ND> Now, I'm sure you've all heard of the "brains in vats" ... 
Not a lurker are you Nick?  Just jump right in, the water's fine, 
and not toooo deep. 
 
Well, noooo, you are not a brain in a vat.  The Bagavad Gita says 
that God can create a form and animate it, and it is an Avatar. I 
say, that God has made your form, and you animate it, it's *your* 
Avatar.  In fact, God creates all forms, animated or not, and she 
maintains the creation much like the projectionist keeps the film 
flikering on the screen; not that she hasta give it her undivided 
attention, for she has created lots of subroutines, and automated 
all kinds of stuff... engineered the whole setup. 
 
For all practical purposes, what you see is like a holodeck which 
you were born on, as were all of us.  A virtual reality system to 
operate your Avatar in that is run by a mainframe invented by God 
so that she might enjoy the show.  If she ever quits enjoying the 
show we might be history; although she might not turn it off, but 
leave the whole thing running while she takes a nap. 
 
Your Question reminds me of Croesus, the 6th Cent BCE Lydian king 
whose daddy, Alyattes invented these little pieces of silver that 
all weighed exactly the same with his face on it- called *money*. 
Imagine how rich you can get with an invention like that; anyway, 
he was famous for a lotta stuff, one of which is the question you 
put, "what *am* I?" 
 
Anyhow, one time on the way home from Delphi, he got a hot tip on 
the whereabouts of this daemon.  He's the only guy I know who had 
the balls to track a daemon, the *persistence* catch him, and the 
*Chutzpah* to torture the bastard, just so he could have answwer- 
to your very same question. 
 
I dunno what all he did, maybe that's in Ovid or Plutarch, but in 
any case, the daemon finally gives up, and says he will spill the 
beans to Croesus.  "Croesus, you grew up on the food of this land 
around, right?" 'yeah'... "So, you came from dirt, right?" 'yeah, 
so?' "And after you die, they are going to put you in the ground, 
and you will return to dirt, right?" and Croesus agreed, then the 
daemon spoke one more time- "Croesus, you came from dirt, and you 
will return to dirt, so I am here to tell you baby- you're dirt". 
The daemon laughs and goes Poof!. 
 
And, he wasn't far off.  The atoms of your body are not different 
from any others; but the software that you use to determine which 
body to animate, and what to do with it- well that is unique.  If 
you accept the idea of afterlife or judgement day, well then, you 
havta wonder what it *is* that is being judged.  There's the idea 
that you will be judged for your 'sins'.  To do that, there hasta 
be a record, a videotape of your existence, which is all that you 
have [lacking a unique body in a unique space] differentiating an 
Avatar you had from that of any other.  Nevertheless, I find this 
damnation business naive and childish, preferring Plato's version 
as being reasonable and consistent with more facts. 
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 * OFFLINE 1.58 
--- Maximus 3.01
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