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Where You Ever Dead?

g4macdad

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g4macdad
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
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752
Were you ever dead or have you always been alive?



When you die again, will you always be dead from then on?

If you have always been alive, how can you die?
 
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"Dead" is defined as no longer having life. Therefore, before you existed, you could not be dead.
 
I suppose it is futile to point out that "dead" and "alive" aren't the only two possibilities, and therefore the OP presents a false dichotomy?
 
In all the time that I have existed, I have been alive. I have not "always been alive". There has been a time when I did not exist and therefore was neither alive nor dead, I simply did not exist.
 
(Actually, I am really only "alive" when Bagpuss wakes up. At other times I am simply a carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker...but that's a whole other story...)
 
Professor Yaffle said:
In all the time that I have existed, I have been alive. I have not "always been alive". There has been a time when I did not exist and therefore was neither alive nor dead, I simply did not exist.
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What difference does the terminology make to the question?

Whether you call it existing or living is irrelevant.
 
My father in law has been alive, clinically dead and alive again! Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it.
g4macdad said:
What difference does the terminology make to the question?

Whether you call it existing or living is irrelevant.
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There are a lot of things that exist that are not alive. And the "I" is a very fluid concept, the chemicals you're composed of change composition by the second.
 
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A "self" can never be dead, it either exists or does not exist. The only thing that can be "dead" is the physical body.

There are living bodies and dead bodies. Your body dies, you cease to exist.
 
I suppose I fully die at least every 20 years. I'm not sure how long it takes for a natural recycling of cells and chemicals to completely sweep and assume the structure of older chemicals in the brain. Meh.
 
Niobe said:
My father in law has been alive, clinically dead and alive again! Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it.

There are a lot of things that exist that are not alive. And the "I" is a very fluid concept, the chemicals you're composed of change composition by the second.
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So you exist then?
 
g4macdad said:
Were you ever dead or have you always been alive?



When you die again, will you always be dead from then on?

If you have always been alive, how can you die?
Click to expand...

Don't be obtuse,

You have give your definition of dead and alive if you want to debate this meaningfully.
 
Ok, so according to g4macdad a child that will be born in 2020 is at this point either alive or dead. That makes no sense to me...
Analogy: Is a radio that will be built next year working or broken at this point in time? It's neither - It doesn't exist yet.
 
l0rca said:
I suppose I fully die at least every 20 years. I'm not sure how long it takes for a natural recycling of cells and chemicals to completely sweep and assume the structure of older chemicals in the brain. Meh.
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Cool!:cool:

Now what about my question?
 
Fasto said:
Ok, so according to g4macdad a child that will be born in 2020 is at this point either alive or dead. That makes no sense to me...
Analogy: Is a radio that will be built next year working or broken at this point in time? It's neither - It doesn't exist yet.
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So you do not exist?:confused:

I wasn't asking about things not yet alive (existing)?


Your analogy is garbage then.
 
g4macdad said:
Were you ever dead or have you always been alive?



When you die again, will you always be dead from then on?

If you have always been alive, how can you die?
Click to expand...


The pieces of me existed before and they will exist after.

They will no longer be configured as I mistakenly percieve the body to be me.

In fact me exists only as a series of mements. there is no 'self' that ranscends the moment.

Welcome to R&P.

The illusion is that 'you' exist. 'Your' body exist but a transecendent self does not.
 
Dancing David said:
The pieces of me existed before and they will exist after.

They will no longer be configured as I mistakenly percieve the body to be me.

In fact me exists only as a series of mements. there is no 'self' that ranscends the moment.

Welcome to R&P.

The illusion is that 'you' exist. 'Your' body exist but a transecendent self does not.
Click to expand...

Remove the fluff and it says: I am dead.

And he is correct. He is.
 
Lightcreatedlife tried to redefine dead to be the opposite of alive.

It didn't fly then, and it ain't gonna fly now.
 
g4macdad said:
What difference does the terminology make to the question?

Whether you call it existing or living is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Silly, silly.
What was you meal before you ate it?

Was it you, has it always been you?

Terminolgy is very important. If you can't write clearly, then you can't think clearly.

Terminolgy is at the root of distinction.
 
g4macdad said:
Cool!:cool:

Now what about my question?
Click to expand...

Well, I guess I will be "alive" again, reincarnated -- if I may take such a pejorative term and apply some vague reason to it. Give me several billion years, and I think that which is buried and tossed about this planet, after being consumed by the sun turning Red Giant, emptying itself out, black hole absent... that which makes me might find itself part of the manipulation of the helix once more. Maybe something like this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814150630.htm

Of course, the chances of experiencing consciousness again is most probably completely out of the question. I hope non-human-brain experiencers don't have too bad a "life".
 
I used to be an "egg" inside an ovary, for a very short time. The egg that I became was fertilized rather than all the eggs that, every month before conception, were purged from the body. At some point, that fertilized egg grew to contain enough cells to make a viable embryo.

There was no "me" until enough cells were in place, and a enough development occurred in utero.

When all brain functions cease, so will I.

I do not have so much an ego, nor such an infantile need to be more important that the billions of people that lived and died before me, to think that my consciousness will live forever.
 
g4macdad said:
Obtuse? The question couldn't possibly be more simple.:confused:
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Several people have pointed out the logical flaw in your question--false dichotomy. Yes, obtuse in that you persist in pretending that that flaw does not exist.

It's obvious that you believe that the definition of "you" is something other than the body and all emergent properties pertaining to it. You probably believe in an immortal soul. You seem to think everyone defines the self that same way. Many of us do not share your beliefs.

Nothing could be more simple. Before I existed, I was neither alive nor dead. It is untrue to say that since I wasn't alive, I was dead--that is the false dichotomy.

Now, will you continue the charade that you don't understand this?
 
g4macdad said:
Yes, avoid the question, that will help your understanding.
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You have a few to answer.

of course if you are a troll that will be the last thing you will do.


here are some starters for you, obviously you are new to the forum.

What color is the cheese?

Is a single proton alive?

Is a hydrogen atom alive?

Is an oxyegn molecule alive?

Is an amino acid alive?

Is a prion alive?

Is a virus alive?

Is a self catalyzing aggregate of chemicals alive?
 
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