The illusion of identity

                A Crippled landscapper?       

           A crippled landscapping bastard    Adam Carolla is looking for him on, "To Catch A Contractor"

            Wait a minute!  Now I'm confused.   Steven Hawkins is a brilliant man in a wheel-chair,  and Richard Dawkins was the host of a gameshow.

          Thanks;   SEE!,  you learn something NEW everyday on chess.com        Richard Dawkins  wrote it,  and Bobyyyy published it!

I believe there are 2 levels of "identity" - the soul and the earthbound bodily form.

Anonymous identity in cyberspace allow the soul to express itself freefly and completely - unbound by physical limitations - disability, age, gender, sexuality, race, size, weight, aesthetic appeasements - (good looking or ugly), social conformity, social pressure....

You see all these souls out here - the ugly, the beautiful, the cruel, the funny, the young, the wise, the innocent, the creepy, the sociopathic...

That is the first identity.

The second identity is what your parents and life's fortune or misfortune gave you....the soul has to negotiate it's existence in this body it inhabits. If you are lucky, the body you got suits your soul perfectly.  Often, this is not the case - anorexia, buolemia, transgender/transexuality, plastic surgery - is a booming industry.

Our soul's needs and our physical/body needs are 2 different things.

Ever driven 2 states over to meet the woman you fell in love with after 6 months of exchange on the internet? She too is in love with you - it's clear you are soulmates. She protests, no no no, we shouldn't meet. You won't feel the same when you see me. And you say - I don't care what you look like - I'll love you always no matter what ! She acquiesces. So you drive over there...and then you find out that she was right. You should never have driven over there. Because once you are PHYSICALLY EARTHBOUNDLY together - the chemical reactions - that you guys speak of take over - pheromones, coital desires must be met according to aesthetic appeasements standards...the urgency for 2 souls to merge physically was stopped right in its track.

As for free will, I don't believe in it. Destiny will have us, in one way or another, act in ways which keep us on its track.

Though the illusion of free will - I'll buy. It makes me feel like I have control over EVERYTHING.

Like the moon reflected in a lake..., or a flash of lightning in summer...

You are right lucamovitch...all of nature that was untouched by man is beautiful, harmoniously "ordered"....

Human species thinks DISSECTING THINGS, THEN COMPARTMENTALIZING THEM INTO BOXES, STACKED INTO HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE IS ORDER.

Nothing can be more anti-god and nature.

Thanks lucamovitch...

But there is nothing on earth man and his machinery won't get to - he'll tear up all of that looking for what is hidden underneath.

Not what God gave them.

He doesn't need to prove anything.

Just like you can't unprove anything regarding God.

Either you know God or you don't.

Obviously, you don't, LuftWaffles.

It would help if the image were not photoshopped ;)...

Beautiful landscapes and the universe itself are truly awe-inspiring, but strictly speaking, I don't see how that really proves anything.

I also don't see how we can get around without the concept of identity. Language itself would be impossible if we didn't allow words to represent the concepts in our minds that we wish them to represent. In one sense you could consider it an illusion since the idea itself has little physical substance, other than the neural activity that gives rise to it. On the other hand, without this representative concept, the ability to think and reason--at least in the way we do it--would seem impossible, like having a language without any grammar.

OldChessDog,

at the quantum level - things exist...even if it does not have a physical bodily form to inhabit and express itself...it's there...

it's my personal belief, of course.

I've eaten mangoes from trees deep in forests far from any villages...best mangoes I'd ever eaten :)

If you know what identity means, then you will know if it's an illusion or not.

That one is for free.

You can thank me later.

I suppose you can't really blame them. You pray for good weather and next minute there's a typhoon!

"Identity" is the strangest concept, lluvsmetuna.

I had a discussion about it with my friends the other day....

Everybody trying to box each other into something very confining and constraining - race, gender, background, parent's background, money - whether you have it or not...job whether you have it or not...kind of car you drive...etc...the national flag you should be waving....self-made prisons.

Like you would know...using your "paint" program doesn't exonerate the image ;).  

The light filtering has been modified at a bare minimum, and waterfall wallpaper photos are famous for having rivulets of water added to make the falls seem more impressive; you will have almost zero chance of detecting it because white, fuzzy "spray" effects are so easy to add...  

There's a reason that photo (and the others you see when you Google "most beautiful waterfalls" looks so heavenly...it's not 100% natural.

For a great discussion of such concepts, read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. One of my favorite novels of all time.

You just gotta get out there yourself, btickler...just go backpack trekking for 3 months in New Zealand, Peru, Southern France....

Don't take photos for it...like lucamovitch says ...they're not 3D