# The big questions that bother you.



## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

What are the kinds of "deep" questions that you can't seem to resolve?

I'm talking about those questions that seem at once important, intriguing, and inscrutable.

Maybe questions that used to bother you, but which you're comfortable that you've now resolved or stopped caring about.

I'm not looking for some kind of intellectual dick-waving contest, I'm just genuinely curious about what things are most intriguing to other NTs.


For me:


1) How the hell do you reconcile free will with deterministic cause-and-effect? If free will is an illusion, why? Would I go insane if I could perceive the eternal chain of cause-and-effect and fully realise the meaninglessness of my own consciousness?

2) What the hell is time? What is the true nature of time? Can I see it go the other way? Similar to above, if I could perceive time objectively, would I lose my sense of self?

3) What would it mean if I had a perfect clone of me? What would be the moral implications of its life and death? Having sex would obviously be much weirder than regular masturbation, but why?

4) Are utilitarianism and deontology actually just two sides of one coin? Doesn't all utilitarianism serve values after all, and all values are supposed to be good for something?

5) Why is pure logic incapable of handling some very simple ideas? Could a system of pure logic and no human flaws/emotions solve all our moral problems and optimise the world? Why not? Why are people intuitively uncomfortable with detached rationality?

6) Why don't I want to plug into the lotus-eater machine even though I want every single thing that it could offer me? What would a truly satisfying utopia be like? How could it avoid being boring, unfulfilling or repressive?

7) If the key to inner peace is letting go of all desire and aversion, do I even want inner peace? Isn't having a vested interest in something more fulfilling? Why are emotions, even negative ones, so enthralling sometimes? How can we enjoy the depths of powerful feelings without having to act irrationally as a consequence?

I keep coming back to these things.


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## Marvin the Dendroid (Sep 10, 2015)

Interesting questions. Have pondered several of them myself. However for me, there's really only one question I keep coming back to...

...why.


Why is there anything at all? Why should there be?

I am interested in scientific answers to the question (such as "because there can be"), but it is, ultimately, an existential question for me. I don't understand why anything should exist at all. Again, not scientifically... Suppose it's a bit like this: imagine that nothing existed. There was no space, no time, no gods, simply nothing at all. Why would anything come into existence? 

It's obviously a pointless question at a first glace. We either cannot know the answer or are not capable of comprehending it. I suspect the question tells more about me than existence... Why do I keep coming back to it? ...it probably pertains that I'm not too keen on life, and would gladly never have existed. I'm not clinically depressed, just ... not keen on existence. I fundamentally cannot relate to the need to exist. This doesn't prevent me from enjoying the perks of existence, but it does make most human activities appear ... bizarre.


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

dekkr372 said:


> Why is there anything at all? Why should there be?


That's a good one! It's at once so simple and so difficult, it seems tantalisingly solveable, and yet it inherently seems to defy reason. It's driven me crazy before.


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## SloppyJoe (Sep 6, 2015)

1) I struggle with the concept of free will too. If free will does not exist, then do other possible universes not exist (this is the only logically possible reality)? But it seems to me that free will indeed does not exist.

2) Does the ontological argument only offer support for a non-trinitarian monotheistic god (or God)? If the ontological argument is valid, would it disprove Christianity (because Jesus did lose some great-making properties for some time)?

3) Is it possible that a maximully great being exists? If it is, then I believe you would have to believe that the concept of infinity is applicable in some ways to the spiritual realm. Then there is the question of whether God is an actual infinite or a potential infinite, both of which seem logically absurd. 

About your question of time, Exquisitor, I believe that time did begin to exist (as opposed to always existing) because it is impossible to have an actually infinite series of past events. Of course there is the theory that time is itself an illusion, and I still need to research that theory so I'm not very qualified to talk about this subject but whatever.


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## Proxybitch (Jul 28, 2015)

This is one of the most frustrating threads ever lol. Lets post a bunch of the most torturous questions and not focus on any !


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## Exquisitor (Sep 15, 2015)

SloppyJoe said:


> About your question of time, Exquisitor, I believe that time did begin to exist (as opposed to always existing) because it is impossible to have an actually infinite series of past events. Of course there is the theory that time is itself an illusion, and I still need to research that theory so I'm not very qualified to talk about this subject but whatever.


I'm intuitively very drawn to the idea that time is necessarily an illusion of human perception. But that is both very hard to prove and not very helpful in understanding how all the things we would order chronologically are really arranged. I feel like if I could understand what the real deal is with time, I'd have put enough pieces of the puzzle together to figure out almost everything I'd like to know.


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## Jagbas (Jul 8, 2015)

dekkr372 said:


> Interesting questions. Have pondered several of them myself. However for me, there's really only one question I keep coming back to...
> 
> ...why.
> 
> ...


I always ask myself the same thing and i happened to read a book which i always suggest: Why does the world exists? By jim holt
It was really interesting and it could give you some ideas 


In my personal opinion there is existence because there is the 'possibility' of its existence. Stretching the concept of potency and act of Aristotle: 'something' is the act of 'nothing', and 'nothing' is the potency of 'something'. Something exists because it can exist in potency. We experience the possibility of existence of something, so 'something' has the possibility to exist from the nothingness. 



...I wrote this one hour ago but i have been lost in quantum fluctuation, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and all these intriguing stuffs...:frustrating:


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## Lumin (Jul 18, 2015)

An extra : Why do we do something when our loved ones ask us to? The common answer is 'because you love them, that simple' but why does it still make us do it?

This question also works for other feelings. i.e why does fear pin us to that mind-setting?

Not talking about the biology part but the inside the mind itself. Why are we acting upon emotion or feeling? The answer shouldn't just be 'because it gives dopamine'. To me, fear and love and anger and sadness, they are all same at one point. They all tick us and we make sure they do/don't.


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## Ziwosa (Sep 25, 2010)

dekkr372 said:


> Why is there anything at all? Why should there be?
> 
> Why would anything come into existence?
> 
> I fundamentally cannot relate to the need to exist. This doesn't prevent me from enjoying the perks of existence, but it does make most human activities appear ... bizarre.


Because given infinite time, or absence of time. Everything that can happen, will happen.
Every single possible universe or reality. Has happened, is happening simultaneously, or is going to happen.
A universe without a time dimension, a universe with an extra space dimension. A universe where the speed of light is 0.14km/s faster.
And so on. Infinite possibilities. 

True nothing does not seem to exist, the closest we can get to true nothing is absolute vacuum.
But turns out, there is such a thing as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_particle
Literally things popping in and out of existence out of nothing and back into nothing.

The issue with asking 'Why?' is that it implies there is purpose or reason put there by something or someone. By another entity like your own that is able to ask those questions perhaps.

But given infinite time, there are going to be realities with and without that. Same for every other possibly conceivable variable. And more.


So my best way to answer why there is anything at all:

In most realities, there is no life possible that can eventually question the existence of the universe. 
We just happen to be in one where it is possible.
And this is no coincidence, because in realities where life isn't possible that question will never exist.

The big bang, is just the point where our reality came into existence. Out of nothing. Because it can. It can also happen in many other ways, but that's just not the one we are in right now.

Consider watching the following


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## Marvin the Dendroid (Sep 10, 2015)

@Ziwosa

Indeed; the potential of something seems to translate itself into all sorts of things, perhaps everything.

That's not my point though. Why is there time? Why is there whatever gave rise to the universe / multiverse (if such a thing exists)? Why should anything exists at all?

As I said in my post above, this has likely zilch with the universe to do and everything with my subjective sense of purpose.


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## Lumin (Jul 18, 2015)




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## Monteskiusz (Sep 16, 2015)

"How to tell truth some 70 years Christian that had devoted his life to Jesus?"
"When we will have an NT society?" 
"When we will become more rationalist as a whole?"
"How we can become an NT society?"
"How is Stephen Hawking still alive" well not really.
"Genes, everything not just single question" 
"How to behave in society?"
"Why humanity is still retarded?"
"How to become egoistic and less sensitive?"
"When i will know my full type?"
"When will God concept disapear?"
"Is isolation good way?"
"Nikola Tesla IQ"
"Why Nietzsche didn't had wife?"
"Does Free will exist?"
"Tabula rasa?"
"Time and God beyond it"
"Christians believe that their God is good by their morality"
"Why i still feel anxiety"
"How the hell my avatar was rated 5/10?"
And a lot more.
Some of them are very easy and i know the answers but i still dwell on them.


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## Monteskiusz (Sep 16, 2015)

I kinda feel that i closed this thread, welp.


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## Phylyppes (Sep 26, 2015)

I haven't read previous comments in this thread, but I'm going to toss out my "big" questions and my understanding of our reality.

What is the purpose of humanity?

So far we've come to some form of understanding that the reality in which we currently inhabit, the basic, smallest building blocks that make up our reality, or the quantum world, is not 'set in stone' yet rather it is a world with unlimited possibilities. The smallest particles are not 'fixed' into any position. The particles do not hold any value until all possibilities are 'collapsed' into a deterministic state, which only happens when that particular particle is _measured_ by an _observer_ such as ourselves. In a general sense, the observer dictates what the observer sees.

We also know that after the big bang, there are constant numbers and ratios that have _never_ changed for billions and billions of years. The speed at which light travels. The ratios of the four fundamental forces, Electromagnetism, Strong and Weak Nuclear forces, and Gravitation. Our reality is built upon these relationships to be constant and unwavering. If you were to put these ratios onto a dial board, and simply tweak and turn a dial ever so slightly, the universe would change forever. The amazing thing is, considering how large and chaotic the universe appears to be, these ratios have stayed the same.

*So, to me, you have the existence of a universe that has been chugging along for billions of years on a knife's edge, only to be observed by a conscious being?* 

IF that is the case, then why is the universe just so damn big? Is humanity really 'alone'? Statistically it makes no sense to claim that we are truly alone. *Along with the Drake equation, you have to take into account that Human beings share the most common of all elements with the make up of the universe itself (Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Carbon), we truly are not that special. As far as elements go, our complex ingredients are quite common.*

Still. The evolution of intelligent life (our standards) does have quite the harrowing process. I believe the universe is required to be such as it is, to give intelligent life the greatest chance to come into fruition.

Thoughts?


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## YellowJelly (Dec 22, 2014)

1) What was there before the big bang?
2) Is there something beyond the observable universe?
3) Consciousness and feeling emotions (feeling/thinking in general)

Can't think of anything else


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