If
you think about it your body is nothing but
an ongoing, and sometimes smelly, chemical reaction.
That is what we are: chemical reactions! Pretty
amazing chemical reactions too, considering
that we shovel chemicals into our stomachs to
keep the reactions going nicely. Strange how
a chemical reaction can be conscious.
A chemist could write the reaction on the black
board given enough time, chalk and a big enough
black board. This is weird. We are made of atoms
which are joined together into molecules. We
are chemistry.
Think about it. You are a big chemical reaction.
Everything you say, all that you do, all that
you see, decide or remember, think or feel is
nothing but the manifestation of the chemical
reaction that is you. This chemical reaction
that is you is
self-catalysing: you eat.
The chemical reaction is
self-sustaining:
you reproduce. The chemical reaction is designed
to burn itself out: you will die within a few
score years.
It is amazing to think of ones self as a chemical
reaction. That is all you are. But it is so
complex that we can't understand it. We can
only grasp a few things here and there. To many
of the parts of the chemical reaction we don't
understand we give names like "Freewill",
"Ego", "Memory", "Self-Identity",
"Thought", "Consciousness".
Many of these are just side effects of the chemical
reactions. Freewill is an illusion caused by
a chemical reaction that fools us into thinking
we decided to do something that another chemical
reaction has already done.
You are nothing but an amazing and ongoing chemical
reaction.
In fact, we are not isolated chemical reactions
because we react with one another. And if we
are not careful the result of such reactions
could result in an other spin off chemical reaction
that cries a lot and soils nappies.
So to write down the complete human chemical
reaction would be to write it down for the duration
of the whole life of that human, plus his/her
descendants plus ancestors. Taking things further,
the chemical reaction would start with the primordial
ooze and continue for all life from bacteria
to fish to reptiles to mammals all the way for
all living things until the sun goes red giant
on us in the future. Or longer if life escapes
this solar system and survives it.
So, as a thought experiment, the chemical
reaction of all life described above could be
scribbled onto a (very large) blackboard. In
a sense that scribble would be the meaning,
life, eden, god, theology. Would it have any
meaning? Probably not, after all, why should
it?
Add your comment to this page
 | | | | |
| From: |
snakeyes | Subject: | 2001-05-23 20:52:37 |
| | | | |
| From: |
MadPole | Subject: | 2001-12-03 17:42:41 |
| | | | |
| From: |
Clayton Carter | Subject: | 2003-11-21 16:15:24 |
| | | | |
| From: |
26 | Subject: | 2004-05-05 17:00:20 |
| | | | |
| From: |
Libb Thims | Subject: | 2005-12-20 15:05:23 |
| | | | |
| From: |
someone | Subject: | 2006-08-22 00:26:26 |
| | | | |
help: how to add your comment Page hits: 5405
