Identity or Memory?

We were all once children. We are older, wiser, fatter. and in my case, balder and more awesome.  However, we are the same person.  We have all heard expressions like "The day I became a man," or "The day my childhood ended."  I ask you now, Under what conditions is an individual at one time the same person as an individual at another time? 

I tend to side with people who say that it is our memory that helps us determine who we are, rather, our Identity.  A scientist creating a machine could theoretically disintigrate your body, and make it appear in another machine with the same organic matter down to the molecule, but would your memories exist?  memories are not made of molecules.  The machine can get the scar above your left eyebrow from when you cut yourself giving yourself a Vanilla Ice line in your eyebrow, but would it get your memory of your first kiss right?

I believe we are all the same person we were as children, just older and wiser.  A beard does not make you a man, nor does sexual activity, because we have all seen plenty of teenage moms, and grammar school wispy moustaches.  I believe we make decisions to etablish our own identities.  Say a fat kid wants to lift weights and get in shape, he does this to change his body, and create a new identity for himself.  This instance however, is based on memory because the memory of torment, or how their body used to look, is the stimulus for change. 

We have identity roles that we are born with:  man, woman, red-head, albino, etc.  We also have people who seek to change their roles.  I know women who  have dyed their hair so many times they forget their natural color.  They are the same person though, through the style changes, because they REMEMBER who they are.  One remembers who they are because of their established identities, and one has an identity because the remember what they once were, or are. 

The Raving Lunatic
I can beat you in a debate, or streetfight