The final refutation: the myth of the singular self.

[originalpckelly]

Religion, most of it, denies the mere existence of this fundamental thing that makes up all of life: cells.

That would be due to the fact that no one knew there were cells at the time most of these religions were created by men. Due to this inherent flaw, refutation of religion by the denial of the singular self is the best approach.

1. We are made of cells.

2. After the death of a person, a cell line may be continued on which does not possess their "mind", the information that we many take to be something akin to a soul. An example of this is a line cell of ovarian cells taken from a woman many decades ago, which have been used in research since that time. She, by the common sense definition of life, is no longer with us. But since these religions say nothing of cells hanging around after what we consider to be the person is dead, they can't handle this exception. It's like a computer program, where something totally unplanned happens. It is the unhandled exception of religion.

3. Not only that, but we are constantly dying. Cells that make up our bodies undergo apoptosis on a regular basis. We are also undergoing rebirth on a regular basis too, though we all see constant damage as time goes on that eventually leads to general death of our whole body. What, should we hold a funeral for you every day?

4. In addition, we can experience major cell death events. They can happen anywhere and can be due to violent injury or ischemia. You can lose a finger playing with the wrong tools out in the garage, if you don't have it re-attached, those cells will die. That's you right? And of course, gladly we have a better understanding of people and how we work, and we know that most of what we consider to be "us" is in our brains. Now, here's the thing: brains can be damaged to. You can be the unfortunate receiver of a violent blow to the head or have a stroke, among oodles of other possibilities, and when you do: your cells will die. Now these are the cells that hold the information of who you are. Basically, it's the less common person's definition of a soul. So, when the information is lost from the system that you identify as you, does it magically go to heaven, with you left behind on earth? What happens if you are a naughty little person thereafter? Does part of you go to hell and the good part go to heaven? (Or insert the fictitious afterlife of your choice, if your variant on the human confabulation includes said place...)

5. Oh and finally, when you look in the mirror and you see you, you're not just looking at "you" but a shit-ton of other species. If I ask you who you are, you might point to your body. Problem is that your body is filled with bacteria of all types, you don't even think of this. You and I and many others, we are still fighting the myth of the singular self.

[Locrian]

1. Good stuff - its the same with economies

The living body, with its COOPERATION of all the cells, etc is an example of how we need to start thinking. The Right likes to talk in terms of "survival of the fittest" and competition while forgetting how everything really works together.





http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/learning-from-the-biosphere

Living Economies: Learning from the Biosphere

The following are three defining characteristics of the living systems our human economies must emulate:

1. Cooperative Self-Organization: Ecosystems have no central control structure. Their health and vitality depend on processes of cooperative self-organization in which each species learns to meet its own needs in ways that simultaneously serve the needs of others. The more diverse and cooperative the bio-community, the greater its capacity to innovate and the greater its resilience in the face of crisis.

Self-Reliant Local Adaptation: The biosphere’s cooperatively self-organizing fractal structure supports a constant process of adaptation to the intricate features of Earth’s distinctive local microenvironments to optimize the capture, sharing, use, and storage of available energy.


2. Local self-reliance is a key to the system’s ability to absorb and contain most system disturbance locally with minimum overall system disruption. So long as each local subsystem balances its consumption and reproduction with local resource availability, the biosphere remains healthy and dynamic.

Managed Boundaries: Because of the way life manages energy, each living entity must maintain an active flow of energy within itself and in continuous exchange with its neighbors. Life requires permeable managed membranes at every level of organization—the cell, the organ, the multi-celled organism, and the multi-species ecosystem—to manage these flows and as a defense against parasitic predators.


3. If the membrane of the cell or organism is breached, the continuously flowing embodied energy that sustains its living internal structures dissipates into the surrounding environment, and it dies. It also dies, however, if the membrane becomes impermeable, thus isolating the entity and cutting off its needed energy exchange with its neighbors. Managed boundaries are not only essential to life’s good health; they are essential to its very existence.

[PETRUS]

2. +1

[CrispyQ]

3. "It is the unhandled exception of religion."

Love that.

When I was kid going to church & Sunday school, we were taught that people who had lost limbs during this life would be whole again in heaven. So, yes, the limb magically goes to heaven to await the arrival of the rest of the body. ;) It wasn't discussed, but I imagine that you can also be whatever age you want to be. Hmmmm, could I mix my ages? My 20 year old body with my 30 year old hair.

On a more serious note, do cells deserve personhood rights? They are life, after all. This is the can of worms that will be opened if one of those fetus personhood bills passes.

These religious whackos scare the crap out of me. They are not happy to live & let live. Intolerant, hateful people. Some days I hope Farmer's "The Riverworld" comes true. :rofl:

Good commentary.

[Nihil]

4. Good post - thanks.

> Oh and finally, when you look in the mirror and you see you, you're not just looking
> at "you" but a shit-ton of other species. If I ask you who you are, you might point
> to your body. Problem is that your body is filled with bacteria of all types, you
> don't even think of this. You and I and many others, we are still fighting the myth
> of the singular self.

You're also largely looking at the "dead you" (the outermost layers of dead but
still attached skin) ... "I see dead people" "Yeah ... so?"

:toast: