Hi!

This might seem very deep or stupid but I've always wondered, do we exist?
(This might not be in this section by the way.)

But it's like this, I can feel things, I can hear things, I can taste things.
But does that mean that I'm real? That I exist?
If I know I exist, why do I ask myself "Do I exist?", if I was sure, I wouldn't ask myself that question, right?

And everything that happens, I see through my own eyes, and I hear it from my own ears etc.
I cannot hear it from your ears, I mean, I can point at a color and say that it is red, and you would agree, but maybe, my red is your blue?

And sometimes, I find myself thinking about life, and I feel really bad, because I realized that we're just animals, we smile when we're amused, we eat because we must survive, we're selfish.
That life is all about making our race survive?

I mean, this might be a dream, someday, I will wake up and realize that life is just a dream, and none of my friends were real, somebody made them, maybe I made them in my mind when I was dreaming.

Maybe life is someone playing The Sims, it's sounds stupid, but it ain't impossible right?

What do you think?

Wow that is pretty deep.
I sort of agree with you there but i dont think its all a dream and were yet to
wake up. how would know were asleep and dreaming if were asleep. If that
makes sense. I just think everything is linked in someway, like if i hadnt of left
the room and done something, another thing wouldnt of happened and if that
had not have happened & so on, ( if that makes sense as well )

Yeah that probaly didnt make much sense : ]

Well, you mean like, everything is ment to happen and it's randomness that plays a role and also your choices? =)
It's like having X and Y.
X leads to 1 or 2, 2 leads to 5.
Y leads to 3.

Did I get you right? =)

your not talking about the matrix are you

Well I know about the movie, but I've never seen it, but it got nearly the same topic as this thread right? xD

pretty much :]

It depends what you mean by exist. This is a loaded word. It is the root of the word existential and matters that are existential usually deal with subjective individual perception. Ontologically, we have reality, epistemically we have knowledge, and existentially we have meaning. These three are not necessarily always the same. In reality it is hard to say if the friend is still there, because the only way we seem to declare something as real, is if we have optic/sensual evidence (which in this case we don't - no camera, etc). Epistemically, we know that just because the person is out of sight they will be able to return into sight. This we learn at an early age. As babies we believe something is gone when it is out of sight, but experience tells us otherwise. Then of course we have the existential part. Do you believe your friend is still there? This can go both ways. For instance, your friend leaves the room and somehow dies. You may still believe your friend exists (life after death, or maybe deny yourself that he did die). Just some thoughts... To answer your big question: Do we exist? I would have to say it is a matter of belief. Many believe we are simply an aggregate of materials, whereas others attribute an immortal soul to our being or even say we are an agglomerate of living materials that join in one symbiotic whole at the atomic level. I like to join hands with Berkley who said "to be is to believe"

Well, yeah, it's like when you close your eyes you don't know that happens, it's like, if you close your eyes, I can do something, without you seeing it, and you don't know it have happened.

And also, when I don't see my friends, that's also one thing, I can call them and talk to them, but I don't know what happens when I can't see them.

Well, I don't know what I should think, if I would say that we don't exist, people might think I'm sick or something, but I can only feel things myself, maybe I'm the only one in the world that exist, and you are just something that I made up?

If we didnt exsist & whoever is controlling us all
saw that we had cracked the code and worked it
all out would the world just not be like "BOOM"
and end if that makes sense ;D

If someone tells you that a person can never be certain of anything, ask him if he is certain about that. If he is to be consistent, he must say ''no.'' Then ask him if he is certain that "no'' is the correct answer to the question you just asked him. He is in an inescapable bind.

If someone tells you that men can never perceive reality accurately, ask him how he figured this out and whether this claim constitutes accurate perception of reality.

If someone tells you that you can never be certain that other people have minds, tell him you would think about what he said but you can't be sure that anyone actually said it.

What if a person asks you to prove that you exist? Tell him that the term ''prove'' refers to a process of reasoning performed by a conscious entity beginning with certain basic facts and deriving other facts. Tell him that he is misusing the word ''prove.'' Proof is only 1 method of verification; there must be things that are already known before anything can be proven. Remind him that if he is to converse with you at all, he must first admit you exist.

Neal C.

Well there is no doubt we exist.
It is possible to contemplate where this existance is.
Maybe somebody is playing The Sims with us, but we exist as a part of that process.
We have some sort of existance, but just how significant it is we may never know.

Nice username. =)

Well, I think that we might know it in our afterlife (which I believe in).

But I do believe in higher powers, but sometimes this feels so unreal you know, the grass is green, and I can see all the trees when I'm going by bus, but sometimes I think, if they didn't exist, what would it be like? Would everything be black?

Thanks

Yeah I get what you mean. I sometimes contemplate it. Are we all just irrelevant creatures, or is there some meaning to this; something afterwards?

I used to think this was some sort of test for something, but now I'm not sure.

Nice to believe in an afterlife though. Otherwise it feels depressing and pointless.