erics

Is life but just a theory?

Can we prove we truly exist?Is it an absolute?

__________________
"What's the benefit of laughing
When you only have to cry?
Why take the big adventure
When you're only left to die???
"

Zyr

Well, perhaps not life as we know it, but we (or at least I) exist. Basically, the logic goes: "I don't think I exist. Wait... someone has to be thinking that I don't exist, therefore I do exist"

You have to exist to deny your existence. I haven't gotten around to actually reading Descartes, but that's basically the stuff behind Cogito Ergo Sum - I think, therefore I am.

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

mandy

can we prove we truly exist?

pinch yourself...if it hurts, you are here! if it doesnt then your just a figment of your own imagination...but wait, to have an imagination is to be alive, is to be...

to do whatever is is that you do, is to be...

to actually think up a question like " can we prove we truly exist?"...is that not proof enough that you have a brain, you have a mind, you have a body...

to think up a question like that and to actually put it out for the world to see constitutes bravery cos not many people would do that for fear of critism...

eveything that you did while typing out that question shows your character and everything you do shows what kind of person you are and all those attributes can only lead to one conclusion...

pinch yourself...

Zyr

Why does it lead to a body? What about the whole matrix thing? How do you know you're not just a brain in a jar?

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

tecoyah

We exist....or we wouldnt be discussing "If" we exist.

__________________
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

erics

God is discussed all the time, and no matter what anyone says he is unproven at this juncture in time.

__________________
"What's the benefit of laughing
When you only have to cry?
Why take the big adventure
When you're only left to die???
"

MageB420666

The thing is that it doesn't really matter if we truly exist or not. Cause if we do exist then everything is all peachy. And if we don't exist, then it doesn't matter that we delude ourselves thinking we exist, cause if we don't exist then it doesn't matter what we think, making this whole discussion circular and pointless.

__________________
Apathy: The best outlook this side of I don't give a damn.

Zyr

That's philosophy for you.

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

erics

what does matter in relation to the universe?

i was just trying to make interesting conversation.

new philosphical thoughts spark interesting things all the time

__________________
"What's the benefit of laughing
When you only have to cry?
Why take the big adventure
When you're only left to die???
"

shesus

We exist and we make our existance. Some people have a lousy existance and some people make themselves an enjoyable existance. Some people make their existance so miserable they want to end it, but are afraid of what might happen if they cease to exist. Yet, the people who are happy with their existance are so afraid of losing their existance they may question what is real to attempt to save their existance that they are happy with.

What matters? That is a question that has a personal answer for each person. The universe is huge. We aren't sure what exists out there and when you really think about it, our existance doesn't matter much to the universe. I don't care much about the universe because I'm focused on my own little universe which revolves around the people I care about and me. I like to help people and make an impact for the better. I can't do that wide-scale so I work small and hope that the ripples will go far.

And if this doesn't make sense to you, it's just philosophy, it's not supposed to make much sense. Because once you understand...you don't. That is why it's so much fun.

__________________
Whatever did happen to your soul?
I heard you sold it

Choose Heaven for the weather and Hell for the company

Zeraph

Not really the same comparision. If god was debating its own existance, then it would know that it existed because it could debate its existance. If we are debating god, then ya it doesnt mean that it exists, but here we are debating ourselves, therefore we do exist. But clearly god does exist in some way, even if it is only apart of ourselves, our minds. There are things that only exist in our minds, it is the word we use abstract for. Math certainly exists, even though it is only in our minds.

meembo

We are born alone and we die alone. In the middle we experience other people, even without meeting them physically (like I am with you right now). I can't prove you exist. Does that matter?

__________________
less I say, smarter I am

shakran

Hehe. OK, prove that all that stuff you did, YOU did. In other words, prove that you're not just some computer simulation running on someone's desk somewhere

Zeraph

People say that, and I get the meaning, but I can just as easily make a case for the opposite. First off, my mom was there when I was born...dad too, and the rest of the family. Or even twins. Second, we can die, metaphorically, with our family and loved ones and literally, with them around us.

Zyr

Indeed. The best you could do is to say that you exist, in whatever form that may be, perhaps digital.

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

Jinn

That was really cool -- it took the thread in a totally different direction. Since I've never met a TFPer in person, I could easily be talking to sophisticated computer scripts designed to recognize key phrases and reply in varying degrees of agreement/disagreement.

WHAT A MINDFUCK!

I'm a computer script, btw..

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Seeker

Perception is the biggest illusion that could take you to any absolute you could possibly imagine...

__________________
To those who wander but who are not lost...

~ Knowledge is not something you acquire, it is something you open yourself to.