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"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet." ~Shakespear
Let's not dwell on existential/personality philosophy here, I already went down that road and it was disturbing (for the 5 minutes that it took me to get rid of my cognitive dissonance), then it was really liberating. Understanding one's true identity is a very beautiful thing.
The mind is inconstant/dynamic, the body is inconstant/dynamic, time itself is inconstant/dynamic... so are you your future self? Your present self? Your past self? You aren't your past self now, then how you you have been your present self then? You are not just your present self? How could that be? Like a river.
Or are we all at once? I've read several scientific studies that conclude that time may be an illusion -- that it's a human-created variable, used to measure other human-created variables. If that's true, our 'past' and 'future' self are just more human-created variables.
If I call out to 'John Smith' and fourteen John Smiths respond, they will most likely look different, have different voices, be capable of different things -- but they're still all 'John Smith'. After all, a name is simply a label that's applied to a being by common consent.
Likewise, 'god' is almost universally defined as a divine being that is set apart from the common mortal. Most, if not all, are capable of divine action (both rewarding and punitive), and many of them are said to reside in some kind of other-dimensional 'paradise'. Given those criteria, it logically follows that one, most or all of them could be the same god-being.
That would be true if all the gods provided the same morals and rules. If they do not then how can they be the source of an universal and unchanging moral standard? Otherwise the claim that our morals came from a god because they never change would not be true. And yes it is as likely for there to be more than one god as there to be no god or if there is a god it is not the one in any religion. I am simply arguing against the claim of that we get our morals from the Bible and the God of the Bible.
If you claimed that we got our morals from John Smith and John Smith never changes his morals and yet there was a room full of other John Smiths that all had their own sense of morals, and different people claimed that different John Smiths were the ones whose morals they followed, where does that leave us?
Or are we all at once? I've read several scientific studies that conclude that time may be an illusion -- that it's a human-created variable, used to measure other human-created variables. If that's true, our 'past' and 'future' self are just more human-created variables.
Well, [in terms of "who are this 'each other' thing"] I did think of that "all" answer. But only form an outside/kratoscient perspective could you be "all times at once." From the present perspective you definitely can't be your future selves. We don't look at a river and say: that river is what it was in the past and what it will be in the future. But we still understand that a river doesn't have a static present identity; in fact, though, that real identity of the river really is "all at once," but the present identity of the river is what it is.
"If you can’t tell right from wrong without appealing to an authority or a sacred text, what you lack is not religion but compassion."
--Valerie Tarico
Simply put, if you need to consult a book to decide whether burning a person with cigarettes or beating a child is wrong, you are utter devoid of empathy. We hare a word for that: sociopath.
We all know that. The question is, where does our conscience come from? Atheists will say it developed, over time. Creationists will say it was put there by our creator. I am speaking generally, of course.
Or are we all at once? I've read several scientific studies that conclude that time may be an illusion -- that it's a human-created variable, used to measure other human-created variables. If that's true, our 'past' and 'future' self are just more human-created variables.
that is correct.
time is an artificial construct.
the only thing that is "real" is what is happening now.
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