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From: AtheistExperience
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  • Everyone should go check out the TED speech video "Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight". The lady has a stroke that turns off the part of the brain that controls consciousness, and explains what it feels like. Consciousness is a product of the brain.

    I believe

  • I've been trying this free will debate somewhere else with no action, maybe here.

    Ok, I propose that determinism is the only logical conclusion, and free will is a blank check. Free will is magic.

    Incesturbation ftw.

  • peace and love to everybody!

  • making pittsburgh look bad...

  • This was a very pointless conversation from both perspectives. I made the assumption based on the Title that a discussion on consciousness as it relates to god or not would be taking place. Instead a bunch of false claims about free will are discussed by a caller jumping around to multiple topics, and a host that as totally clueless to the concept of free will. Why was this video even posted?

  • I am conscious, therefore I have a soul.

    Okay, then do sleeping people lose their souls?

    Do people in comas lose their souls?

    Even if consciousness and soul are synonymous, that tells us nothing about the nature of the soul.

    BTW, scientists have already examined consciousness by monitoring brain activity and chemical reactions inside living humans. NONE discovered that the human was kept alive by an immortal, invisible, immaterial state of being.

  • And by the way, conciousness is result of evolution. The very thing that enable human to survive for such a long time.

    Human are the most frail of animals yet we dominate the earth thanks to our brain development which in turn evolved conciousness.

  • @rimidalvetarak

    I would be weary of taking that stance, other animals display a level of awareness but it's hard to be certain they experience what we call consciousness. They probably do but we have no way of knowing exactly when or what forms demand a consciousness. The caller conflates that with his religious concept of soul. It seems unknowable to me how why or by what force materials/elaborate chemical reactions become self aware or why we particularly need to be the ones conscious.

  • The brain may be collection of atom, the memory and experiences are not. Computer may be just collection of wires, sillicons and plastics. Its database and capabilities are not.

  • The soul is a myth - or maybe I just don't understand the concept.

    - If the soul is immaterial how does it affect my brain in the real world?

    - Feelings & emotions are based on hormones and bioelectric signals, so how does the immaterial soul manage to feel the same emotions without hormones and bioelectric signals?

    It makes no sense to me. And I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not me but the Christians who does not actually understand what a soul is.

    I think it's mostly just memes...

  • Jen, wonderful question. So if I am having sex with my clone would I know if I would still love myself in the morning?

  • It would be just Incest, because masturbation, is one person right? IF I go down, or play with my partner, she is not masturbating, nor am I masturbating her its a funny question.. Yet, its also stupid, because identical twins are clones or genetically and they would be committing incest.. So you cloning yourself is different from nature doing it how?

  • the baby would be a mini me, thus completing me.

  • Agnosticism is the only rational stance.

  • Positive atheism is an oxymoron, atheism is reductive and intentionally ignorant. The soul is the non-material essence of a person, the sum of the subjective experience, memories and emotions. Atheism is irrational and pessimistic, God is merely the expression and product of human weaknesses.

    The problem of existence is too large for our small minds, but to deny the existence of a creation force that is responsible for differentiating life from inanimate matter like in atheism is ignorance.

  • @HomuncuIus Wrong, ignorance is assuming that because we cannot explain something, it is a better idea to create a reason, than to admit that we do not have the answer and continue searching.

    To say that there is a creating force, is to open paths of questions which serve to lead us away from the more logical paths of reason. If i cannot see into a dark cave, I do not assume there is a particular object down there, I would look for a way to light the cave, and discover the truth.

  • Neither. It's not masturbation (Unless you're the caller, who believes copies are the same thing), and incest is having sex with people you're related to, not who you are an exact copy of. It's kind of like how 1 isn't a prime number....

  • Arnie: "You should clone yourself while you're still alive"

    Bad Guy: "And why is that, so I can understand your unique perspective?"

    Arnie: "No so you can FUCK yourself"

    The Sixth Day

  • 9:08-10:19 Jen is awesome!!!!!!!!!!! 

  • What is a soul. 'It's hard to explain, I just know that because I'm conscious I have a soul but it's hard to explain'.

    That's a good argument mate

  • When you posit that guys like Buddha or Jesus were average men who simply had an experience of a higher consciousness or what's called today a "cosmic consciousness," a colossal experience of something transcendental and transpersonal, then you have an origin for how the very notion of God came into thought. In Christianity, Jesus was pedestalized, and so this religion involved a worship to God or Jesus instead of a direct contact to the divine which eastern religion offers through meditation.

  • Great debate. Personally, I disagree with matt a little. If you could make an atomically (not just anatomically) perfect copy of me - it would in fact be me. This idea of 'copy' relates only to the fact that perfect copies are impossible for us to create and therefore were stuck with the concept of original and copy.

    This point is contingent upon 2 atoms of the same element always being identical - which I believe is the case, but could turn out to be false.

  • @TawntheAtheist Disagree. It's a "copy" because your mom didn't bear it, it never grew up, it has no legal right to your effects because it never bought them or was given them, and until and unless somebody performed some masked-wrestling-tag-team chicanery on the person who made the clone, that person could tell you immediately who was the original and who was the copy.

    The copy would think it was you. Under the right conditions it could pass any test for being you. But it wouldn't be you.

  • @DuhIdiot1 History is merely a set of events leading to a conditon. If the end condition is identical, the history of a person or thing is now only in our perceptions. A simple lie can change perception. As you say, if the creator of the copy loses track of which is which - what exactly is there to identify one from the other? If there is no actual difference - then how can you say it is not the same?

    Your final comment is just an assertion, I dont see the justification for it..

  • @TawntheAtheist I gave the justification. The copy has a buttload of properties you don't and vice versa. A thing which has properties you don't or lacks ones you have is not you.

  • @DuhIdiot1 No, the only properties you described were historical ones and I described how this was nothing more than perception.

    I put it to you, that if we mix the two people up the supposed 'copy' will pass any test under any conditions.

    Consider: every cell in your body will have been replaced in a 7 year period. Are you still you? What are 'you'? If I have a broom, I replace the brush (head) then years later I replace the handle - is it the same broom?

  • @TawntheAtheist You described how, if we gaze sufficiently hard into our navels, the decades of history you have that the copy doesn't magically disappear. Now you're describing how, if we hit the off switch on our brains, the fact that a thing can change with time can convince us that there's no such thing as a "thing".

    Sophomore year of college being 17 years in the past for me, I'm yawning and waiting for the impressive part.

  • @DuhIdiot1 Hang on.

    Do you think were having a debate or a discussion?

    I dont care to impress you of anything. I thought you might be interested in pondering and discussing these concepts.

  • @TawntheAtheist Always love pondering and discussing. It beats the heck out of work.

    But as I get older and grumpier, I have less patience with some views and topics in philosophy (which I generally love). The "problem" of induction, for instance, or the "illusion of the self".

    I agree the copy could pass most any test. Heck, I said that before you did. But whether we can tell who's who is an entirely separate question from whether there are two different whos.

  • @TawntheAtheist Ah, here's one for you: if the first thing the copy did upon stepping down off the transporter pad (cuz we know that's how this guy's getting zapped into existence) was to kill you in front of witnesses, should he go to jail? After all, if he's you and he's alive then you weren't killed and there was no crime.

  • @DuhIdiot1 Good point. I'd say there were two of me - so there is a crime.

    However, its good because of another reason. I argued that the 'history' of the original and copy was irrelevant - because they have the same end point. However, comitting an action such as a crime may not physically alter you - but we assign a legal value to it.

    A more taxing question is, if my copy kills a person and then dissapears - should I go to jail for the crime? So, although bound by perception, it is relevant

  • @TawntheAtheist The copy could easily frame you so that you were justly yet wrongly imprisoned.

  • @TawntheAtheist I thought I had you dead to rights with a test the copy couldn't pass, btw.

    My thought was that right around the time the copy was created, there would have to be some memory in his head that wouldn't be in yours. So you just perfect either mystical or technological telepathy and scan both minds to find the anomalous memory.

    But if I design the procedure and the facility in which it happens fiendishly enough, I think I can frustrate that method of detection.

  • @TawntheAtheist Oh, and a point of sheer annoying pedantry: two atoms of the same *isotope* will be identical. Two atoms of the same element can differ in neutron count.

  • @DuhIdiot1

    Lol, yeah.. I was aware of that. :) One could be more pedantic and say that the electron may be in a different position.. if that even means anything.. quantum physics still baffles me.

  • @TawntheAtheist Baffles? It pisses me off!

    Any man that tries to tell me that Schrodinger's kitty *really is* in some indeterminate state neither live nor dead until somebody opens the box better be prepared to throw down.

  • @DuhIdiot1 Hehe.. yeah but its just a way of demonstrating or explainign what they think is happening at the quantum level.. its some thing to do with the polarity of light. I need to re-read my books on quantum physics..

    but I agree with you.. the Copenhagen interpretation is just nonsense. cant buy it. If a tree falls down in a forest and nobody sees it, it DOES make a sound. The other interpretations seem more true.

  • I try to have respect and understanding for everyone and their minds. But I just do not get how he could think any of this reasoning could be qualified as reasoning. Just... wtf? I'm not the most Vulcan-style logic person in the world either, but really?

    +credit for starting with defining what he wanted to proof, though.

  • If a pencil were conscious and if that pencil was replaced by another pencil it would know that it has been replaced. Likewise, if that same pencil were to "die" it would be dead while the other pencil kept living.

  • I LOVE JEN! I LOVE HER SENSE OF HUMOR AND SHE'S ATTRACTIVE.

  • I think it's beautiful that I'm an incredibly complex collection of atoms, this guy has the wrong idea.

  • Like, he was one of the most, like, of the, like most painful theist of, like, TAE, like EVER! Yuck, I could barely stand to listen to that guy.

  • the problem with the callers thought experiment was that it had a false premiss. You have to be very careful when making thought experiments, cause you can assume some aspects of reality, shape it like you want and then you move on to make a point or impulse, but everyone ignores the false premiss....cause its a thought experiment, everything is allowed

  • In my view, identical twins are two iterations of the same person. Conjoined twins are a person with two brains (and arms, legs, or whatever).

    It doesn't mean each twin doesn't deserve their own rights, though. Each brain deserves full rights in a free society.

  • Seems like thees guys aren't answering the question, they are beating around the bush... Computers dont make desiosions they just do what the algorithm tells them. And they can't be creative.

    I don't think anyone can answer the question what is consciousness... to me that seems the toughest question there is.

  • @GreatThunder1

    What makes you think people don't follow an algorithm as well?

    People act in certain ways because of both biological and external factors, which is why we have statistics.

    In that view, computers and humans are no different in "making decisions" as we both follow an algorithm of a sort.

    As to what consciousness is, it depends what you mean by that. There are dictionary definitions. XD

  • Me and my cloooone!

  • lol @ 09:09

  • Just wanted to throw in my two cents. What's the difference between a clone and a twin? Aren't they essentially the same thing? In twins, you have one cell in the womb that splits into two which leads to 2 genetically identical people, whereas cloning simply bypasses the cell-splitting creation aspect of it, right? As a result, I postulate that it would have to be incest b/c a clone would be synonymous or @ least very similar to a twin sibling.

  • @nmryda

    Twins are not always clones. Twins are sibling born at the same time. A clone is a biologically identical individual.

    However, not all twins are clones. There are instances where you get biologically different children at once. It's not a genetic defect, but something happening during contraception.

  • @DestAeval Twins are biologically identical. They might not always be physically identical, but they share DNA.

  • @nmryda Only identical twins share identical DNA. Identical twins are the result of one embryo splitting into two embryos part way through development. Regular twins (I forget the term) are the result of two separate eggs being fertilized by two separate sperm, and are there for no more identical than regular brothers and sisters.

  • you guys are pompous... a "soul" is a concept. you must be retarded if you can't observe the difference in a living body and a corpus.

    Jen doesn't get laid, so the answer is neither. her dry ears of a twat is similar to her wit. dorks

  • 9:10

    Sounds like a question for Philosoraptor =D

  • Pencils have feelings too.

    (What if your clone turns you down?)

  • I believe it was Carl Segan who said "the beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, it's the way those atoms are put together."

    This kid needs a science class

  • Deepak Chopra Jr. =) he learned from the master, NO I mean Quacker

  • As far as we know, chance is not a factor in our universe. This means everything is governed by laws, which are absolute. Everything happens exactly how it happens and it can't happen any other way. So there is in fact, only one possible future.

    What we call random is what we cannot predict at all. Next week's lottery numbers were set all the at the beginning of the universe, we just have no capability, and perhaps never will, to predict them.

    We do not have free will. Just the illusion.

  • Double post: surprisingly, the question of whether sex with your clone is incest or masturbation, and the answer (incest), is very useful to explaining the relationship between a clone and the "original." The perception is often, sadly, that a clone is a copy of yourself, which it actually isn't; it's a copy of your *genetic material*, and is in actuality your child by asexual reproduction.

  • I'm going to have to go with "incest." Cloning is a form of asexual reproduction (and asexual reproduction happens often in nature), meaning a clone is, effectively, your child.

  • I just know there's a planet of robots somewhere where a theist robot is calling into an atheist robot show, and insisting he isn't just a collection of wires, and circuits.

  • @xRocketNumber9x If it is self-aware that he is more than just mere cable and wires and can think beyond what he is programmed to think, then by all mean, the robot has soul and should be treated as a living being.

  • Incest.

  • I think you miss the point that the caller is trying to tell you. He wants you to visualize you, the soul, as something more than just the brain that contains your experience, but the content of that brain (consciousness), the essence of your life. This is however just a visual tool for you to grasp what it really is and appreciate its value. Think of it as art and not a science term. Most people can understand art easier than complex scientific explanation.

  • @xdragon2k

    Consciousness=/=soul.

    The hard problem of consciousness deals with the seemingly uncrossable bridge between what happens in your brain when it processes specific information from the eye, and the specific experience of the color "red".

    And that's all it does, it doesn't claim any kind of "dualism" or metaphysical component.

  • @xdragon2k

    Yea, just watched it to the end.

    Nothing about this guy is "art". He just doesn't have a grasp of what he's talking about.

    Supernatural soul as an explanation for consciousness = assumption =/= artsy visualization.

    The zombie is the best "visualization" that I know, and he almost didn't bring it up. It was a trainwreck.

  • your clone isn't you. your mind is the product of your brain. the clone's mind is the product of their brain. those 2 brains are identical, but they are TWO brains, processing different information.

  • if you just clone yourself and have sex with the clone, that is incest. however, if you link up your minds (probably a wireless connection) so that one mind controls both bodies, then it's masturbation.

  • incest, but hot damn i think most people are in love with themselves anyway so it may solve a lot of problems :) i recommend getting yourself in shape before cloning, tho (not pointed at anyone in particular!!! just a general comment).

  • Incesturbation

  • @a68rebel

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­hahahahahahaha

  • @a68rebel whatever it is i win lol

  • Jen Peeples knows peoples.

  • so then... what happens if you get brain damage and you lose your sense of self and dont know who you are anymore? are you now without a soul? like they said we may not be able to fully explain consciousness, but based on what the caller was talking about, it probably is just something communicated via the neurons in ur brain, giving memory, personality,etc. and shaped by experiences in life.And at any rate, if we understand that little about it it certainly shouldnt be used as proof of anything

  • lol.... Jen

  • best question ever from jen

  • Well, even though I believe you have a soul, the caller hasn't done enough research. He probably just watched a video about it then called in with only a 10 minute research span...

  • hah! Jen that was superb!

  • 8:55 the caller's brain exploded.

  • Listening to that kid on the phone makes Me want to swallow razor blades

  • The caller is obsessed with Souls,

  • the caller is 100% correct. the atheists are absolute idiots

  • @pamela201094

    Good argument!!!! Why would you post on here calling out the atheists present on the video and have no backing of your claim? Enlighten us with why they are "idiots" in your masterful opinion.

  • @pamela201094 How is the caller correct, per say? Or I guess I should ask why the atheists' rebuttles are wrong...??

  • I think that the hosts missed the point a little bit with the original question. They had the precious opportunity of addressing a directly verifiable and interesting claim from a believer: that we can differentiate between two exact copies of a person at the moment that the copy occurs, because one of them will not have a "soul". I think that the conversation could have been a lot shorter if they had directly addressed that claim.

  • do you know what i mean though? haha.

  • i mean the big bang is a good theory and is probably true in my opinion but how did it come about? if god did it where did he come from? it's an unanswerable question. there is no explanation that can satisfy the human mind. everything else in Nature makes sense to me ( determinism, the laws of physics) but where did it come from and when matter evolves over billions of years why does a conscious, feeling, seeing mind come into existence? why doesn't it all just happen. it's fucking amazing!!

  • I just find it amazing and unexplainable that we have a consciousness( i don't like to say "have a consciousness" because that may be defined in many ways but i should say that we "have this experience, we feel, we see, we don't just react to stimuli( well we do but we are also here to experience it)) This is one of the most peculiar things in Nature. there are two things that make me wonder about god. 1) the fact that we have this experience. 2) the fact that anything exists at all...

  • ... I believe that the laws of physics determine what events will take place. I believe that any decisions we make or any thoughts we have are determined by the laws of physics like the caller said and i agree with how he said we are just machines moving and changing as time passes in such a way that is determined by physics. So why do we have this consciousness and why do we actually see this picture in front of our face? i don't say their is or isn't a god. i don't know....

  • @Toobsurfur You sound like Spinoza to me.

  • Hypothetically let's say the atoms in your body were disassembled and therefore you were dead, and then they were all put back in there original place, every atom exactly where it was before dis assembly, every single detail identical to the original you, every electron every quark, i mean EVERYTHING. Would your consciousness spontaneously come back and you would be able to experience the world again? Or would it be another consciousness and you would stay dead...

  • The only sole we all have is an arsehole.

  • HAHAHA! Jen wins the show for the comment at the end! Her mind started drifting after realizing that the caller started going nowhere with his soul argument ... then *bing*

    Love the show!

  • I have not a single sole since I sold my shoes to the devil

  • soul can be compared to only electrical and chemical responses to stimuli in the brain, and personalty can be compared to the way we respond to that stimuli based on memory. just the most reasonable speculation :3

  • What if you just clone your genitals and played with them. Would that be masterbation?

  • @LORDNAG1 no it would be jacking off a clone

  • we are inside the matrix, your soul is a computer program (like agent smith). how do i know? i just know it

  • Is this the "gingers have souls!" kid?

  • Jen fuckin pwns the show.

  • AND JEN WINS THE SHOW!!!!!!!! I'M LAUGHING HERE!!! YOU ARE THE BEST, JEN! LOVE YOU, MATT!!!! :)

  • The woman is very annoying.

  • someday computers will have consciousness [and a soul will come for free :)]

  • Jenn wtf LOL!!!!??

  • why are they asking the caller to prove something that is beyond science using science? GOD IS NOT OF THIS WORLD!

  • @atjmfchick93 GOD IS NOT... PEDIOD!

  • @atjmfchick93 GOD IS NOT... PERIOD!

  • @atjmfchick93 than he's useless

  • @atjmfchick93 If he is not of this world than he doesn't have any influence on it and shouldn't even be considered. Believers claim he does influence things and want to base laws and moral principles on their religion...therefore it should be proveable before we accept it...

  • Embarrassing for the caller =/

    Hope he learnt something.

  • jen wins the show LOL that was funny hahaha. I would say both hahahaha

  • Hey Matt, what is this feeling that atheism is worth a damn? Why? What is this feeling you have that makes you convinced that there is no God?

  • A dog looks in the mirror and does not recognize himself (could say he is not conscious of himself), a chimpanzee looks in the mirror and recognizes himself (could say he is conscious of himself). We could say a chimpanzee has consciousness and a dog has not. Does that mean dogs have no souls but chimps do?

  • @47saeed Well, first, you'd have to define what a soul is and also prove its existence. Otherwise, the question makes no sense.

  • @foolifee This question was meant for Theists that think a soul is a spirit and not part of our physical being; they think it lives on when we die. I am an Atheist I believe a soul is a product our mind which itself is the product of the higher order part of our brain, the part of our brain that makes us conscious of ourselves.

  • me, myself and i, hell i have a 3way here and didnt know it

  • Incest or masturbation ??? HAHA ROFLMAO. I'd call it incest, it's like having sex with your twin ( almost like it).

  • 09:11 OMFG i cant stop laughing. HAHAHAHA wth she is funny

  • I would agree that the soul is labelled to be consciousness and that they thought to be the same thing, only believers claim that they were inserted into our bodies by God, as if our bodies are mere hollow shells or containers for something to inhabit. If a man loses his memories, never regaining them, would he have a different soul? Consciousness is a byproduct of our brain, but believers say that harming the physical body doesn't damage the soul. So if it isn't consciousness, then what?

  • 142 creationists watched this video.

  • I think their skepticism towards souls is because they assume the soul is the supernatural thing that Christians describe. I would say the soul IS consciousness, which is what I think the caller is trying to say.

    Although I would submit that since I agree with much of what the caller is saying and I'm an atheist that the soul he's talking about has NOTHING to do with the existence of God.

  • lol how the hell does a person think that atoms make decisions.

  • I have a sole. Everyone has a sole. And i can buy 2 new soles at every shoe store.

  • @omnissient People without feet don't have a sole and can't go to heaven!

  • there are robots that can learn and do things with that, makes that that they have a sole?

  • Jens Comment was too funny!!!!!!!!!

  • It's neither! Masturbation is one person preforming an act to reach orgasm on themselves. It's not incest because it's a clone, not a naturally born twin. It's just sex with another person who happens to have atoms arranged in exactly the same way that yours are.

  • I'm more sympathetic to this guy's problem than that of most theists. We have the illusion of "residing" in our bodies rather than being the result of the process that takes place in our brain. I think a machine that can do everything we can do would assert that it has consciousness. I like what Dan Dennett has to say about this.

  • @eswyatt hi, do you have a link to Dan Dannet talking about this?

  • @zoina21 just put "dan dennett consciousness" in the youtube search field. There are a few talks on this. but i can't put urls in the comments box

  • so do unconscience people have souls? What about brain dead people, do they lose their soul?

    Does a mentally retarded people have souls at all, as they sometimes are not responsible for their own actions?

  • @Bralidiroe

    Nope, Nobody has a soul

  • Also, at one point the host says that, while his current self and his young self are made up of completely different atoms, they are the same person.

    Later, however, he says that he and a copy of him are different persons because they are made entirely of different atoms.

  • @xbobtehalienx

    I caught that point too, I am pretty certain what he was saying was that the atoms that now make him up were always 'his'. Meaning that there was no complete switch. So I interpreted it as, atoms make us up, then we adapt to those atoms, so that redefines us(I would have a whole different set of atoms in me if I had eaten the cake that my friend had).

    The issue with the clone is that he was made all at once.

  • @xbobtehalienx

    His younger self and present self exist at different times. His clone and his present self exist at the same time.

  • Comment removed

  • The response to the free will argument is the same thing - it is essentially a straw man response. His counterexamples (intentionally?) confuse freedom to act with frreedom to choose. The deer has complete free will in all of those situations; it has the freedom to choose what courses of action it will pursue. What is restricted is not its ability to choose, but its ability to reach its goals or complete its actions. Choice remains.

    "No one has even defined the term soul" - that's the point.

  • Normally I love the Atheist Experience, but this was terrible. They are spending their whole time criticizing trivial points and steps, and avoiding the actual difficult issue - not that we do not know how to explain consciousness, but that it being supernatural is as plausible an explanation as it being an "emergent process" (which, what the **** does that mean? That's not even an attempt at an explanation) or some other natural thing.

  • I think "Me and My Clone" would make a great sitcom

  • Jen #WIN

  • To the caller: "Excuse me, sir... Here is the brick wall of logic... Please stop headbutting it." ^_^

  • consciousness = chemical reaction.

  • Atoms themselfs don't have the capacity to make moral decisions .

  • @TheGrassisnice

    false, morals are rules, rules are generated from mind, mind is generated from brain, brain is atoms. Or you said "themselfs" meaning that each atom, taken separately, can't produce morality?

  • The caller seems completely unable to to test and correct his own thoughts.

    lol, those closing comment were funny as hell.

  • Jen is nasty....

    Shes got lots of naughty thoughts in that innocent exterior.

  • best comment on the show, ever :)

    Jen ftw :D

  • Jen wins the show, but loses the game.

  • I love jen

  • @secularenegadether I like Jen and Tracy.

  • Dumb caller.

  • @preztres: You are always you, but only the you that exists right now, no one else. Ten years ago my consciousness was Very different from what it is today, and I suspect that the difference may be attributed to changes to the neurological pathways in my brain (and the trials and tribulations of late puberty).

  • My younger sister still recognizes me because we see each other often, and my DNA has only made Gradual changes to my biological structure over the period of time that she has known me. My older brother, whom I had not seen in 20 years, said, "I hardly recognize you." when we met a couple weeks ago. This was because of the biological changes that happened to my body over the last twenty years, not because I had a new set of atoms...

  • About the soul: As you(preztres) have just described it, the soul vs. body debate is essentially an identity issue. This is only part of the issue, but a very important part, and I would say that as an alternative identity to both "the body" and "the soul", one might say, as I have implied earlier, that an identity lies in the perception of the moment.

  • I think that this partially demonstrates how malleable the foundations for an identity can be, and how much of it depends on circumstantial things; like personal experience.

  • "Jen wins the show." Pure win ^_^

  • ... that IS the best comment ever

  • 6:10

    "no, the reason it's not me is because it's a different set of atoms."

    could this mean that in 10 years (or however long it takes for the body to completely replace every atom) I am no longer me?

    obviously I would still consider myself me, and relatively the same person I was 10 years ago. All my relatives would recognize me as me...

    also, I think the concept of the soul could be better understood like this: I am not a body that has a soul... I am a soul, and I have a body.

    thoughts?

  • Haha, good question by jen at the end

  • "If you clone yourself and have sex with yourself is it incest or masturbation?" It is incest because your clone is your twin, not yourself.

  • hmm my brain is me.. my body is mere a tool . i can see your point of view and matt say it .

  • That is not my point of view. My body is a mere tool, my body, including my brain is me. My personality and consciousness is a function of my body. if I had myself cloned, the clone would not be me. It would be another person who would be identical to me, just as a natural twin brother would. If I had a twin, there would not be two me's. There would be me, and my twin brother, two different, though identical, persons. The same would apply if I had a clone.

  • if you put your brain in sombody else it stil wout be you

  • We're talking about cloning, not brain transplantation. These are two different things. Once again, my clone would be another person, not me, he would have his brain, not mine. I wonder if you understand what a clone is.

  • a clone is a exact copy of your self so why is he not you... out side the point that you know he is a clone

  • For the exact same reason that your twin, also an exact copy of you is not you. Maybe this will help. There is one big difference between a clone and a twin. You and your twin are the same age. You and your clone are not. If I had myself cloned and the clone was born today, I would be 67 years older than my clone. That clone would grew up with his own experiences and memories, not mine. Just as my twin brother of the same age as me would have his own experiences and memories, not mine.

  • a twin is not a exact copy becaus he has is own experiences and memories ,lets say you clone your self and you die but the clone dont know he is cloned and that you have die he lives your life and nobody knows

  • You just answered your own question. A twin is not an exact copy any more, or less, than a clone is. Each has his own experiences & memories just as I said. The only difference between a clone and a twin is the age of the two individuals. Whether i die or not the clone is living his own life, not mine, and will continue to live his life, not mine, after I die, unless he dies first. Do you have any idea what a clone is?

  • Do you have any idea what a clone is? that why we have this.. debate.. we have a diffrend ideei what clone precieces is .i say the clone is you der is no diffrends that he have diffrend memeries after that is the same as you expierences new things

  • Now we get to the root of the problem. You don't know what a clone is. My clone would not be me any more than my twin. A human and its clone are two separate persons who happen to have identical genetic material, DNA. That is all. They have their own lives, experiences, and memories. Another problem we have is that English is obviously not your primary language. Google "cloning" in your own language. Maybe then you can understand it. Good Bye!

  • its not al genetics what you are its more than that

  • I don't think the caller was talking about a clone in the biological sense but more in a hypothetical star trek transporter kinda way. If your body was completely destructed and rebuilt would you still be the same entity? In the end it comes down to weather or not conciousness is a purely physical thing or something else

  • It would be incest in a technical sense. However, I don't know whether it would be incest in the legal sense, since I don't know if any laws have been passed anywhere yet defining the relationship between a person and his/her clone. For that matter I don't even know if any laws define sex between natural siblings of the same gender as incest. Legally it might be just, as Woody Allen might put, sex with someone you love.

  • do you christians realize you're worshiping an atheist? the god that you nutjobs believe to exist is by your own description an atheist. he doesn't believe in any higher power. you guys should take his hint