Atheist Lee, "What happens when you die?"
More actions
This is a response to the youtube video "Atheist Lee, "What happens when you die?"" at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJomuA9NOjE
At any point in Lee Lemon's life how many different environmental differences could effect and thus change the functioning of her brain? How many different ways can her brain function at any point in her life? When we think about it carefully we should come to the conclusion that it should be an extremely large amount of different ways. If just one neurotransmitter is in a slightly different position on one synapse connected to one neuron in the brain, the brain will have a different structure. This extremely slight difference may or may not have any eventual effect on the functioning of the brain and even less likely to have an effect on the consciousness produced by the brain. The point is if one adds up all the very small individual changes that the brain could have with the multiple combination of these individual changes then there will be an enumerable amount of different ways that the brain can be structured at any one point in time. The enumerable amount of ways that the brain can be structured and then function is what superimmortality predicts. If your body lived long enough it could cycle through all the possible ways the brain can be structured and then function. If you are a person that believes that the body is the seat of the self then you might believe that you would experience every possible conscious experience that your brain size can produce. But the problem is that most of these possible structures and functioning of your body will produce behaviors and personalities that are not you in any sense of the word "you". For example, these various structures and functioning will produce the conscious of every possible person that has the same size brain that exists, has existed, will exist, and it will produce most conscious points in their lives. These various people (structural and functional versions of your body) will not call themselves by your name. They will not have your memories. They might not speak your language, or have your skills or knowledge of the world. If they have absolutely no knowledge of you how can they be you? You being defined as a specific body is a poor way to define yourself. On the other hand, defining yourself as a certain grouping of structures and functioning of matter is a much better way. The structure and functioning of matter is a property of bodies and can be duplicated in other bodies.
"What happens when you die?" can be answered by the science of superimmortality. If any structure and functioning of matter that would have produced you (a consciousness that you experience) before death by your body will also produce a consciousness that you will experience in another body. Any experiences like visiting with relatives and friends that you did or could have done during your current life did or would have produced a specific structure and functioning within your current body. Duplicating any of those structures and functionings again in another body will again produce a consciousness that you experience.