater than what the material world can show us right now.
I think the answer is unknowable and maybe that is just the point (if indeed there is one). Perhaps the conclusions we come to without prior knowledge are part of "test" so to speak. The way we live without certainty of a reward might be the whole point of this existance....who knows?
We were in Heaven with our Father. We chose to come to earth and live as humans so that we can acquire individuality with a persnality and then go back to our Father. The path we take is our own.
When God created us, He did it all at once. We lived in heaven until we decided to become human.
I'm speechless. I know you and are are not of the same religion, and yet this is what I believe. I didn't think anyone outside of my faith held this belief, too. How did you arrive at this conclusion, may I ask?
The answer to this question is - we don't know. We don't know where or what we were before we were born. We could have been somewhere else, but our memory does not remember it. So, the correct answer is "we don't know"..not "Nothing".
Immediately before we were born we existed in two parts - a sperm and an egg. Before that, I suppose one could argue that we were the nutrients that are parents ate that led to the creation of the sperm and egg.
Before the brain, we weren't able to reason. As the brain developed, our power to reason increased. When the brain starts to atrophy, our ability to reason will diminish. When the brain is dead, it will be over.
So its pretty much the same process that dogs and giraffes go through. Nutrients fed to your parents become sperm and eggs, the sperm and eggs come together to create a human, then when you die, you turn back into nutrients.
We could have been somewhere else, but our memory does not remember it.
Inorder to have a memory, one needs a hippocampus to create it, and temporial lobes to store them. Prior to birth, we had neither of those parts of the brain. Further, one would need an occipital lobe and functioning eyes if the memory was visual, or the corresponding auditory organs if the memory was auditorial. So it is litterally true that we wouldn't remember what we were doing before we were boring, nor would be have any method of determining what was going on around us.
Before birth, without a brain, we'd have no conscious thought. We wouldn't be able to see, smell, or experience any sensations. We wouldn't be able to be happy, or sad, or exicted or bored. All of those emotions are created by a working brain. No memories, No logic, nothing.
Pre-brain, we weren't sapiant in any way.
Last edited by Boxcar Overkill; 04-14-2009 at 07:50 PM..
Before this life, I was floating around in my Dad's testicles.
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