Dear Samiya, your posts are impressing - thank you. There are things (in my personal opinion) you missed (or used in a contrarian sense) in "MY" own *agnosticism.* I do not state, or ask: (and I *quote* from your post):
1. "...there is always someone who makes something, i.e. nothing comes from nothing...." Your 'someone' points to a 'personal' factor. I can imagine an "Entirety" we are part of, with 'self-starting' + 'propagating' within, what we would call: NOTHING (Meaning nothing more than in our limited knowledge we - so far - did not find such factors and consider them nonexisting i.e. parts of nothing). 2. "Evidence (or the lack of it) for An Omniscient Being:" I - sort of - deny the 'evidence' concept, at all, it is restricted to our today's ways of thinking and knowledge. (Compare it to similar millennia ago...) In the infinite Entirety (I do hold for our impenetrable existence-feeling) MAY include contrary 'evidences' to those we list as positive, or negative evidence. The hypothetical 'Omniscient Being' is again a 'person-oriented' fantasy. One does not argue 'against' unsubstantiated imaginary items. 3. "Thus, logically, there can only be one God." I did not follow the 'logic' from the power-struggle. How 'bout a democratic republic? (Compare to the preceding two points). 4. "Of course, that leads us to the question that if there is a God who is uncreated, *(OK - see my 1st input*) then why can't everything else also come into existence without a creator? There is a definite gap in our knowledge as we know nothing about God, but that is not a proof for the non-existence of God. It simply means that our knowledge is limited and inadequate." And here comes the REVERSE question: *the Proof for the Non-existence * I may rather look for a proof for the* Existence *(cf my #2) The quoted par is very close to my thinking - thank you. 5. "The greatest injustice conceivable is to deny the existence of God..." As long as one did not settle with the 'existence', to* DENY it -* is uncalled for. JKC quoted some good arguments on how the God(s?) belief has spread. That's why I do not call myself an atheist: I would have needed a concept to deny. An "agnostic" (ignorant?) only looks for reasons(?) to take something as seriously applicable. In the POSITIVE sense. Not negatively. 6. The "Hereafter"??? An open topic to fantasize about, nobody 'came back' to report the "truth". I had a friend (deceased) who went through catholic priest-education and said there is so little surcharge for "believeing" vs. denying and the rewards are so compelling that a resonable person cannot dismiss faith. Is he in Heaven? That imaginary 'Garden of Eternity' may include beside the zillions of human 'souls' also the super-zillions of animal-souls and plant-souls all and all balled together in 'eternity' - to be just to all, not exclusively to humans. Terrifying! And there is Hell. say what you wish. I enjoy your 'faith-dictated posts, keep them coming, please. John Mikes Ph.D., D.Sc. ret. nat. scientist On Sun, Jan 31, 2016 at 12:46 PM, Samiya Illias <[email protected]> wrote: > John Clark, I can see that you are concerned about the outcome of Cryonics > program you've signed up your brain for. Someone or something set in motion > a process which brought you into existence in this life - trust the same to > repeat the process and bring you back into existence. > I urge you to worry more about the quality of that life! > We believe that the quality of that life depends on the beliefs and > actions in this life. Do take the time to study the Quran or Torah or start > with any scripture you feel more comfortable with. > This link may be a good place to start: http://searchtruth.com/list.php > > > Samiya > > On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 9:28 PM, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Everybody agrees that synaptic connections between neurons are needed to >> access memories, but there is reason to think those connections may not be >> where memories are ultimately stored, at least not important very long term >> memories. The theory that memories are stored in the strengthening of >> synapses based on recent activity (Long Term Potentiation) does a pretty >> good job at explaining how memory can be retained for hours or days, but >> when you get beyond a week or so there are problems because the proteins >> associated with Long Term Potentiation (LTP) are not particularly stable, >> and experiments with snails have shown that even when LTP has been >> destroyed with chemicals the loss of memory is not always permanent. So >> there must be an information storage mechanism other than the pattern of >> synaptic strengths for at least some memories. >> >> It’s been known for a long time that a mesh of proteins attached to >> carbohydrates forms something called "the perineuronal net" which sheaths >> mature brain neurons. And it's been known that synapses form through gaps >> in the net; but very recently evidence has been found that very long term >> memories, the sort that endures for an entire lifetime, may be encoded in >> the holes in the perineuronal net, rather like old fashioned computers once >> encoded information as holes in punched cards. >> >> >> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/10/mysterious-holes-neuron-net-may-help-store-long-term-memories >> >> https://www.braindecoder.com/memory-perineuronal-nets-1418933042.html >> >> The proteins that compose the Perineuronal Net are much more stable than >> those in neurons, but when a synapse is strengthened it produces a small >> amount of an enzyme that can break down the net, and if the synapse >> increases a lot over a short amount of time there is enough enzyme to make >> a small hole in the Perineuronal Net right next to the synapse, and the >> hole seems to be permanent. Mice that have been genetically engineered >> to lack this enzyme have normal short and medium term memory but very poor >> long term memory. Even severe Alzheimer's disease has little effect >> on Perineuronal Nets, so memory information might still exist in a >> Alzheimer brain even if the synapses in it are so damaged they can no >> longer be accessed by them. It seems to me this may also be reason for >> optimism regarding the success of Cryonics ; the Perineuronal Net is much >> tougher than neurons are and the space between brain cells where the >> Perineuronal Net is located, along with blood vessels various >> glycoproteins and lots of fluid, occupies 20% of brain volume on average >> but it can get 60% larger during sleep or anesthesia : >> >> http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/373 >> >> So if a neuron shrinks or grows in volume during freezing that shouldn't >> be something it hasn't seen before, and even if a shard of ice does punch a >> meaningless hole in the net it should be obvious to a intelligent >> nano-machine that the hole was just caused by ice and not by synaptic >> behavior because the ice would still be sticking through it. >> >> John K Clark >> >> >> -- >> 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 [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- > 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 [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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