does anyone else get freaked out that they exist?

I definitely think that some would consider our thinking brains a curse. The universe is only as big as somethings ability to comprehend it. You think any animal ever looked up at the sky and contemplated the nature of existence. Probably not.

I wonder if thinking brains are an evolutional eventuality or if we just got "lucky".

No, but sometimes I get this really weird feeling when I look at a family member, or myself (in the mirror). It's almost like I'm waking up from a dream and I'm surrounded by strangers (including myself). Hasn't happened to me in awhile, but when it did it kind of fucked with me a bit

Sometimes I do think about where I ended up in the world. Im white, male, live born in America, and have grown up in New York. Sometimes I think of what it would be like if I was dealt different cards and what it would be like if I began somewhere else. Im glad that I think about these things and try to imagine myself in other peoples shoes, but other times I feel guilty for being born in a stable place with a lot of opportunities, where others are born in chaos and confusion.

I guess my existence and where I ended up wasn't really my choice though. So I probably shouldn't feel guilty, rather that I wish everyone was born on equal footing and that the world be a more stable place.

@micemoney said:

Aren't the people who say those things doing exactly that? Starving their ego or however you want to word it. To me it seems much more egoistic to believe you are the product of something divine rather than the outcome of many random events.

So, basically this game.

So, basically this game.

I'm not sure who I'm agreeing with here but the way I see it. Any conclusion or belief system we come up with for ourselves is just an innate way of coping with how little we know about the universe. The more we figure out about the universe the closer we get to becoming gods ourselves. I mean maybe our god was just some scientist in some other galactic civilization. Or our entire universe could just be one tiny particle in much larger reality. Thinking about the pre big bang universe is just so damn daunting. I want to believe that the universe is either cyclical or our universe is just one drop in a bucket full of an endless number of other universes which are born and die just as stars are born and die and just as we do as well.

I have this theory (not sure if its original, I'm sure it cant be), that our observable universe is just one spec in a sea full of other universes and rather than an eventual heat death that some day the light from these other universes will finally reach ours and the sky will not be black but be white with an infinite number of light sources coming form every degree and angle. So not a heat death but a white out.

I don't believe those two beliefs to be mutually exclusive. Anyway, my answer to your question is no I'm afraid. They are feeding their ego by using certain logic that is stemmed from either mainstream science, and/or their own ignorance or fears. I feel it is better to say, "I don't know" and just wonder. I believe we allare the product of something divine and beyond human perception. Everything is so intricately woven together, I believe traditional logic doesn't come into play. For me, knowledge and wisdom comes from experience, and as I stated in the very first sentence of my post, I have experienced things that have led me to these conclusions. Again, I'm not saying people are wrong for believing or not believing in what they do/don't, nor am I trying to push my beliefs onto anyone else. I feel people should definitely come to their own conclusions, especially since we all live different lives and experiences that have led us here to this moment right now. As long as it does no harm to anyone else.

I know someone mentioned Descartes already, but I'll do it too.

You have to exist to be able to doubt your own existence. Everything else may very well be illusory, but your intellect, at the least, your self awareness, exists.

Don't worry, i'm the alpha and omega. When I die, all of you will cease to exist! Luckily for all of you, I'm a 4th dimensional hologram created by inter-dimensional lizard people, so I'm timeless!

I tell myself everyday, why was i ever born

Haha there is a really really really long answer to that question.

You remind me of myself. I love science and discovering out how the universe works. The fact that we're even capable of appreciating the grand nature of the Universe means that we are in a privileged position amongst multicellular organisms (purely from an evolutionary standpoint). I believe in the pursuit of truth and understanding by rational and logical means. From a non-creationist perspective, our world, our solar system, our galaxy; it was all created out of chaos. But by living our lives - going to work at 9am, drinking your morning coffee, attending birthday parties, listening to the latest Giant Bombcast etc, we're creating order out of chaos; we're making sense of it. That in and of itself is remarkable. I mean, it's amazing that we're even doing this...this right here. Ultimately, we find purpose in our lives by living it, whatever way that may be.

Why does everyone have to quote Descartes on this? He got it backwards, one's own thinking or doubting can't validate his or her existence. Only social interaction and communication can do that, without other 'minds' it wouldn't even make sense to speak of existence, or for that matter, of anything. Modern philosophy since Wittgenstein has worked on abolishing this kind of self-centered solipsism, but apparently it's still a deep-seated attitude.

Dude who mentioned the positive aspects of existentialism has it right; self-reliance and responsibility are the best consequences to draw from an otherwise meaningless existence.

Thinking about not-existing freaks me out more, one day you're living your life and one second later death; no thoughts...no more memories...no future. This one video always gets me, they were just driving and a freak accident ended everything: following video isnt for the faint of heart (no gore). If they left a few seconds sooner or later that wouldn't of happened. I guess that's a bit off topic though. But im able to take comfort in how fleeting and inconsequential this whole thing is in relation to everything else in the universe.

Here's the video, contains death.

@thebunnyhunter: Honestly, I'd put that behind a spoiler block. Having it displayed like that lends itself to compulsive clicks and that's probably one of the most mortifying videos on the net.

I don't know what freaks me out more: that we exist at all or the possibility of solipsism being real. The latter terrifies me far more.

I love the lizard people conspiracy. Although I have to think the person who dreamed that one up had never owned a lizard as a pet. Lizards are dorks. Happy clowning dorks.

...it's the ferrets you need to be keeping an eye on. They'll steal your food, your kids, your wife, then light your house on fire and do a little happy dance as it burns to the ground with you inside it. o____o

I don't believe in the theory that there is only oblivion beyond death. If perception is reality, and I die and lose all perception of myself and the outside world, did I ever really exist? Doesn't the fact that I can intro/extrospect now, and thus prove my existence, prevent me from ever not existing as a consciousness?

I'm comfortable with my existence, answered the who, what, where, when, why am I's. So death and the afterlife have become my new obsession. I don't find it scary. It's fascinating and exhilarating. Every month or so I check up news on near-death and out-of-body experiences. I want to know how the consciousness exists.

@falserelic said:

Bullshit, I want to understand. I want to be that chick at the end of that really bad Indiana Jones movie whose eyeballs explode because she was overloaded with knowledge.

To be honest, sometimes.

this is bullshit, i'm sorry. understanding of the universe and all its workings should be our primary pursuit. not to say we know it all, but we've done an impressive lot to demistify the way the world functions.

way more than that broseph

What you described, the "big crunch," is an obsolete theory. Prevailing theories now say the universe will continue expanding until time stops for everyone and everything, forever. Sad, but true. And yes, this scares the fuck out of me. Doesn't make it any less true, though.

Scientists don't know what is causing the apparent acceleration of outer stars and systems, but it appears to be the elusive "dark matter." So, a scary fate has an appropriately scary villain responsible for it.

400 billion exoplanets in the milky way. god damn.

We were referencing this:

PPPPPWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Mostly I get depressed by the fact that I could get shot in the face right now and it wouldn't fucking matter.

It feels like there no point to existing.

And I want to be that guy who's on a video game forum. Talking to random people on the internet that he's never met. While having a discussing about a subject that we can't find a true answer too in this lifetime.

@falserelic: Congratulations then?

You remind me of this horse:

On a related note, you guys should watch Bravest Warriors.

I can't believe it's not butter.

But I'll get over it.

I'm pretty sure Kirby can handle it, so we're good.

@bisonhero: I know. I just said thats what I want to be true. even if science says otherwise.

This! The uncertainty and immensity of existence is one of the, if not the most, exciting things in life for me. Really recommend reading philosophy if you're interested, once you start it's really life changing.

This thread has become a bit of a downer with all this speak of being "inconsequential", so I'm going to attempt to raise the mood here:

If I had to describe my own life-mission-statement in a very simplified sense, it would be the enjoyment of life (which also comes from being considerate of others) and pursuit of truth and understanding in the most rational way possible. Humans want to live. Not just survive, but live. There's literally no good reason not to enjoy life. And I believe that, if you want meaning to your life, you go get it yourself, rather than wait to be given it.

I can’t wait to see what this world looks like in 50+ years and the discoveries we make along the way. Of course there’s only so much I can learn within my lifetime, but I'm rooting for the human race to evolve and advance beyond my existence. Yes, the human race may have an expiry date, but even if it ultimately ends in death after trillions of years, knowing that we as a race had gone as far as we could and reached our potential (optimistic, I know) gives additional meaning to all past lives leading up to that point. If one believes in the chaos theory and butterfly effect, every slight variance in one place can result in a large change at a different state; every life has an impact. We’re all shaping the future as we speak. Personal fulfilment can come from reaching your potential, both collectively as a race and on an individual basis.

That said, I mainly just find the things that currently exist to keep me going ;P, e.g. friends, family, a potential career in art...the Oculus Rift, etc.

And much like how everyone's opinion is valid, imagine Earth as the collective conscious of all humans; its "opinion" is no less important than anything else out there in the universe. There being a fuckload of empty space doesn't change that.

I believe you mean "dark energy". Dark matter accounts for excess mass in ours and other galaxies, but following the initial period of universal inflation, dark energy is what appears to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. Of course, it's a much smaller expansion than the original expansion, but it's still quite noticeable over long periods of time.

And that hypothetical heat death is estimated to only potentially come in 10¹⁰⁰ years. The entire current history of the universe could run again and again 7x10⁹⁰ times in that amount of years.

So, the universe very likely still has plenty of time for us and a trillion trillion trillion quadrillion decillion of our generations of life to possibly enjoy. :)

The answer is simple. Abandon the gods of organized religion and worship the stuff that matters. The Sun, The Earth, and the space between all things. A truly divine trinity that any human can comprehend.

I'm more freaked out that other people exist.

This is how i see it: Math sucks, just until you get it, then its easy and you feel smart as fuck for a brief second. As i got older, that really became one of my core values, instead of fearing all the shit that i will never get to understand, i instead appreciate how much cool shit theres out there for me to still discover and learn about. Growing that way both makes me feel good, but it also helps me make others around me feel good, and in the end, thats one of the few constants the infinitesimal small me can influence.

I also like how The Street put it in the chorus of "The Edge of a Cliff":

"For billions of years since the outset of time

Every single one of your ancestors has survived

Every single person on your mum and dad's side

Successfully looked after and passed on to you life

What are the chances of that like?

It comes to me once in a while

And everywhere I tell folk it gets the best smile"

You will probably never really understand why you are here, but you are, so you might as well try to enjoy it.

Edit: Didnt realize this topic was old as hell, but i guess that doesnt change my statement :D.