Continuum, Consciousness, Being

by onacruse 55 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Aalena

  I remembered one last incident. We held my father's funeral at a non-denominational funeral home since he and most of his family were not JWs(I was very proud of my mother for doing that). On my mother initial visit to the funeral home to make arrangements, while she was inside the back window in her Ford Explorer --shattered. So? you may say... well, it shattered so that the glass fell OUTSIDE of the car. Not one peice of glass was inside of the back of the Explorer.

  Maybe those things seemed a bit larger than they were because of the emotional times we were experiencing... but still odd, nonetheless. Definately not your typical run of events and it definately made me think about death differently than I had been taught to believe.
• 

  A Paduan

  Our spirit can impact on the arrangements of energy.

  If you look inside bodies there are cells / processes, and inside those there are atoms, and inside those electrons and inside those..........n othing actually there, just more space and compilations of energy

  "Matter exists" - well, energy arrangements do anyway
• 

  AlanF

  I'm convinced that when you die, you're gone forever. If I'm wrong, that'd be fine with me, but I see no evidence for it. For an individual's existence to go on after the death of the body, he or she would have to 'really' exist in some other 'plane of existence' than our physical world, and a connection between the two worlds would have to exist. There would have to be some specific entity -- a disembodied 'soul', if you will, that was the person's 'real self'. Again I see no real evidence for this.

  Various animals less conscious than humans exist. Chimps share many traits in common with humans, although those associated with the brain are significantly less well developed. Would chimps, then, have 'souls'? How about bears? How about alligators? How about goldfish? How about dragonflies? There's obviously a continuum of creatures. Where and how would one draw a line?

  The existence of conscious entities might be likened to a candle flame. When the flame is burning, heat from the flame melts the wax, which travels up the wick and upon reaching the base of flame vaporizes and is quickly oxidized and contributes further to the flame, which dissipates into the air. It's a self-sustaining process. The key is the word process. When the process ceases, the flame goes out. It no longer exists, even though the atoms that contributed to the process once were part of the candle, and now are part of the atmosphere. It's the same with life and consciousness. Both are processes. The living entity extracts energy from the environment, which in turn sustains the entity. When the processes cease, the entity that is a result of the processes no longer exists, even though the atoms that contribute to it once were part of other objects and processes, and have now become part of new objects and processes.

  AlanF
• 

  Englishman

  I used to believe in re-inCarnation until my Mum told me that evaporated milk was bad for me.

  Englishman.
• 

  drwtsn32

  Excellent flame analogy, Alan. I share your opinion on this...
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  logansrun

  I think conscious existence after death is possible, although all the evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Nonetheless, the universe is far weirder than we could possibly imagine. Much of quantum physics defies logic and can be seen as paradoxical. Newton would turn in his grave if he realised what mainstream science has thus shown to be the case.

  As long as it remains a possibility, I cannot put anyone down for believing in it.

  B.
• 

  shotgun

  **Cough** Snort**sniff* sniff**....cough...whew..Craig can you pass what you've been smokin man...your getting deep into the outer reaches of your mind man.

  Who knows buddy, I believe I'll live forever, at least the elements I'm made of will.

  I won't be aware of it though, it's nice to contemplate never having to say goodbye to the ones you love and all the things you find beautiful but it seems that living life to the fullest is a good stance to take just incase this life is all there is!
• 

  Lady Lee

  Hmmmm a slightly different spin

  What is consciousness or more specifiaccly what is MY consciousness?

  Is it simply the collection of neural pathways? Is consciousness of the self necessary for us to be who we are?

  I am thinking here of at least 3 situations where consciousness of the self may differ.

  First - Alzheimer's patients or other people with some sort of dementia. We may see the the person but quickly we will realize the need to interact with them on a totally different level. They forget who they are and who we are. The past can often disappear into a void never to be retreived - well at least not yet. Where does the consciousness go or is it altered?

  Second - accident victims with traumatic head injuries that lose their memories. Some lose the ability to remember who they are so they are in a constant state of relearning. Where does the consciousness go or is it altered?

  Third and some will argue this one - Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personalities) Each part of the self can possess a totally different consciousness with different memories, abilituies and some studies have shown even different EEGs. I think this could be argued that each part only contains a part of the entire consciousness but trying telling that to any one part who believes they are alone in there. Where does the consciousness go or is it altered depending on which part is in charge and what happens to the other consciousnesses?
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  Farkel

  : Can our personal "consciousness" cease to exist?

  Yes, but it takes regular attendance at a Kingdom Hall for it to happen.

  Farkel
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  Lady Lee

  Right on Farkel