Just consider, where the atoms that make up YOU possibly came from.

I am made from the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins... some Rush song

Your OP asked :
Just consider, where the atoms that make up YOU possibly came from.

Atom

The name atom comes from the Greek, which means uncuttable, something that cannot be divided further. The concept of an atom as an indivisible component of matter was first proposed by early Indian and Greek philosophers.

Source : Wikipedia

In 1803, English instructor and natural philosopher John Dalton used the concept of atoms to explain why elements always react in a ratio of small whole numbers—the law of multiple proportions—and why certain gases dissolve better in water than others. He proposed that each element consists of atoms of a single, unique type, and that these atoms can join together to form chemical compounds.

Source : Wikipedia

Reductionism

... can either mean (a) an approach to understand the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or (b) a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents.

Source : Wikipedia

Originally posted by visible_villain
reply to post by kiwifoot

 

Your OP asked :
Just consider, where the atoms that make up YOU possibly came from.

The notion of a fundamental physical unit called 'atom' is really quite a primitive construct first introduced by Indian and Greek philosophers -

Atom

The name atom comes from the Greek, which means uncuttable, something that cannot be divided further. The concept of an atom as an indivisible component of matter was first proposed by early Indian and Greek philosophers.

Source : Wikipedia

Then, much later -

In 1803, English instructor and natural philosopher John Dalton used the concept of atoms to explain why elements always react in a ratio of small whole numbers—the law of multiple proportions—and why certain gases dissolve better in water than others. He proposed that each element consists of atoms of a single, unique type, and that these atoms can join together to form chemical compounds.

Source : Wikipedia

The idea of an 'atom is really an exercise in -

Reductionism

... can either mean (a) an approach to understand the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or (b) a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents.

Source : Wikipedia

A good starting point, perhaps, but by no means the 'real answer' ...

Since western science turned its back on notions such as the aether and phlogiston ( see also, Henry Cavendish ) and became inextricably tangled up with naive and faulty notions such as 'atoms,' we find ourselves today powerless to understand physical phenomena which operate outside of a very narrow range of physical scale.

Important examples are turbulence, viscosity, cold-fusion, and zero-point energy to name only a few ...

In summary, 'atoms,' even if they existed in the way we've all been trained to think of them ( which they certainly don't ), they have nothing to do with 'you,' they only make up your 'gross physical body,' not your consciousness which is 'who' and/or 'what' you really 'are' ...

Hope this helps, vv.