Is there a scientific explanation for what gives us our identity?

[Twisted Metal]

I'm genuinely curious. I'm one of the most anti-religious people out there. I hate everything about it. I hate the cult followers, I hate the fiction known as the bible, the people who can't think for themselves...

Moving onward, I always wondered what gave us our identity, our "soul," our "life force" if you will. What makes this sense of "self" attached to this body?

All of life supposedly came from chemical reactions but is there a scientific explanation for where this sense of self comes from? We are all unique personalities mapped to a single entity (our bodies). Wherever "I" came from, there has to be some logic behind why "I" was assigned to a human body. I mean couldn't I have been born a god damn ant? Where did this soul come from, where did "I" come from?

Maybe not the best place to ask this, but I'm sure some of you can give some insight. Let's hear your thoughts!

 

[Darkdrium]

We are sapient and our personalities are forged by our surroundings.
The first allows us to think and choose as an individual, giving this sense of self you speak of, the second makes us unique as we do not all come from the same background.

Short answer I believe this is why it is such.

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

It's just your brain. How you perceive things and how you react to them. The influences growing up is what governs this. Parents and society and stuffs. There's no soul or spirit just your brain anything you know and feel is brain related so it's relatively simple and you've complicated it humanishly.

Really though you as a person don't exist outside your own head.

 

[NRG]

I don't really believe in souls. We're just gifted with a higher ability of thought. There is no reason why "I" was assigned to this body. I am simply just more aware and conscious than other organisms.

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

There isn't a difference between "I" and "body" though. Only humans seem to think that. You're matter/energy. Nothing more, unless you are sprinkled with cheese.

 

[Twisted Metal]

It's just your brain. How you perceive things and how you react to them. The influences growing up is what governs this. Parents and society and stuffs. There's no soul or spirit just your brain anything you know and feel is brain related so it's relatively simple and you've complicated it humanishly.

Really though you as a person don't exist outside your own head.

You're throwing around these terms "your brain," "how you perceive things," etc... But who am I? I may not exist outside of my own brain but that fact is that I do exist in my brain. Somehow I came from nothing and a sense of attachment to this body started to develop. It kind of makes me question: If I came from nothing before, then why can't I come from nothing again after I die?

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

You're distinguishing between body and mind which is why you have questions.
Your mind is as much a part of your body as your liver.
Or spleen.

 

[NRG]

There isn't a difference between "I" and "body" though. Only humans seem to think that. You're matter/energy. Nothing more, unless you are sprinkled with cheese.

I completely agree.... especially the cheese part. I frequently cover myself in cheese.
I. Fckng. Love. Cheese.

 

[Slainchild]

I guess you inherit your initial "personality" from your parents when you're conceived.

Then when you're born, your surroundings and experiences will greatly influence how that personality is developed.

 

[Twisted Metal]

Still doesn't answer the question though. Every single living being gets this brain that is part of the whole. Fine. But where does the mental awareness come from? Why is mine different than yours? We may in fact be just matter but we are unique, independently thinking matter. That uniqueness and independence has to come from somewhere. We didn't exist before we were born, right? Doesn't seem much different than being dead... So how is it that we magically spawned from nothing and who's to say that it won't happen again?

 

[Darkdrium]

You are saying that we spawned from "nothing", that is not true. Millions of years of evolution have led to a point where our brain was big enough to allow sapient thought. This gave us the ability to be self aware, and identify ourselves as individuals. That is why we are different, we are thinking as individuals, and the fact that we are not all brothers from the same mother means that we will all be sensibly different from each other as our background, family, history is different for each person.
You as a person is formed through the years you live, it is a gradual progress. Now think about this: how come it is very hard to remember something from your first five years of your life? I think that up until that time, you as a person is being formed by absorbing as much from your environment as possible, and then gradually you become who you are, and start realizing who you are.

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

Still doesn't answer the question though. Every single living being gets this brain that is part of the whole. Fine. But where does the mental awareness come from? Why is mine different than yours? We may in fact be just matter but we are unique, independently thinking matter. That uniqueness and independence has to come from somewhere. We didn't exist before we were born, right? Doesn't seem much different than being dead... So how is it that we magically spawned from nothing and who's to say that it won't happen again?

You didn't come from nothing though. Genetics has an affect on personality obviously. Through the structure of the brain sort of. But apart from that, at birth the brain is sort of blank in terms of personality and other complex things because they have not yet developed, I don't think it's hard to understand that you, a person, are dynamic; you are just thoughts in your brain and nothing more, it's easy to change this at a young age through whatever - events and influences. This is why it's wired that people are still called insane in a supposedly intelligent society.
No two people are genetically identical and no two will experience the same things that's the only reason people are "unique".
But really you're all the same.

 

[hal]

You're a blob of carbon and water that creates energy chemically. If an amoebas could think they'd believe they were special too.

 

[NRG]

But where does the mental awareness come from? Why is mine different than yours? We may in fact be just matter but we are unique, independently thinking matter.

You're doing it wrong. The only reason you even think yours is different from mine is because your mind grew differently, as it did relative to everyone else. Your body can divide cells and grow in nearly infinite ways. The same goes for your mind and how it can slightly vary in perception and thought process because of the nearly unlimited ways it can develop.

I think the argument comes down to how to classify what is "living" and what is inanimate. Personally, I think that argument is the only reason why people still believe in souls at all. People look to draw a line along microorganisms and such, when there isn't any definite lines. Just organisms with more cognitive abilities and more/less instincts than the last.

 

[Twisted Metal]

Very interesting thoughts, keep em coming!

If I didn't come from nothing, then where was I before I was conceived? If you travel infinitely back in time, where was I?

I understand that people reproduce. Then the baby and its brain begin to develop, and eventually it will develop its sense of self. Completely independent of the other billions of "selves" out there... I gotta stop here because I'm not too sure where I'm going with this. It will probably just loop back to what you guys have already said.

Do you believe then that once you die that's it? You will never exist again? Who's to say that after I die, I won't become the "mind" of some baby that's yet to come into existence in the year 2100?

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

Twisted Metal is not talking about personality or souls.

he's talking about the identity of the self.

as living beings, we are just a collection of atoms that have formed sensory receptors allowing us to process our physical surroundings. so where did this idea of "I" come from? that's what he is trying to get at.
at our very basic level, all we are is a bunch of particles stuck together.
where is the "person" inside of us that we refer to ourselves as?

unfortunately, the answer to this question is as simple as it is boring.
our identity just is.

it just is.
I am me because I am. no one and no thing gave me my identity.

my environment may have defined my personality.
but personality is NOT identity.

identity becomes reality the moment you are aware of it. it does not precede you and it will end when you end.
it is because it is. it is not when you are not.
make sense?

you're a human. this means you can enjoy the luxury of processing your senses in a manner that goes beyond that of basic instinct. you do something with your feelings other than feel them. you can analyze them and respond to them in any way you wish.

animals cannot do this.
animals only know the present, they can only perceive what is happening right now.
this doesn't mean they can't make plans, but it means they don't process existence any further than the tip of their nose or the end of their tongue. they are only concerned with the bottom line. staying alive.

when the animal feels hunger, it simply reacts. it begins to do whatever it does to find food. when its tired, it finds a place to crash. there is no thinking (as we know it) involved.

the person you refer to yourself as wouldn't exist if it were an ant or another being.
it is you because it's you. it can't be anything other than you.
"I" and "me" and "you;" these are merely terms that we have invented to describe this sensation of self awareness.

your identity begins the moment you realize it and ends the moment you stop (ie: death).
as soon as you're developed enough to properly use the word "I" then you have obtained an identity. once the brain is communicating with all the sensory receptors beyond a purely instinctual level, you have achieved identity.

 

[Darkdrium]

You are talking about re-incarnation.
I don't believe that. When you die, it just ends.

 

[hal]

You are talking about re-incarnation.
I don't believe that. When you die, I believe it just ends.

Fixed!

 

[M.A.D.X.W]

I think humans are actually a lot more stupid than intelligent.

When you die your brain will die, so everything bout you is dead. There is nothing left.
It's cool really.

 

[Darkdrium]

Fixed!

Too much repetition!
believe believe

Edit:
D: what the hell just happened, Jack's post and I just traded places.