Is it possible that there could be a secular afterlife provided by science?

Question

In the Steven Spielberg movie AI a race of highly evolved robots could take a DNA sample and revive the long dead human.

It brings up intriguing notions.

There was once a report that when someone died they lost about a half an ounce of mass. This claim sounds profoundly stupid, unless sentient beings, possibly future humans had a way to remove all the dendrites in our nervous systems to take them somewhere else.

The more I write the more Dianetic this sounds and I’m not arguing for any specific scenario. I’m just asking do you think it could be possible that science may find a way to bring everyone back, perhaps to live in virtual worlds.

I know you will anyway but please don’t tell us about rapture and revelations and crap. Really we already know your opinion, and we’ve ALL heard it before.

Thank you and

Blessed Be!

I knew I screwed up when I put in the weight loss junk, because I know it's BS.

I take comfort knowing that DNA has no death genes. So there's no genetic requirment to age and die. It's realy not the age, it's the milage.

Answer 1

Forget the half ounce. It sounds like the plot for a Halloween episode of Mythbusters. There are two secular afterlife alternatives.

The first is more like death prevention than afterlife acquisition. Science already views life as a biological machine, there is no need to remove dendrites since the 'data' comprising our 'soul' could be derived by a scan.
Download the soul data into a clone (or bio/mechanical upgrade) and voila.... the immortal man.

The second possibility may actually be in play. It involves the idea that humans possess a collective unconsciousness held together via telepathy. Fireflies emit visible light photons that our eyes can detect, what if our minds have evolved the capacity to emit and detect high frequency photons for the express function of regulating group behavior. This would allow human minds to form a biological variant of the internet. If your consciousness aggressively imprinted itself on the collective, it would be theoretically possible for your consciousness to survive your death. (Kind of like your internet website surviving a crash of your PCs hard drive.)

Now as far out as this might sound, it really would go a long way towards explaining most 'supernatural' beliefs. Indians might really be able to commune with animal sprits. Reincarnation could be a 'stored' consciousness imprinting itself on a forming one. Let a living mind yield itself to a virtual one and you get everything from demon possession to channeling the dead. And if 100,000 people believe that Jesus, or for that mater Elvis, is still alive, then what's to stop an 'online' mind from seeing an apparition?

Do I believe science will one day give us the power to download minds? Yes.

Is there a way to bring everyone back? Sorry, kid, grandma's gone.

And if you’re looking for religious comfort - Scientology's a bit pricey.

Answer 2

I'm not really sure this is very feasible. While, I guess, advances in knowledge and technology could allow us to revive people who have been dead in some way, shape, or form, science today seems to very adamantly deny the existence of the spirit and nous of a person. These two parts of a person have always been heavily involved in theological ideas of afterlife. The concept of afterlife also tends to be eternal. The problem science has, beyond not believing in the spirit and the nous, is that our solar system is bound for extinction next few millenniums. The sun will become a red giant, burning the earth, if not consuming it, and then be reduced to a white dwarf as it is not large enough to become a black hole. Further, our universe is bound for extinction also if you follow the latest and most popular scientific theories (I have thought of some scenarios, though, which would make our predictions incorrect). At any rate, the attempt at an eternal afterlife due to science seems pretty slim. A temporary one may be possible, I suppose, but why? If only we could die twice? Anything for a little more time i guess...
It also just struck me that, even if you did "revive" a human using DNA from their bones, or whatever, there is no guarantee of the retention of personality or any memory. Particularly if their brain has since rotted away. From a religious standpoint, I would guess that the soul would return to the body, since I believe a person is a trinity of sorts (nous, spirit, body) and so, somehow, the spirit remains connected with the body even after spiritual death. This could point to a possible retention of personality I guess, but this is only speculation. From a religious standpoint, if the soul returned to the body, you most certainly would not have a different person, even if the personality had changed due to changes in the brain. If the person were revived before the brain was allowed to decay, I suppose some memory could be retained, but I actually dont know how memory works, so I just dont know. And what if we were using DNA to revive, say, Marcus Arelius? I doubt much of his personality could be restored since personality is so dependent on the brain and how the brain develops during a person's growth is dependent on significantly more than just DNA. According to science, which does not believe in the soul, this would be almost a totally different person. Thus, this possibly eliminates the possibility of afterlife. This is all just speculation - I'm just recording my thoughts as they flow.

Just to clarify, I don't believe most Christians in the world (they would be Roman Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox) believe the resurrection is an afterlife, but rather, there was no true death to begin with (the body dies/falls asleep, but the spirit continues to live and wait for the resurrection). I tried to make this brief, since you didn't want to hear anything about Revelation - although, this theology is laid out outside the book of Revelation as well.

Answer 3

At this time there is no possibility for individual survival after death.

There is however the intriguing possibility; With sufficient computing power and scientific understanding of the brain, the personality, memories and cognitive brain functions of an individual could operate after physical death of the body.

Even at the present acceleration of computing evolution, (doubling speed and power every 18 months) no computer will have the memory, accessibility or processing power of a human brain for at least fifty years. It is doubtful that will happen, not because we aren't trying, but because of physical limitations and thermal problems of current computation systems.

Even if we had such a computer and sufficient scientific method to completely "map" the brain, it is arguable whether or not this afterlife would be at all like "real" life. It may be like a dream. It may be that we can generate and instantly "live" fantasies, such as flying, or perception of personal physical perfection. It may be that this surreal virtual universe has its own laws of physics.

At this point, no, there is no way to revive a human or his cognitive brain functions. The concept of "remaking" a long dead creature as in in Jurassic Park is intriguing, but implausible. DNA doesn't typically last very long unless perfectly frozen; i.e. the "ice age" woolly mammoth or cryogenic stasis. Even then, DNA provides no brain-life memories as far as we know.

By the way, the experiment you spoke of about bodies losing a small amount of physical weight, is bogus. It was a pseudo - scientific attempt to "prove" the existence of and measure the weight of a human soul. No legitimate experiments have ever duplicated those results. Even if they did, it is supremely wild conjecture to imagine that "sentient beings removed dendrites." That is interesting stuff for science fiction, but not science fact.

Best Wishes!

Answer 4

As for that "half-ounce of mass" or "21 grams" that are
supposedly lost at death, this belief stems from some
rather poorly-conducted experiments done around the
year 1901 or therebouts. (Patients dying of TB were placed,
beds and all, on top of a scale. Must have looked like
something out of Frankenstein's laboratory!) Since that
time, it has achieved the status of an urban legend. 'Nuff
said there.
A secular afterlife? Who knows what is possible with science? Perhaps the brain could be replaced cell-by-cell with imperishable, inorganic "neuronoids" and then be uploaded into a computer maybe, and downloaded into a body when you wanted? OR, if the human body is a MACHINE, then all you need is a good enough knowledge of MECHANICS to repair any damage to said machine, and maintain it indefinitely! (Maybe the cryonics "loonies" will literally be dancing on our graves someday..!)

Answer 5

Ever walk into an empty building where thousands of people have gone through daily activity and interaction for years? (This always makes me think of my old high school.) Ever get a feeling that the people are there? The lockers are opening and closing. The people are moving through the halls...

Someone described this to me recently as "imprinting." I don't know if that concept is tied to a belief system or a scientific discipline or what, but I find it intriguing. To me it says that in our daily lives we have an energy we leave behind in the places we've been -- or at least the places we've expended most of our energy.

What is it that steps outside of us or can separate itself from us to communicate with the loved one we're about to call? Or what is it that explains "deja' vu?"

If we call science the art of learning and knowing, maybe science will be part of whatever there is to discover about this. I'm sure there are many more, though, who believe that they already know.

Answer 6

Secularism is simply a form of religious knowing that resists acknowledging its own metaphysical constructs. That "science" will provide an afterlife for humanity is an act of faith, and betrays the religious dimension of the materialist conceptions of the secular. Kubrick's and Speilberg's "A.I." is a dystopian vision of a world in which in the absence of genuine transcendence and faith in an afterlife, a materialistic culture collapses under the weight of its nihilism and simply becomes the machines that it uses to assauge lack of purpose and meaning. It is not about immortality, or the continuation of life, it is about the simulation of life-- and this simulation is not really what it means to be alive-- it is merely what it is-- a simulation, an appearance rather than a reality.

Answer 7

According to the history of science,science could not answer about death of human beings. It is simply stated that death will occur at a particular date and time? On the other hand,recently,two French scientists stated that ; A SCIENCE That IS IN ITS INITIAL STAGE AND ITS APPLICATIONS(2006). I am fully agree with the statement of French Scientists ,for more,details,see, http://www.yelloasia.com,p.1., software, Singapore,India(Wanted Partner ). Till now there is no possibility that there could be a secular afterlife which can be provided by science due to its initial stage and its applications.

Answer 8

the only thank you to coach an afterlife is to have close to dying reports wherein persons "convey back" verifiable counsel that replaced into no longer available to them for the duration of that element. Many NDE's have not got that kind of information. Others declare to. of course it is as much as interpretation. A committed materialist won't settle for any of it. Theists are often too rapid to settle for it.

Answer 9

If Man can keep from killing off man before we advance, who is to know.
Science is far from a complete understanding.
Since I tend to follow the theory of the soul being the embodiment of life, I feel that it must first occur that that soul should be located to be returned to a carnal body.

Answer 10

Perhaps that 1\2 ounce is what is reincarnated, the core of ourselves that goes on to another (secular) life.