African_love doesn't exist

[African_Love]

and neither do you! It feels so strongly that there is a permanent, central observer in 'my' brain with a constant identity but there isn't. There are 100 billion separate neurons in 'my' brain and none of them is 'me'. Each of these neurons is made up of molecules that are made up of atoms that are replaced frequently (every few months, according to V.S Ramachandran). There is no way that I could possibly be the same entity (ie. arrangement of sub-atomic particles) that I was 10 years ago. Some of the atoms in my body are probably the same as they were 10 years ago but only because they've been recycled, at one point (or two, three etc.), they were also replaced. There is no actual 'African_love', there are just a bunch of sub-atomic particles that experience the illusion of being 'African_love'. It's only a matter of time before an entirely new community of atoms experience the illusion of being 'African_love' and the atoms I'm currently comprised of are recycled into other things. It's entirely possible, not even unlikely, that any of the atoms that any of my neurons are comprised of will replace or be replaced by any of the atoms that any of 'your' neurons are comprised of.

This is such a beautiful and fascinating fact to me. It makes me feel connected to nature as a whole. I don't feel empathy for most human beings but I admit that it's inconsistent for me not to. If you were to take this to it's logical conclusion, you should feel empathy for everybody, since there is no separate, single 'you' that can be considered as having separate interests from anyone else. Any of the particles you're made up of could end up experiencing the illusion of being Bill Gates or a starving, orphaned child. This completely destroys the validity of ethical egoism. Logically, we should be doing everything we can to minimize as much suffering as possible and increase as much happiness as possible.

[Jassy Melson]

a convenient way to dismiss all guilt and accountability (it wasn't my fault--I'm not the same person I was a day ago).

[Virgil]

If I don't exist, then someone other than me really screwed up at work and that person should get reprimanded instead of the me that doesn't exist. :p

[Paulclem]

It is similar to The Buddhist view except that the Middle way idea is adopted which answers Jassy's statement. Buddhist philosophy talks about name only labels for things which are made up of parts. In humans these are the senses combuined with the mind which has memories, cultural factors and a sense of a permanent I.

It says that there is no soul - a permanently residing part of us that is eternal, but that there is a continuum - the energy from each life causing the next life. On the way the essentially impermanent - in the Buddhist view - elements that make up a person's sense of identity - their I - dissipates. In this way one being can become another human to animal etc.

[L.M. The Third]

Last night my ten-year-old neighbor came up with the idea that the life he lives isn't the the real life. That he is essentially unconscious and that he really lives in some other world which he does not now know, but that he has imagined all the people and events of this world. I see that's not what you're really getting at, but it's such a strange thought for a ten-year-old to have recurringly. Maybe it's because the poor child is living with the awful threat of his mother's cancer.

[Paulclem]

It is similar to The Buddhist view except that the Middle way idea is adopted which answers Jassy's statement. Buddhist philosophy talks about name only labels for things which are made up of parts. In humans these are the senses combuined with the mind which has memories, cultural factors and a sense of a permanent I.

It says that there is no soul - a permanently residing part of us that is eternal, but that there is a continuum - the energy from each life causing the next life. On the way the essentially impermanent - in the Buddhist view - elements that make up a person's sense of identity - their I - dissipates. In this way one being can become another human to animal etc.

Edit: In answer to Jassy in ters of the Buddhist view of this- the course of reincarnation is determined by the good or bad Karma you create in your life - which makes the being resposible for everything and not able to wash their hands of their actions.