The Noble Lie

"Whoever considereth well, will recognize that we have not in youth the same flesh as in childhood, nor in old age the same as in youth; for we suffer a perpetual transmutation, whereby we receive a perpetual flow of fresh atoms, while those that we have received are leaving us."
Giordano Bruno, 1548 - 1600 (burned at the stake)

"...think of an experience from your childhood, something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell as if you were really there. After all, you were really there at the time, weren't you? How else would you remember it? But here is the bombshell. You weren't there. Not a single atom that is in your body today was there when that event took place. Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever YOU are, therefore; YOU are not the stuff of which you are made. If that doesn't make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, read it again until it does, because it is important."
Steve Grand, OBE, Naturalist, 1958 -

Giodarno Bruno was a philosopher and occult thinker, one of the earliest proponents of the Heliocentric model. He was burned at the stake for his troubles.

I discovered the latter quote listening to the Richard Dawkins talk I posted, The Strangeness of Science. If you listen, you will catch Dawkins agreeing with the statement that it may be better for the planet if humanity were to exterminate itself [49:05]. I say: why not, we're just some matter that momentarily came together anyway, heh, heh.

The idea expressed in these quotes does beg a question - the question the Caterpillar asked Alice. Who are YOU?