Quote: DaButt @ December 14 2008, 6:11 PM GMTI've never been pegged, but those smileys accurately depict my facial expressions during my last prostate exam.
After you've pegged it... Page 4
Quote: Moonstone @ December 14 2008, 6:08 PM GMTBut what are your views on life after death?
I have no idea what's waiting for me after I die and I hope to avoid finding out for as long as possible.
Heh. Well said!
Hopefully this man is man is not a proctologist:
Ewwwwwww
I like it how he's put his other hand there, just in case you hadn't realised what the problem was!! 
What in the name of ... 
Good god! Poor guy!
Quote: Nil Putters @ December 14 2008, 6:19 PM GMTI like it how he's put his other hand there, just in case you hadn't realised what the problem was!!
Shouldn't. Laugh.
Quote: Nil Putters @ December 14 2008, 6:19 PM GMTEwwwwwww
I like it how he's put his other hand there, just in case you hadn't realised what the problem was!!
He's Chinese and I'd bet he can still handle chopsticks better than I can.
Quote: DaButt @ December 14 2008, 6:21 PM GMTHe's Chinese and I'd bet he can still handle chopsticks better than I can.
Chopsticks are eeeeeasyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to use!
I am actually eating y'know!
Well, I was.
I wish I was.
I've been thinking this over recently (and still am) for a writing project. It's been a problem because I like everything to make sense. And I am only talking here in personal ideas of mights, maybes, and what ifs.
It's not an easy question. But if there is only oblivion, then this existence, with all the memories, all the frustration and achievement, back-biting and scrabbling for money or power or sex, will never be called to our rememberance. In a very real sense, this existence will never have happened to the individual. The romanticised image of us gathering happy memories and love, all talk of good innings, is then nonsense. Whether or not you collected happy or sad memories - or had a long pleasant life or a short tormented life - is pointless, when oblivion wipes it all away.
Here's where I've been struggling. What is the point of us having an awareness of such things? Yes, at a biological level, memories make sense as we learn from them. But we aren't alone in that ability as other species learn from experience and have drives to procreate or climb social standing.
So what I'm really wrestling with is the level of thought above that. The fact that we can be aware that existence is effectively an illusion, that death mocks everything we fought for and loved for. It makes no real sense that I can comprehend a future without me, where love and friends are utterly without meaning. From an evolutionary sense, this capacity should serve a purpose or else it shouldn't be there.
My understanding of evolution is that it is incredibly economical. A creature has just enough features and structures to perform its task, to survive and reproduce. But my ability to comprehend oblivion seems beyond any biological need. Other species operate fine without it. And so could humanity. In fact, a human's ability to percieve its death (or that of others it loves) and the future consequence can often be more damaging to health (mental / emotional / physical) than any evolutionary advantage I can think of. There seems (to me) to be no reason for this perception.
Add to this the idea of people dying for other people's rights, a belief, love, or self-sacrificial heroism. It makes no evolutionary sense at all, especially if oblivion negates the need to have died at all. It seems self-defeating from a genetic point of view. I could argue it's a social drive like a hive but in that instance we're talking of sexless drones. In the human hive, we all have the ability and drive to mate so it makes little sense to choose self-sacrifice instead of mate.
Almost universally, people's actions betray a belief that they're struggling for something that will perpetuate beyond their lifetime (wealth, fame, etc), which, if they believe in oblivion is nonsense. They won't have any benefit from their effort. Here I'm talking about a musician who records an album knowing he'll be dead before it's release, or a woman that starts studies for a degree after being diagnosed as terminally ill. These efforts make no sense if oblivion negates it all.
Another idea I've thought over, is that we humans can only physically percieve higher-dimensional objects in the context of our own 3-D / 4-D world. But our consciousness goes beyond that. It has the ability to conceive higher dimensions even if we can't physically experience them, which to me hints that conscience may operate at a different level to our physical bodies. It's impossible to conceive the inconceivable. So to conceive higher dimensions might suggest we have experience of it somewhere within us.
Another is that time is the 4th dimension. So the higher dimensions of the universe operate outside of time. There is a 'place' in the cosmos where time doesn't limit or impose. Where the span of history is frozen like a galactic Random Access Memory. To me, eternity being an unending and monotonous sequence of time is wrong. Eternity as the total absence of time makes more sense within my head, where I suspect it's the only place that it makes sense. As I haven't explained myself that well.
To answer the question (at last, you say) I don't know. I am currently having problems in understanding both extremes. Much like my understanding of life, eh?
What the f**k?
I hate your posts, A. They're too long and ... wordy.
*breaks down and brain cries*
I disagree Aaron. I thought that was a great and fascinating post. I have to be honest and say that I was hoping for a contribution from Mr Slag in this thread because I knew it would give plenty of food for thought and reasoned/considered opinion. The man is a true philosopher imho.