religion vs. science

[mrwiseman]

But we will be dead and our memories will go, so why do we still remember?

Because we are not dead (?). Once we die, we stop thinking, so all our functions cease. Even if the chemical links remain for a short time (like information stays in a hard disk even if it's broken, though it degrades and cannot be read), there's no use for them if we cannot think. Why would it disappear all of a sudden?


Also, what the fuck is up with Deja vu? I get that stuff really often.

Lots of people have them. It happens because of the way brains work. They base everything on relating and matching information, so if you do something that matches something you did, but you had lost (forgotten) the link to it, you get this "I have done/seen/heard this before" feeling. Dreams count, and you have a lot of REM time per day where your brain is actively thinking on stuff, even though you'll hardly remember later. The "match patterns" of your dreams are still in your brain, and you'll match them to stuff you see and get a deja vu feeling.

[Xellos]

If you believe ther'es ana fterlife, then you remember, I guess. But if you don't believe in an after life, you don't remember after your dead.

It's simple, really. Here's a scenario:

I can remember what I had for lunch today because I'm alive. If I get my head cut off from ninja monkeys in 5 minutes, then I'll be dead and won't remember what I had for lunch. Cause I'm dead.

[One Classy Bloke]

But when your dead, you won't remember remembering your life. As everyone is fated to die at some point, they'll stop remembering that they remember their lives. To remember yourself now, you need to always have a memory forever, but when you are dead, you will not remember. So why is it that we can remember now?

(I think i cracked it, (How to explain it) or i'm closer now)

[Xellos]

Because we're ALIVE. Is it so hard to understand? We dont' remember anything once we're dead.

[mrwiseman]

I can remember what I had for lunch today because I'm alive. If I get my head cut off from ninja monkeys in 5 minutes, then I'll be dead and won't remember what I had for lunch. Cause I'm dead.

In fact, you don't even exist, so there's no such concept as "remembering". You neither remember or forget - you are no more.


But when your dead, you won't remember remembering your life.

You won't be "you", you will simply not exist. You can't remember remembering your life, or the other way, because your consciousness ended, so "you" ended.


To remember yourself now, you need to always have a memory forever

To remember yourself now, you need to be alive and consciouss and have your memories up to now. That's all you need; I don't see why you need to have memory forever. It's up till now, the rest of your life still haven't happened.


but when you are dead, you will not remember.

You won't exist, you can't remember, not remember, feel, not feel, and much less think. Your existence ends when you stop thinking, that's what it looks like; you can't react to stimulus and/or your memory, and you can't update your memory, because your brain functions ceased to work. Like a TV switched off, it's not that it's showing a black screen, it's that it's not showing anything. What you see is just the nonworking material.


So why is it that we can remember now?

We can remember up to now, because we're alive up to now.

[One Classy Bloke]

We're all destined to die, where we will forget our lives. Death is a certainty, it will happen, but if we forget our existance, (remembering our existance is what allows us to know we exist), when why do we need to remember now if we are going to be dead. Once your memories are gone, all of them are gone.

If you consider a person's life as a timeline, with all the memories on there, death would wipe all the memories away, so why is it that we can remember, if our memories are going to be wiped out away? We may be alive now, but death will come either way.

[Xellos]

[Message deleted. Reason: 1.3.6 Flaming]

<font color="#101010" size="1">[ February 26, 2004 08:51 PM: Message edited by: -Wiseman- ]</font>

[mrwiseman]

why do we need to remember now if we are going to be dead

Because it's useful while we're not dead. This is like saying why do you need to buy a coat if you're going to throw it away a couple years later.


Once your memories are gone, all of them are gone.

Yup, gone for good. But that doesn't mean they didn't exist.


If you consider a person's life as a timeline, with all the memories on there, death would wipe all the memories away, so why is it that we can remember, if our memories are going to be wiped out away?

Because that did not happen yet. That's like asking why do you have a book over your table if you're going to pick it up in 5 minutes.


We may be alive now, but death will come either way.

Yes, but this doesn't change anything while we're alive. It did not happen yet, regardless of whether it's a certainty or not. If you throw a large mirror off a plane, it's a certainty that it'll fall, shatter, and stop reflecting properly, but that fact doesn't make it shatter instantly, and it's still a fully functional mirror reflecting light rays until it's broken. I don't understand why do you find a problem here. Stuff works, until it's destroyed. There's no time travelling, nor time events are parallel, nor time is a spatial dimension. Events that are bound to happen don't invalidate previous events because they are that, previous to them, and happen and become a reality before the final events happen.

[One Classy Bloke]

This paradox is different to "That's like asking why do you have a book over your table if you're going to pick it up in 5 minutes." This concerns the confirmation of existance, which needs memory. I doubt any of us remember being a baby, so how do we know that we were ever babies in the first place? Since we're alive now, we can see pictures and hear stories. When we are dead, we can't, all we have to rely on is our memory. Since we can't use that when we are dead, we can't confirm we ever existed. Therefore, the question is, why can we even remember our lives now, if we can't later?

I can't really explain it any more than i have. If you want to understand what i'm trying to get at, then you'll have to think about it. Sorry.

IRT Xel: It's not that i'm high, i'm trying to explain a very hard concept. Another hard concept is trying to add a new number to the scale of 1 to 10, and not using 0 or 11. While it would seem possible, it just isn't. This doesn't mean i'm high.

[Xellos]

10.1

Problem solved xD

We can remember our lives now because we're alive. Why cna't you get that?