• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Can something exist and not exist at the same time ?

Massimo2002

Active Member
I was on The Christian Fourm and say a question simaler to this and thought that it was profound so I created my own question inspired by that thread now just because I don't see a cat outside doesn't mean that the cat outside doesn't exist it just doesn't exist to my conscious perception.
 

Dan From Smithville

"We are both impressed and daunted." Cargn
Staff member
Premium Member
I was on The Christian Fourm and say a question simaler to this and thought that it was profound so I created my own question inspired by that thread now just because I don't see a cat outside doesn't mean that the cat outside doesn't exist it just doesn't exist to my conscious perception.
Something can't exist and not exist simultaneously as far as I know. Not perceiving something doesn't make it nonexistent. It just makes me unaware. Many things exist that I do not know about, but that only means it exists in some sort of superposition state for me alone.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Something can't exist and not exist simultaneously as far as I know. Not perceiving something doesn't make it nonexistent. It just makes me unaware. Many things exist that I do not know about, but that only means it exists in some sort of superposition state for me alone.

Well, it assumes that induction is valid and that logic is universal for everything. In a sense for how it appears humans know, it would be unknown if something exists and doesn't exist at the same time (and place).
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
Aristotle describes potentiality and actuality, or potency and action, as one of several distinctions between things that exist or do not exist. In a sense, a thing that exists potentially does not exist; but, the potential does exist. And this type of distinction is expressed for several different types of being within Aristotle's categories of being. For example, from Aristotle's Metaphysics, 1017a:[24]

- We speak of an entity being a "seeing" thing whether it is currently seeing or just able to see.

- We speak of someone having understanding, whether they are using that understanding or not.

- We speak of corn existing in a field even when it is not yet ripe.

- People sometimes speak of a figure being already present in a rock which could be sculpted to represent that figure.

 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic Bully ☿
Premium Member
I was on The Christian Fourm and say a question simaler to this and thought that it was profound so I created my own question inspired by that thread now just because I don't see a cat outside doesn't mean that the cat outside doesn't exist it just doesn't exist to my conscious perception.
Riddle me this: can something exist and not exist at the same time? Yes, a delusion.

Revelation 17:8

8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
 
Last edited:

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I think the closrst i can get is Schrödingers cat. That can either exist as a cat or cease to exist as a cat and spend the rest of its days existing as something else, a dead cat.

But you won't know until you open the bocy
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
Which exist as electro chemical actions in the brain

Not all. Even if there were no more beings with brains, something will still happen/change. That means it doesn't exist yet but the possibility exists.

Unless you believe nothing is actually happening and no natural laws exist.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Not all. Even if there were no more beings with brains, something will still happen/change. That means it doesn't exist yet but the possibility exists.

Unless you believe nothing is actually happening and no natural laws exist.

In this universe it is impossible for nothing to exist.
 

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
I think the closrst i can get is Schrödingers cat. That can either exist as a cat or cease to exist as a cat and spend the rest of its days existing as something else, a dead cat.

But you won't know until you open the bocy


Until the measurement is taken (you open the box) the cat is in a superposition, ie. both alive and dead simultaneously. It's a metaphor for the measurement problem Measurement problem - Wikipedia in quantum physics.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
I was on The Christian Fourm and say a question simaler to this and thought that it was profound so I created my own question inspired by that thread now just because I don't see a cat outside doesn't mean that the cat outside doesn't exist it just doesn't exist to my conscious perception.
This is a sematic issue, not a philosophical one. It isn't possible for the same definition of exist. You're not using the same definition though, one being "physically present in a defined location" and the other "within the scope of your senses and awareness".
 

Madsaac

Active Member
Yes it can, depending on the perspective.

Below is straight off the internet.

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If by 'sound' you mean 'acoustic vibrations in the air', the answer is 'Yes. ' But if by 'sound' you mean an auditory experience in the brain, the answer is 'No.

Does the sound exist? Yes and No

Here's another one
Consider a blind person standing outside. The blind person does not see any light, so does that mean that there is not daylight? Does one have to be sighted for there to be light?

Actually, being conscious of something allows it to exist or not exist at the same time. For example, the Eiffel Tower doesn't exists for dogs
 
Last edited:

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
Yes it can, depending on the perspective.

Below is straight off the internet.

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If by 'sound' you mean 'acoustic vibrations in the air', the answer is 'Yes. ' But if by 'sound' you mean an auditory experience in the brain, the answer is 'No.

Does the sound exist? Yes and No

Here's another one
Consider a blind person standing outside. The blind person does not see any light, so does that mean that there is not daylight? Does one have to be sighted for there to be light?

Actually, being conscious of something allows it to exist or not exist at the same time. For example, the Eiffel Tower doesn't exists for dogs

Well, yes, if you don't use contradiction in the same sense.
 
Top