Martian

Do you know that? And when does it become an absolute?

In a hundred years, the body decomposes to the point where it's skeletal. The remains bear some resemblance to the individual they once were. How about a thousand years? Or a million? At which point do those remains cease being remains and simply become matter, so much more 'stuff', as it's been aptly put?

And further, if the body dies but the soul lives on, is that truly death? Could it not also be a transition, a sort of chrysalis?

Or, let's go extreme and see if it holds up. it's pretty widely accepted these days that perception is fallible. What you see is not necessarily what you get. So if somebody dies, how do you know they've actually died? How do you know those remains are, in fact, remains?

I do believe in the one Descartian absolute. Outside of that, I can't help but think there aren't any.

Here's a question; if anything were absolute, if anything were beyond reproach or debate, how could we be debating this? The answer, I would think, would be self-evident.

In terms of morals, that question ties closely to my belief that nobody embarks on a course of action while believing it to be wrong. Nobody does anything with the intent of being evil; there are no supervillains. It's simply that that individual's idea of what's moral doesn't line up with mine.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine recently on the subject. I took an extreme stance. It's something I do often, because it's only at the very far end of the spectrum that we can truly see if a theory holds up or not. Anyway, I created a hypothetical situation for him wherein he had to choose between humanity or some other form of being that outnumbered us, was sentient and was peaceful. I asked him which he'd choose. He told me that he'd choose to die and take the world with him rather than inflict harm on an undeserving people - if it were us or them, he'd essentially pick them. Me, I went the opposite route. I believe that an individual has to make any given choice based on his own values and wisdom - we can only work with what we've got, in other words. And I assign a higher value to my life and those that I care about than I do to some faceless race out there.

Is either stance wrong? It depends on how you look at it, I reckon.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame