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What Philosophical Questions Stump You Most

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Preferably no more than 3

I stump the most on: 1) Why am I following the life of this sack of flesh and not another? 2) Why something rather than nothing?
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Preferably no more than 3

I stump the most on: 1) Why am I following the life of this sack of flesh and not another? 2) Why something rather than nothing?
I dont know i this counts. What in the world is pass the universe we know so far? A martian with the answer to the two diget answer to life? That always got me.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
1) Why am I following the life of this sack of flesh and not another?
That one has bugged the crap out of me since I was a kid. How did I get to be "me?" How is it that "I" came to be in this body, in this time, but not someone else?
What, ultimately, does anything come from? When I was a little kid, growing up in a religious environment, this came out as "who are God's parents?" But even with a natural origin, how did anything come into existence? If energy cannot be created or destroyed, either god or the big bang involved a great deal of energy that had to come from somewhere.
Are things like spirits, OBEs, and other things real? Of course we can point out brain activity behind it all, but brain activity is behind every facet of our taking in and deciphering the world. Even things that most of us would regard as real, there is brain activity behind it.
What really is real? It's not like we have flawless perception and memory recall abilities, so to what extent can we trust our selves to distinguish what is real and what isn't? With dimensions we can't even perceive, just how much can we really trust our own senses?
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
Similar to @Shadow Wolf's post above.

What can we say about reality external to our minds? Are we ever in contact with reality or are our perceptions only ever qualities of our minds? Does it even matter?
 

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
I dont know i this counts. What in the world is pass the universe we know so far? A martian with the answer to the two diget answer to life? That always got me.
It definitely counts :) But a martian would be of mars, and mars is very well in this universe.
 

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
That one has bugged the crap out of me since I was a kid. How did I get to be "me?" How is it that "I" came to be in this body, in this time, but not someone else?
What, ultimately, does anything come from? When I was a little kid, growing up in a religious environment, this came out as "who are God's parents?" But even with a natural origin, how did anything come into existence? If energy cannot be created or destroyed, either god or the big bang involved a great deal of energy that had to come from somewhere.
Are things like spirits, OBEs, and other things real? Of course we can point out brain activity behind it all, but brain activity is behind every facet of our taking in and deciphering the world. Even things that most of us would regard as real, there is brain activity behind it.
What really is real? It's not like we have flawless perception and memory recall abilities, so to what extent can we trust our selves to distinguish what is real and what isn't? With dimensions we can't even perceive, just how much can we really trust our own senses?
And if I am a spirit why am I this spirit? And why am I this I? (very confusing and can go on and on forever):tired:

I remember as a kid I would as similar questions like that, I'm glad to know I am not alone there. I remember finding out Santa Clause and such icons were only made up to make kids behave and I'd get in trouble for asking stuff something like 'if santa clause is made up for kids to keep out of trouble what if god is made up for adults to keep out of trouble' until they just stopped taking me to church lol

The brain is an odd thing. But I think its placement is the only thing that makes the phenomenon seem more extraordinary than an organ function. I think the best evidence the brain = life is how brain damage, even the slightest bit, is shown to effect one's perception of reality. Well, might as well say effects reality. Of course nobody can ever know though. It seems to be a very unattractive take because life is the biggest part of existence, but personally, not to sound depressing, I think 'life' is overrated. Not in the sense of its enjoyment value, but 'living' itself. We are a part of a huge wonderful painting and there are sensors for the art to look in on itself and to be fascinated not only by the painting around them, but the fact they are a part of this painting. We are the artist itself, the only one artist, that is named Nature, examining the work. So in my opinion it isn't the 'being' or life that is amazing, life is just the eyes. It is what is being experienced and not the experience itself. It seems a little depressing to call life a chemical reaction from a dab of meat, no matter how complex and incredible the function is, but it becomes less depressing if you are thinking that life isn't the important part of the picture, that the world itself is. That's my view at least, we all have our own and I have no issue with people believing in spirits and life beyond the flesh.



Peace!
 

dyanaprajna2011

Dharmapala
Can we really know anything objectively, or can we know with certainty anything outside our own subjective thought and experience?

Is there really a difference between 'real' and 'exist'?
 

psychoslice

Veteran Member
I myself don't take philosophy too serious, it is to me just a play of words, and the better at the play you are the better philosopher you are, so it seems.
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
I myself don't take philosophy too serious, it is to me just a play of words, and the better at the play you are the better philosopher you are, so it seems.
While I agree with the sentiments behind this, psycho, and I do see a fair amount of philosophical discourse as being little more than intellectual diarrhea, philosophy in and of itself is not a complete waste of time. I know I've tried to follow some discussions and end up cross-eyed pretty fast.
 

psychoslice

Veteran Member
While I agree with the sentiments behind this, psycho, and I do see a fair amount of philosophical discourse as being little more than intellectual diarrhea, philosophy in and of itself is not a complete waste of time. I know I've tried to follow some discussions and end up cross-eyed pretty fast.
Yes it is great as a mind game.
 
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