Dave asked:

Hey, I wanna start off by saying I'm glad I found your site. I wanna hear what you have to say to a few
of these ideas. This is all pertaining to life after death by the way and I often get stuck thinking these
few things.

There seems to be a sense of logic in me thinking that if we die and all fades to black, with no
memory of our life in fact...that we couldn't be alive right now. The only similar analogy is to a dream
that we cannot remember. We've all had nights we awake and cannot recall all the dreams we've
had, when it seems like as soon as your head hits the pillow at night it's then suddenly morning and
only one minute went by. If those dreams are never remembered they hold no place in time. The
dream was only in YOUR head, thusly "you" would be the only one who could possibly remember it. If
that dream goes unrecalled until the end of that life, then I suppose it never occurred...it held no place
in time and had no remembrance so it might has well of never been.

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I find that whenever an idea seems stuck, it pays to write down what seem to be the significant points
and the tentative conclusion(s). I usually have at least a vague idea of what the conclusion(s) might
be, because otherwise I would not be motivated enough (excited enough or concerned enough) to
keep thinking things through. I am not entirely sure where you think your argument is heading but I
have attempted to write down and comment on your main points and conclusion.

Summary of your main points:

1. A forgotten dream does not matter and is not real

2. A forgotten life would be like a forgotten dream it would not matter and would not be real.

3. This life does matter and is real.

Conclusions:

4. This life is not forgotten

5. We must survive death otherwise this would be forgotten

Let's first look at the idea of something 'mattering' or 'being important'. It seems to me that things can
matter to varying different degrees at different times. For example, when you get a pain in your tooth,
the idea that this might lead to a more excruciating pain before long matters, when you actually
experience the excruciating pain it matters very much, days later when you only have the vaguest
memory of the event it doesn't matter. It also seems to me that one thing can matter in varying
degrees to different people. For example, at the time when your toothache matters to you, it will not
matter in the least to the millions of people who know nothing about it. Therefore, to be exact we have
to qualify 'matters' not only by quantity but also by 'to' and 'when'. For example, the toothache
mattered a great deal to me when I was experiencing it.

How should we qualify "matter' in your first point? Our dreams, especially our forgotten dreams, do
not usually matter to other people. We also tend to believe that a forgotten dream could not have
seemed important to us when we were dreaming it because otherwise we would have remembered it.
Therefore, 'my forgotten dream' is an example of something that has never mattered or been
important at any time to me or anyone else.

Now let's consider the point 'a forgotten life would be like a forgotten dream'. Certainly they are both
forgotten. However, it seems to me that the similarity ends there. A forgotten dream has probably
never mattered or been important at any time to anyone, but I don't think that a forgotten life is
anything like that. When someone has completely forgotten a dream we can reasonably assume that
the dream didn't matter to them, but when someone has forgotten their life we cannot assume that
their life did not matter to them. Indeed when someone has forgotten their life we usually assume that
their brain is not functioning properly. If there comes a time when my brain is no longer functioning
properly and I forget my current life, it would be wrong to assume that my current life does not matter
to my family, my friends and myself now. Therefore, in regards to what matters and is important,
forgetting a dream seems to me nothing like forgetting your life. Unlike your dreams, your life is not
the type of thing can become unimportant all the time to everyone just because you forget it. There
does seem to me to be an inconsistency between points one, two, and three. One says dreams can
be unimportant, three says life is important, and two says where importance is concerned dreams and
life are the same.

It also seems to me that a forgotten life would be nothing like a forgotten dream if we had an after life
and the quality of that after life depended on our actions in this life.In that case a forgotten life would
have a huge impact on our future life and would be nothing like a forgotten dream that has no impact
on our future

The final conclusion is "We must survive death otherwise this life would be forgotten".

It seems to me that we do not need to survive death in order not to forget our lives. Suppose that
when I die I cease to exist, and therefore I am no longer around to remember my life. I don't think that
in that case I will have necessarily forgotten my life. Claims that are perfectly reasonable about live
people are not always reasonable about people that do not exist. For example, "If John is not in my
room then John is somewhere else", is a reasonable claim if John is alive. However, if John does not
exist then the claim is not reasonable. Similarly, "If John does not remember important events that
happened to him, then John has forgotten them", is a reasonable claim if John is alive. However, it is
not such a reasonable claim if John has ceased to exist. He might have remembered the events right
up to the point where he ceased to exist, and have never forgotten them. He does not remember the
events, not because he has forgotten them, but because he does not exist anymore. Therefore, even
if all three of your points and the first conclusion were true, the final conclusion could be false.

I hope that my comments help to get your thoughts flowing again.

Wendy Weidel

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