Would a butterfly remember being a caterpillar?

Question

The analogy of the caterpillar/butterfly is whether the soul would recall ever being a human being. The soul would be superior and the human shell discarded like the pupa of the caterpillar.

Answer 1

If I were a butterfly, a Caterpillar would be beneath me.

Answer 2

Would a caterpillar know it's going to be a butterfly?

Answer 3

robbie,

Let's say, for the sake of conversation, that the butter fly did remember its pupa stage.

Why would we confuse memory with the make-believe human invention of the "soul"?

Furthermore, would it matter to us humans? We cannot communicate with insects and would remain ignorant to any insights that insect-memory might produce.

In fact, it appears that the state of ignorance is the normal human state of existence. Why, therefore, should the existence of caterpillar memory matter?

Answer 4

No.

Just like a human can't remember being a foetus, and a foetus cant remember being a sperm.

Its a transitional faze from part one to part two. You go through the changes and only live as u are without recognition of before.

Since humans were told that they used to be in our mothers womb its that awareness that lets us know. But we don't have a memory of it.

Answer 5

Do caterpillars dream of being butterflies as they pupate. Are butterfies surprised at the change when they break out of the pupae.

Answer 6

Is that any different from you or I being in the womb. I think not.

Answer 7

Well, when your soul is free of your body, see if you can remember anything about being here, in this form...

I doubt you will be able to!

It's as if you will have become a different "creature" altogether...

Answer 8

HuH?

Answer 9

Sure!

Just like an ex-convict would remember their time spent in jail.  In this case, their old cell is the pupa....

The experiences and lessons learned in human life would be what prepared them for the next stage of existence- why would that be lost?

Answer 10

that's difficult to answer - but if i had to guess...i would say no...just like we don't remember being an embryo or a baby.

Answer 11

thats very deep! and impossible to answer. All i would say is that when my grandpa was dying i kept seeing butterflies. One even landed on my window wiper of my car when i was driving at 60 miles per hour.

Answer 12

Christ; I hope not.---If this has relevance to human memories, I don't want to even imagine that I might remember becoming worm-food, and I'm sure I would have no fond memories of being dust.

Answer 13

I would of thought so. As we usually remember being a child, butterfly could remeber crawling the twigs of life and as fly through the day's sky they might wonder why theres no twigs in the sky.

Answer 14

A butterfly wouldn't remember being a butterfly IMO.