I’ve been pondering this question since my time is near. Of course no one knows for certain, but I think a certain blogger had the most likely description.
Time existed before you were born, other people lived and died before you were born, and other people will be born after you are dead. One has no memory of anything before they were born (of course folks will claim to be someone in a past life, but people imagine all sorts of stuff). Before you were born will be like it is after you die. You won’t have any memories or consciousness that goes on. In other words there is no “soul”. Who you are is your body, brain, and chemical actions in the brain. After death, or brain-death, you will cease to exist entirely.
The blogger made a good point that since this is the case you might as well make every minute in this life count. I think that is good advice. Unfortunately for me because of health issues death is much preferable for me.
1 comment
Pretty much this.
With the one exception that i think “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” applies here.
There’s some sort of magic happening to cause a unique individual consciousness to be attached to each unique body. There’s something special, and i think “magic” in the programming-sense is a good way to think of it; because we don’t really understand what causes a unique, individual, sentient consciousness, to arise from the combination of the parts from which it manifests.
We’re not “just stuff,” but we’re also not “more than this” either. It’s all happening at once, from start to finish… and i agree that the finiteness and rarity, the totally spontaneous occurrence of a consciousness and a body existing together as a “person,” which will someday cease to exist at all, has immeasurable value, and should be savored, cherished, and used as much and as well as possible, while it is available… but should also be nourished, protected, and preserved, so that its usefulness remains maximized throughout its effective duration.
Once you mess it up too much to use, there’s not much else you can do but wait to end, or check out, and you don’t get another one.