Re: Is There Life After Death?
Posted: 26 Jan 2010, 12:49
For some, intelligence dies long before the body.KALSTER wrote:I voted no. Your intelligence dies, but who you were lives on in those around you (not just in a genetic way).
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For some, intelligence dies long before the body.KALSTER wrote:I voted no. Your intelligence dies, but who you were lives on in those around you (not just in a genetic way).
Let me respond in kind:jamin_za wrote:What are you smoking
Assuming of course it was there to begin with.For some, intelligence dies long before the body.
Culture, trends and "public consciousness" (whatever that means) are not influenced by the individual - if you consider the infinitesimally small contribution the average person will make to our collective culture in their lifetime...KALSTER wrote:We all affect each other in some way, obviously. Culture trends and the public consciousness do not evolve on its own.
What do you know that the rest of us don't? Why do you think that it may be a possibility?Tribble wrote:I think the potential for life after death exists - but it is in no means a certainty.
This sounds perilously similar to the "One vote won't make a difference, so I might as well not vote" argument.jamin_za wrote:Culture, trends and "public consciousness" (whatever that means) are not influenced by the individual - if you consider the infinitesimally small contribution the average person will make to our collective culture in their lifetime...
You will influence your immediate family and friends, and they will influence theirs etc. But if you consider this small abstract ripple in our collective worthy of note as a legacy, or even measurable to any degree, you are smoking something.
extelligenceKALSTER wrote:I was referring to our Sociocultural evolution.
I already agreed with that.KALSTER wrote:Obviously the average guy's contribution to the public consciousness (the non-genetic difference between the earliest Homo sapiens sapiens and modern man) is infinitesimally small, but it is nonetheless there.
No they dont. People who influence culture to a measurable degree are few and far between. There are 40 million people in our country. I doubt you could name 400 people alive today that influenced SA culture to a measurable degree for any extended period of time... Thats a ratiio of less than 1:100000Single people often do affect the public consciousness to a significant degree
No it does not, but if I said your life wont affect SA culture in any measurable way so you might as well stop living, it would.This sounds perilously similar to the "One vote won't make a difference, so I might as well not vote" argument.
Tribs is 'at one' with those of a feline persuasion. Possibly her insight is to do with the nine lives thing?StarPhoenix wrote:What do you know that the rest of us don't? Why do you think that it may be a possibility?Tribble wrote:I think the potential for life after death exists - but it is in no means a certainty.
The product of overactive imaginations.lancelot wrote:What are ghosts/spirits?
Interesting, but do other people count as sources of extelligence?rustypup wrote:extelligenceKALSTER wrote:I was referring to our Sociocultural evolution.
I look at the whole thing as the evolution of man as a species. We are all part of a whole. So while your individual intelligence dies, your influences continue to perpetuate. Perhaps they quickly dissipate and mingle and quickly lose recognizability, but they undoubtedly add to the flow of human existence. It is like a ball rolling down a very large hill. Eventually the ball gets to the bottom, but each innumerable pebble along the way helped determine where along the base it would end up.My point is that can you call that tiny smidge of an influence immortality
Its almost like you have an arbitrary threshold that someone has to cross to be "measurable". I see it as a matter of degree, rather than a matter of yes or no. I also don't have to be able to name the individuals and what impact they had to know that such influences exist.No they dont. People who influence culture to a measurable degree are few and far between.
I meant the first part of the argument that essentially argues that individuals don't matter.No it does not, but if I said your life wont affect SA culture in any measurable way so you might as well stop living, it would.
I've always fancied myself as more of a jumper.Want some rope
The butterfly effect... chaos theory... it's all true, but not to the degree you purpose.KALSTER wrote:I think one can call it immortality in a certain sense, because I don't think any life can have the distinction of not affecting any other.
Thats a nice catch 22 circle-jerk you have going there.I also don't have to be able to name the individuals and what impact they had to know that such influences exist.
I am a firm believer that for the most part, they dont. Not on their own. As part of a greater whole they do, but inconsequentially. Look at political organisations: the old Nats and the ANC. Each will have far-reaching effects on our country and culture - but only a few individuals will stand out. Verwoed, DeKlerk, Mandela, Hani... but not the many millions of party members who made up the numbers. Pick out a random member from each party roster and statistically, the chances are overwheling that they could have never existed and it would not change our present situation one iota.I meant the first part of the argument that essentially argues that individuals don't matter.
KALSTER wrote:do other people count as sources of extelligence?
Screeper wrote:Tribs is 'at one' with those of a feline persuasion. Possibly her insight is to do with the nine lives thing?StarPhoenix wrote:What do you know that the rest of us don't? Why do you think that it may be a possibility?Tribble wrote:I think the potential for life after death exists - but it is in no means a certainty.
ja boet....jamin_za wrote:The product of overactive imaginations.lancelot wrote:What are ghosts/spirits?
worm food or fuel for the fire...Mykhal wrote:when we die our life force (energy) or soul has to go somewhere
Me too!jee wrote:i think that having bruise marks from a spirit is an overactive imagination.
Mykhal wrote:Ghosts / spirits could also be an extension of the "energy-theory" I mentioned.
I do not say that ghosts and spirits do exist! I just believe that there is a possibility that they might!
(Actually that is also my position on aliens)