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Apophaticists: Do you exist?
- Thread starter Niatero
- Start date
Niatero
*banned*
Wow! What a great question! I'd call that a winner.
I never gave it much thought because I never really cared, but it looks different to me from "God exists" and "God does not exist." When I say that those have no meaning to me, that only applies if "God" is supposed to be unknowable. I'm not claiming to be unknowable, and I've never seen or heard of anyone thinking that I am, so it's a different question from whether or not "I exist" and "I do not exist" can have some meaning. I think that I'll think about whether I think that I think that those can have some meaning.
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Apop what now?
Do I exist? Only anagrams can restore tranquility.
I sex it
Is it Xe?
Exit Si.
Tis’ ex I
Is replying to yourself part of the thread vibe? Apoptosis is a word I would like to use in a sentence one day.
Niatero
*banned*
Just a way to start the discussion, with an attempt at humor added.
Niatero
*banned*
You just di -- Oh.
Niatero
*banned*
"I" intersects "It."
I don’t understand
Niatero
*banned*
Okay, how about this:I don’t understand
I septem it.
Item spite
Time piste
Mite spite
Secret Chief
nirvana is samsara
This is a fabulous response.
At the risk of steering this thread back on topic, what does "I" point to?
Niatero
*banned*
Yes, that’s a very good point.
The answer to the question “Do I exist?” might be different according to which way the “I” is pointing. But … but I don’t know which way is the other way. Yes, that might be an unknowable too. But is it unknowable by definition? Maybe.(later) In some stories, the two unknowables are one. Maybe like +infinity and -infinity. I’m leaning towards saying that the “not this or that” self(?) is unknowable because it isn’t anything that we could possibly ever observe, imagine, describe or define.
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Ah it rhymes
The experience of existing?
Niatero
*banned*
Experiencing requires an experiencer. (Or does it?) But who or what is experiencing our thoughts our imagination, and our sense of self ? Some us might say our brains or some other part of our body, but some of us doubt that or even reject it as I unfounded or maybe even contrary to experience somehow.
I mean in the sense that the experience is the self. As in the collection of inputs and attempts to decipher those, and so on, that make up our experience of the world and of self. Maybe the self is just the sum of that interpretation of inputs, and not an additional layer that reflects on that aggregate from a remove.
PureX
Veteran Member
Does a mystery not exist because we can't "know it"?
Can we know that there is something we don't know without knowing what it is that we don't know?
Yes. We can.
So can god exist without our knowing what god is, or what god's existence actually means?
Yes. It can.
Why? Because what we know and don't know does not determine what does and does not exist.
Can we know that there is something we don't know without knowing what it is that we don't know?
Yes. We can.
So can god exist without our knowing what god is, or what god's existence actually means?
Yes. It can.
Why? Because what we know and don't know does not determine what does and does not exist.
When you say, "I," is it the experience of existing that you are referring to?
I think ‘I' can be thought of as an experiential construct.
Niatero
*banned*
I can see it that way, but the construct could be reaching for something that is real, like a plant growing towards the sun. But what would "real" mean in that case?