On 1/16/2014 10:14 AM, Jason Resch wrote:



On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 11:44 AM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net <mailto:meeke...@verizon.net>> wrote:

    On 1/15/2014 11:25 PM, Jason Resch wrote:



    On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 12:44 AM, freqflyer07281972 
<thismindisbud...@gmail.com
    <mailto:thismindisbud...@gmail.com>> wrote:


        I totally agree with you that science, when you really start getting 
into the
        implications of things like QM (and relativity for that matter), 
provides some
        rather unsettling (and yet very exciting!) conclusions. And yet... they 
always
        rest on the tip of uncertainty. Either that, or else the conclusions 
are so
        terrible that I can't bear to think of them.


    I have come to think few things could be more certain than universalism. If 
you
    take a few moments to consider why you were born as you, and not someone 
else, the
    only possible answer that fits that answer is for "me" to be born, an exact
    arrangement of matter or genes had to come into being. If the exact matter 
was
    necessary, then that means if your mom at something else, or took a sip of 
water at
    the wrong time, then you would never have been born. If the exact genes are
    required, then that means you had a 1 in 100 million chance that the right 
sperm
    met the right egg for you to be born, otherwise you would not exist at all. 
The
    odds become that much more staggering when you consider not only your 
begetting,
    but all other begettings of all your ancestors would have to be EXACTLY 
right,
    otherwise you would not be born and would never have existed.

    So what?  Someone wins the lottery no matter how many tickets there are.


But can you a priori expect to be one of the winners? Should you not have some level of surprise when you find out you are a winner, and possibly seek some more probable explanations (my kids are pranking me, I am dreaming, etc.)?



    On the other hand, if you believe even if one gene or two were different, 
you would
    still have been born, this means there really was no specific requirement 
for you
    to be born as you, and if a completely different sperm or egg were 
fertilized, then
    maybe you would instead be one of your brothers or sisters.  If this is 
true, then
    shouldn't that mean you are in fact, also your brothers and sisters.

    So my Volkswagen is actually the same as my neighbors Volkswagen because 
there was
    no specific requirement for them to differ except for one on two bumps in 
the
    ignition lock.  I think I'll suggest that to him; his has a lot fewer miles 
on it
    than mine.


No, you are missing the point. It is not that they are similar enough to be you, it is that they share everything that was necessary for /you /to be present in them. Your current perspective does not rule out that you are seeing from their eyes,

Then why don't I always win at poker?

just as seeing only one branch does not mean the wave function collapsed, and nor does seeing only one time prove presentism. The simpler hypothesis by far is that you are born as all of them,

Simpler, but contradicted by observation.  "God did it." is even simpler.

rather than believing there is some special or privileged person which is the only person in the whole universe whose entire life /you /will experience.

Except that is the definition of "you": the life you experience

Brent

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

Reply via email to