A deep thinking question, for those that like to think.

[Frost.]

Simple question with many possibilities,

"How do you know the world exists behind you?"

When you turn around you can no longer see anything outside of your front and peripheral vision. How do you know that the world actually exists when you turn around? How do you know that the world doesn't simply exists where you can see it?

A mirror, a camera, a friend telling you, etc. all have to exists in front of you for you to see what they are showing. As in, a mirror could show you what you think should be there however it really does not exists at that moment.

Where this is going is the thought that existance is simply a personal thing. The universe was created for you to enjoy it. Whatever you cannot see presently simply does not exist.

So, the question stands, how can 'you' prove that the world exists behind you?

[Epic]

Simple answer-You cant.

People believe what they want to believe, and disbelieve that they dont.

[Frost.]

Exactly.

[Phresher than it Got]

umm...

[Climbing High]

yea, and like when you close your eyes, how do you know that you are where you were when you closed them... try closing your eyes in a perfectly quiet room, and you can convince yourself that you are anywhere, and that you are anyone.

[az666]

yeah dude....its all in your head....we dont exist we are just fragments of your imagination that you have dreamed up...no i cant answer your question...but im sure it does unless other people dont exist....maybe your all just fragments of my imagination!!....

[kyle]

There are endless possibilites and man can not even begin to ansewer the questions the universe posseses. The only thing you can do; is smoke a joint.

[lateralus]

People believe what they want to believe, and disbelieve that they dont.
I feel bad for everyone who lives to the south of my current position, because that is the direction which I am facing, and in approxiately twenty seconds I will proceed to turn around therefore nullifying your existence. Sorry guys.

Until then, I have another deep question. How do we know that feces doesn't turn purple when nobody is looking at it? :confused:

[lateralus]

And don't call me a smartass, because you can't see me to prove it.

[meek mike]

Although I do like the question I see the answer as simple. My answer:

FAITH

Thats what we all have in common but most don't realize.

Rev. Michael T
Soldier for Christ and Cannabis

[NextGen]

As a kid and sleeping over at friends houses. I remember waking up to forget where I was. This happened alot and was kinda scary for the first few minutes of waking up.

[ermitonto]

Well, you don't have faith in common with me. I don't assume what can't be proven. Truth is, you can't prove that the world behind you exists. I can't even conclusively prove that other people exist. I can't prove that this reality isn't all a dream and I don't experience the "real reality" until I'm "asleep". For practical purposes they make okay assumptions, but you can never be 100% sure of anything but your own existence.

[meek mike]

Well, you don't have faith in common with me.

Alright Mr or Mrs defensive. But I beg to differ. We do have faith in common. Have you ever sat on a chair? I'm guessing you have. So we both at least have faith that the chair we sit in will hold us up.

I think to many people are watching the Matrix, 13th Floor, etc.

Would this prove to you all that what is behind you does exist:

Have someone stand infront of you, give that person a pin, coin, paper clip whatever and ask the person to throw it behind you. When you turn around and have to pick up what ever they threw you'll know that whats behind you does exist.

Or Fuck it.

Bend over and look between your legs. You can see both infront and behind you.

Rev. Michael T
Soldier for Christ and Cannabis

[ermitonto]

Right, but I have good empirical evidence for believing all these things. Not exactly 100% proof, since there is the slight and highly unlikely possibility that all that I am experiencing is actually an illusion of some sort, Ã* la The Matrix, so the best I could prove is that there is some sort of sensory input I'm getting that gives me the impression that the world behind me exists.

[lateralus]

Alright Mr or Mrs defensive. But I beg to differ. We do have faith in common. Have you ever sat on a chair? I'm guessing you have. So we both at least have faith that the chair we sit in will hold us up.

I think to many people are watching the Matrix, 13th Floor, etc.

Would this prove to you all that what is behind you does exist:

Have someone stand infront of you, give that person a pin, coin, paper clip whatever and ask the person to throw it behind you. When you turn around and have to pick up what ever they threw you'll know that whats behind you does exist.

Or Fuck it.

Bend over and look between your legs. You can see both infront and behind you.

Rev. Michael T
Soldier for Christ and Cannabis
Welllll, I was going to say the coin thing. But the point was you can't prove it's there until you see it. As for looking between your legs.. He meant you can't prove it's there if you can't see it, not if it's not in front of you. You're right about the chair, though. You don't expect to sit in a chair only for it to break and you to fall on your ass.

Sorry if I didn't make sense. Bed time. ->

[Bel Acres]

You can hear things behind you, you can touch things behind you, you can smell things behind you, and to some extent you can sense things behind you.

If there was a screaming, sweaty guy punching me in the back of the head I like to see anybody try to tell me I couldn't prove he was there.

[lateralus]

He could be just in your imagination.

[ermitonto]

Well, maybe you're just hallucinating a screaming, sweaty guy punching you in the back of the head.

[Bel Acres]

That's just a cop-out. Besides, hallucinations can't punch me.

[lateralus]

A cop-out? Eh, what about if you're dreaming at the time? Then he's not really there. And I'm pretty sure with enough drugs, anything could punch you.

[ermitonto]

Maybe everything you've ever experienced is actually a virtual simulation from a futuristic machine that erases your memory and sends neurons through your brain that make you think you're living in the 21st century.

[Bel Acres]

Right now I'm not dreaming or on any drugs and as far as I know I'm not in any life simulation. My mind is clear and as concious as it can get at this point.

I know that anything is possible. Scientifically though, proving the existance of things which I cannot see but know are there through other senses is the most possible.

[Climbing High]

who knows though, you could be dreaming. any second now you could wake up and find out that your a dinosaur from a million years ago, or you could wake up as a gorrilla on the other side of the planet, and just say "wow, that was a fucked up dream".
or you could open your eyes right now, and realize that you ARE the sweaty fat guy coming down off of an intense salvia tripp where you lived someones life. the possibilities are endless.

[meek mike]

So how many times have you woke up a fat bastard,gorilla, dinasor, ect?

Point made.

Rev. Michael T
Soldier for Christ and Cannabis

[Bel Acres]

who knows though, you could be dreaming. any second now you could wake up and find out that your a dinosaur from a million years ago, or you could wake up as a gorrilla on the other side of the planet, and just say "wow, that was a fucked up dream".
or you could open your eyes right now, and realize that you ARE the sweaty fat guy coming down off of an intense salvia tripp where you lived someones life. the possibilities are endless.

Basic science says otherwise.

Saying "but, you could be dreaming it all" is too simple and boring to even consider. Of course it could very well be true, but there is no reason to think that it is.

[fatty lumps]

Simple question with many possibilities,

"How do you know the world exists behind you?"

When you turn around you can no longer see anything outside of your front and peripheral vision. How do you know that the world actually exists when you turn around? How do you know that the world doesn't simply exists where you can see it?

A mirror, a camera, a friend telling you, etc. all have to exists in front of you for you to see what they are showing. As in, a mirror could show you what you think should be there however it really does not exists at that moment.

Where this is going is the thought that existance is simply a personal thing. The universe was created for you to enjoy it. Whatever you cannot see presently simply does not exist.

So, the question stands, how can 'you' prove that the world exists behind you?

Easy. Use a camera and take a picture of me straight on from above. Since while looking at the developed picture, you know that what you were looking at with your own eyes in front of you was real, the picture of you from the top (while you were looking forward) proves there's a whole world around you.

[Climbing High]

but it still might not be real, all you people that i am having this debate with are mot likely just in my imagination. i am going to wake up soon, and what does not having woken up before have anything to do with this? Rev. Michael T, your mind is one sided and your a retard. christ can lick my balls while i smoke a big fat joint.

[Climbing High]

ohhhh yea

[ermitonto]

christ can lick my balls while i smoke a big fat joint.

I hope you don't mind if I use this as a book title someday. :D

[fatty lumps]

but it still might not be real, all you people that i am having this debate with are mot likely just in my imagination.

How can it not be real?

[meek mike]

Rev. Michael T, your mind is one sided and your a retard. christ can lick my balls while i smoke a big fat joint.

So, you've thrown a comment out to me but you failed to explain why I am these things to you. Please do explain how I am one sided, and retarted. If I am what you say I will do my best to change but if I am not, what then? Will you appoligize like a man? No. Will you think before you type? No. You won't do anything and most likely won't even explain why I am what you think I am. So that being said.

Thank you for reading my post. I'll tell Christ what you ask of him but I'm sure he's not down with that gay shit so maybe you should ask his mother. Of course she's married so I don't think that will happen either. But wait you asked for a guy to lick your balls so maybe his brother James will but I don't think he's down with that gay shit either.

Oh well hopefully you can get your boyfriend to do what you ask of other guys. Best of Luck to ya on that.

Rev. Michael T
Soldier for Christ and Cannabis

[koshea]

ok then does shit really stink? or do we just think it stinks becuase weve been raised to believe so, is it possible that the smell of shit is accually very pleasant?

[Not Enough Herb]

climbing high if anyone is a retard its u

first off dont insult christ just b/c u dont beleive in him. no one is comming on here blasting ur belief...im not very christian anymore but still i dont blast christ.

anyways...back to the point....obvously the world exists around u for fuck sakes...i thought this same thing too but slapped myself in the head cuz its such nonsense. if ur hearing shit in ur head or evrything is fragments of ur imagination...i got a tip for u...............

LAY OFF THE DAM METH CUZ ITS ROTTING UR BRAIN

later

[Not Enough Herb]

ok then does shit really stink? or do we just think it stinks becuase weve been raised to believe so, is it possible that the smell of shit is accually very pleasant?

lol wheres looker with that pic of the guys head in the toilet when u need him?

of course shit stinks...if u dont beleive me...take a crap...grab the biggest log in the toilet and put it to ur noise and take a big wiff...gaureented its gonna smell like shit (which stinks)

later

[MiNdYoU]

before i was told or led to believe that shit stinks i had to have the 'ba' to cover the old nosey, peeeeeeeeeeeeeeyeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww,
anyway, im w/ the reverend on this one
there is a past, there is the present, and there will always be a future, maybe not for you the way your heading, but youll be stuck in the present forever you dung poo

[GHoSToKeR]

i dont know if anyone has already given this answer, because im stoned and theres too much to read.. forgive if someone has

anyway, from what I know, no objects are actually in one position until somebody observes that object and 'chooses' a position for it to be in. in other words, when we stand in front of a table, and turn around so the table is behind us, then that table is not in the same place as it was when we looked at it, but in an infinite amount of possible places, as is every object. it is proved that photons can be in more than one place simultaneously, and in a Flordia research lab they actually have a single object (dont remember what it is) that is actually in more than one place at the same time.. you see the same object twice, but it is actually only one object (i guess that would be kinda hard to prove....) Now, when we look at an object, we automatically 'hone in' on one particular position for that object... we dont consciously do this, so it goes to figure that there is an 'observer' whom chooses where in space-time this object will be when we look at it.. is this 'observer' God, our soul, aliens, what? who knows? im stoned and ive forgotten what i was talkin about

[GHoSToKeR]

PS I think the point that certain people are trying to make, is that NOTHING is ever certain.. anything is possible, and reality as we know it is only what we percieve it to be.. maybe we're wrong? who knows! dont just close your mind to foreign concepts just because they dont seem possible, or fit in to your model of the universe.. accept anything as possible, and youll find your life becomes a hell of alot easier, or at least easier to deal with. Remeber the little kid from the movie Magnolia, sitting down in a library or whatever, with frogs raining all around him? remember what hes saying? "This is something that happens"... its a totally unprecedented, unexplainable, alien thing to him - that its raining frogs - but he just accepts it as something that happens.. why? because anything is possible, and nothing is certain.

[Climbing High]

thats it exactly, meek mike how can you be so 100% sure that your not just asleep or in a salvia tripp... you cant know, and i guess its impossible to prove either side. sorry for that post back there, no offense intended i was just messin around. peace

[Climbing High]

and for those who say dont rip on christians, im sorry but christians have made my life a living hell, im jewish and a bunch of mother fuckers have beaten the shit out of me for being jewish since i was in 1st grade.
i know i cant be mad at all you for that, and im not mad at all you cuz i know lots of you are good people, but shit like that sticks with a person, you probably can understand that.

[BigVTDave]

I have the answer.

I didn't bother reading everyone elses answer because frankly, I don't care. lol.

I know that objects "exist", and I'll use this term loosely here, when I am not looking at them, due to the fact that I believe in the existence of a higher power that is omnipotent and omnipresent. (I see you guys have already gotten sensitive about the whole issue, so I'm choosing my words carefully here). I choose to call this entity I believe in God. So I know those objects exist because I believe God can see them even when I cannot.

Now what you mean by exist is an entirely different matter. Question: Why do you think something actually exists just because you physically can view it? For that matter, why does something exist even if you can physically touch it?

Hm...........

[qwerty]

the real question that always gets me scared is, where do you really go when you die?

[BigVTDave]

Great question. Time to start a new post and figure it out.

[ermitonto]

I figure our consciousness just ends and there is no more "you" once you die. You cease to experience anything, and the "thing" that was experiencing in the first place simply no longer exists. I can't prove anything, so it's just a wild guess. I'm just gonna wait and see. If I'm wrong, great, I like surprises.

[Bel Acres]

and for those who say dont rip on christians, im sorry but christians have made my life a living hell, im jewish and a bunch of mother fuckers have beaten the shit out of me for being jewish since i was in 1st grade.
i know i cant be mad at all you for that, and im not mad at all you cuz i know lots of you are good people, but shit like that sticks with a person, you probably can understand that.

Sorry to hear that. Those people didn't beat you because they were christian though, they beat you because they are scum.

[Climbing High]

this is true

[Climbing High]

i actually hate all religeons, judaism included. i hate judaism, christianitym islam, everything. simply because all religeons are so fucking self centered and ignorant towards one another. thats why our world is so fucked up, because all these religeons just keep fighting over who is right and who is wrong. and to be honest, i think that all religeons are wrong, i dont believe that all that magical, miracle shit happened. all that i really think is important from religeon is the values for living a good life that it teaches, but most religeos have this identical or very similar. the only difference between jews and christians is that christinas think jesus was the messiah. everything else is the same, and its just plain retarded for people to be so obsessed with things that took place thousands of years ago. we should be a new generation, a generation of peace and unity.

[Cattabis]

i can feel my ass.

[SmoKa]

I suggest taking your belief bashing else where climbing high.... and perhaps grow up a tad... i mean afterall the way you sound its as if you are about 10. Learn to respect other's boundrys and they will learn to respect yours... remeber that saying If you dont have anything nice to say dont say anything at all? might wanna try that one out.

[Buck268]

Well, you don't have faith in common with me. I don't assume what can't be proven. Truth is, you can't prove that the world behind you exists. I can't even conclusively prove that other people exist. I can't prove that this reality isn't all a dream and I don't experience the "real reality" until I'm "asleep". For practical purposes they make okay assumptions, but you can never be 100% sure of anything but your own existence.

That dilema has long haunted me... I just feel like life is a dream fairly often... Like its not real... Sometimes its hard to convince myself it really is...

[Rarrr]

I reckon there's stuff that even scientists couldnt begin to imagine involving our universe. So much information untapped, do you seriously think humans have their maximum potential? A reckon anythings possible.

[Darkneon420]

:D sounds like someone droped some acid

Oi...i've thought about that question before. Actually i was begining to think i was insane and everything I saw or touched wasent really there...sometimes we all go through times like this, no?

[GHoSToKeR]

apparantly our brains are as evolved as theyre ever gonna be... scarey, huh? lol

[drofnats]

yea, and like when you close your eyes, how do you know that you are where you were when you closed them... try closing your eyes in a perfectly quiet room, and you can convince yourself that you are anywhere, and that you are anyone.
Stand on one leg and when your steady shut your eye's and see what happens, it never fails.

[Looker]

WELL IF IF SITTIN ATA TRAFFIC LIGHT AND IT GOES GREEN AND I DONT MOVE, THE GUY BEHIND WILL BEEP AND YELL


CMON MOTHERFUCKER LETS DRIVE!!!!


SO I KNOW THE WORLDS BEHIND ME......

[Entropious]

Stand on one leg and when your steady shut your eye's and see what happens, it never fails.

Hmm. What is supposed to happen here, I just kinda stood on my one leg in the dark for a while. Interesting, for sure. Was something else supposed to happen>>>?

[F L E S H]

I think this is a stupid question. Just because you can't 'see' something doesn't mean it's not there. Remember that we have 5 sense, not just one, so if you can't see it, then you can hear it or smell it or touch it or taste it. If someone was blind deaf and dumb, do you think that they think nothing exists outside of themselves? I don't think so, ever read about Helen Keller?

It's a moot question, and I think the question you're really asking is whether or not our senses are lying to us, or whether we live in some sort of illusion. But I think we're all getting a little carried away with this illusion stuff. I'm a firm believer in reality. If it's there, it's real. it may not be real to someone else, but if it's real to me it's all that matters.

In one of my classes today we were talking about witchcraft in Africa, and some authors brushed it off and treated it as a figment of people's imaginations, that witches and curses don't exist. Other authors claimed that if it's real to them, then it is indeed real. I can tell you with certainty that they don't exist to me, because I don't believe in them, but they certainly exist to millions of Africans who believe in it very strongly.

If you want to believe the world stops existing when you close your eyes, go right ahead, but I know I still exist...

[GHoSToKeR]

F L E S H, thats fair enough.. but going by your reasoning, that means that God exists for the people who believe in him, and he doesnt for people who dont. Since 'God' alledgedly said that anybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, then there is a contradiction. How can you go to hell for not believing in him, if he doesnt exist because you dont believe in him? lol

[NowhereMan]

WELL IF IF SITTIN ATA TRAFFIC LIGHT AND IT GOES GREEN AND I DONT MOVE, THE GUY BEHIND WILL BEEP AND YELL


CMON MOTHERFUCKER LETS DRIVE!!!!


SO I KNOW THE WORLDS BEHIND ME......


wish it away man wish it away

[F L E S H]

F L E S H, thats fair enough.. but going by your reasoning, that means that God exists for the people who believe in him, and he doesnt for people who dont. Since 'God' alledgedly said that anybody who does not believe in him will go to hell, then there is a contradiction. How can you go to hell for not believing in him, if he doesnt exist because you dont believe in him? lol
Actually, I think it makes sense. If you don't believe in God, then you don't believe in Hell either, so when you die you can't go somewhere you don't believe in :D Just because that's what it says in the Bible doesn't mean it's true. The way I see it, 'Heaven' and 'Hell' are metaphors for your state of mind when you die. If you die filled with regret, shame, anger, etc, then you will 'go to Hell', you won't be able to rest in peace. If you die with a clean conscience, content with your life, at peace with yourself, and even though you did some bad stuff (everybody does, sometimes...) you're able to look in the mirror and forgive yourself, then you are in 'Heaven'. Heaven and Hell are a state of mind :D

[slipnslide087]

man i think it would be gay if he held us to some shit like that. just bc i dont believe doesnt mean im not a good person. fuck that

[drofnats]

Hmm. What is supposed to happen here, I just kinda stood on my one leg in the dark for a while. Interesting, for sure. Was something else supposed to happen>>>?You'll lose your balance within 5 seconds of closing your eyes, try it again and see

[SLiC112]

umm...


LOL>.....

[KellisJ2003]

I see life sort of how Socrates saw life. You don't know what is in the afterlife. There is no possible way you can know unless you can prove it as a fact by finding factual evidence. For the people who tell you "Why not lead a good life so you go to heaven and not hell?" Who are they to say that there are such places? I believe Christianity to be a passing fad. Sure, it has been going on for thousands of years, but so have many other religions that have come and gone. Also, what about the people in ancient Greece who believed in the Gods? Were they completely stupid for their beliefs? And why did a lot of Greeks end up turning to Christianity? What do you think Christianity will be like a thousand years down the road? Also, what about pre-humans, or less evolved humans that lived millions of years ago? When you talk about Adam and Eve being the first humans, what about the less evolved that lived way before their time? Did they not have beliefs? I cannot answer any of these questions, and no one else can either, I just think it is a good thing to discuss. Plato believed that humans know about death before they even experience it, because death is a phase of the human soul. Man, this is making my brain hurt. I have to stop.

[daZenfmeister]

I can't wait to die and find out if I was right or wrong about God and about the universe. I don't think that existance CAN make sense because it has so many determining factors:
1. Someone/somthing needs to be there to percieve it for it even to exsist

2. Time, if time stops then so does existance like for example what will happen when the universe stops expanding and starts shrinking? Will time go backwars or will it change at all because movement/action cant be determined without time and time cant be determined without movement/action

3. We know probably like .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000001% of everything like for example what is outside the universe? Where does the universe end what the fuck is the universe? questions like that.

[KellisJ2003]

I like questions like that, I think Im gonna start a new thread on this topic...

[2600]

ERMITONTO!!!

Please don't compromise your stance!

You are RIGHT.

THe ONLY SELF EVIDENT TRUTH is our own consciousness. From each one of our perspectives, there is only one thing we can know- that we exist (only our consciousness though). Everything, everyone could possibly be an illusion, a trick, a dream.


One day you might wake up as free form energy hurtling through deep space, and the past twenty or so years have just been another dream. And you say, ah, that was a weird dream- I had a body, and was on a planet. Wellp, back to reality (maybe), flying through space in solitude, never encountering any other being or object. All I can know is that I exist.

[GREEN DUDE]

Dude u smoke good shit will u post me some
:)