consciousness, death, and self awareness

Question

now, i wouldnt exactly say im heavily religious or anything.. if you're more "scientifical" about this PLEASE interact.

CONSCIOUSNESS

so.. anyone else randomly just gained it when you were a kid? and you ended up just remembering everything you did before gaining consciouness? yeah, same.

anyways, did you guys ever wonder how you are the way you are? what makes you, you? you ever looked down on your hands and asked "how am i me?" yeah, all the time.

i used to wonder what makes us sentient. are other animals sentient? probably. that leads me on to the next topic,

SELF AWARENESS

it only makes sense. people with social anxiety have this pretty heightened.

if you dont have this, how? what's it like? i mean, i always constantly worry about how others view me. i know im not the greatest alive, but still. kinda freaks me out a little.

death

i had a fear of death. i mean, despite my struggles with suicidal thoughts, i never wanted to do it. natural instinct, right? what makes us, human beings, afraid of it? i always wondered if other animals thought about death the same way some of us do: is there truly an afterlife? what happens after we die? what about our consciousness?

animals, of course, aren't religious.

don't you guys find it amazing how we set up a whole society, out of just trees, rocks and other random stuff?

anyways, thanks for viewing a swagmaster3000 post, see you in the next timeline,

tensauce

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Answer

HI!! I’m very much a scientific, logical person so I thought I’d give my opinion. I personally feel that sentience is the ability to know you have sentience - the ability to think independently and experience different thoughts and feelings. Interestingly human babies aren’t considered sentient until they’re about 18 weeks to 25 weeks old (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14767059209161911#:~:text=Thus%2C%2018%20to%2025%20weeks,of%20sentience%20could%20be%20placed.)

Religion is a fascinating phenomenon and, whilst organised religion (a structured religious system followed by many people) is unique to humans, spirituality and caring for the dead / rituals surrounding death are not exclusive to humans. Monkeys have been observed watching over the bodies of their dead, carrying their dead babies and sometimes screaming out in grief. Additionally, elephants are often observed carrying out “death rituals” like burying their dead, mourning their dead (for weeks or even months!) and licking the bones of their dead. They don’t lick the bones in a food seeking way but rather more like a sensory feeling thing.

Hope this helps! Your questions were really interesting and fascinating to consider. /gen

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consciousness, death, and self awareness

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