If the atoms inside us can't be destroyed then perhaps we'll live again?

Question

I've read we are all made of stardust, that the atoms in our bodies could have once been part of a star and that they have been around since the creation of the universe.

So if this is true, could it be true to think that in some way after you die, after you decompose into the Earth, a worm eats the earth, a chicken eats the worm and someone eats the chicken then maybe the atoms apart of us now may make there way into another life and though I won't be me, I'll be aware of existance, alive again.

A bit of a sci fi take on the afterlife idea

Answer 1

The individual atoms which make up each of us change daily. We intake carbon based foods and breathe out carbon dioxide constantly. It is reckoned that every person on earth has carbon atoms in them that were once part of every famous person in history from more than a few years ago, including Elvis and Julius Caesar.

The brain is the important bit, though and once that is gone, we cease to be, as such.

Answer 2

What you've described is very true and accurate - except the part about being aware of your existence after your various atoms are scattered.

Throughout our life (ie the one you have just now), bits of us are being recycled all the time. The most obvious are dead skin that constantly flakes off us or are washed away, and hair (I wont go into flushed toilet stuff).

The atoms that are contained in skin and hair decompose and are recycled by a variety of biochemical processes and organisms such as bacteria and plants.

But at no time does our consciousness transfer with those atoms. So we cannot be aware of existing as part of something or someone else.

You figured most of it out though, without going into scientific babble:))

Answer 3

The atoms that we are made of is not destroyed. But the complex circuitry in our brain that make up our minds and our consciousness is destroyed, thus death. IMHO the circuits in our brain is the one that makes up our consciousness, not the individual atoms themselves.

Answer 4

well u r so fond of sci fi .i guess.....
comin 2 ur ques.....
ya it may b possible........ probability being very very very......small.....
coz..... atoms as such do not hav a unique 'address' for each!!!
they combine randomly!!!!!!!!!!
so the chances of all 'ur'
'atoms' comin back in 'all'.......is simply possible only in dreams!!!!!
but may b in da distant future u may b able 2 giv life 2 dead!!!!

n 'after-life' applys only 2 da 'atoms' which remain as they were wen u die!!!!! all others combine vth different 'other' atoms therby undergoing changes!!!
i.e they 2 r 'dead' n may b they hav an 'after-life'.......as atoms combinig is not like people ' growing'.......their properties differ variably.........!!!
hope itz not so confusing.......

Answer 5

it's very likely.
Or, a person is cremated, carbon enters the atmosphere, plants take up this carbon, we eat the plant for energy. The molecule is recycled.

Answer 6

i dont realy understand, but am very intruiged by this idea! fascinating!!!