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What boggles your mind?

gokartride

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Jul 6, 2008
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Gee, I was hoping to respond but my mind got boggled en route. Many things boggle my mind, so much so that I tend to walk around boggled pretty much all the time. In fact, within my boggles are little mini boggles that are also quite capable of dishing out a good boggling of their own. In the end, bobbles fill me with wonder and gratitude, so my seemingly deplorable condition is actually quite bearable. :yes:
 

reason

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for me it's nothing and god. What is nothing? because the word nothing is still something so is darkness and how did it all begin? and was their every nothing because their is always something their is the ground the trees, the earth, universe, everything had to come into existence somehow. I mean how do you create something out of absolutely nothing? Let's assume God exists who/what created him? This is one of those things that has bugged me since I was about 11 or 12.
Yeah, well ... the thing is with that ... the universe doesn't have an outside.

First, let the word 'universe' refer to everything. Second, suppose that the universe must have come into existence somehow. Now, if something comes into existence then there must exist some set of laws where it is possible for something to come into existence, otherwise nothing would come into existence. However, the word 'universe' refers to everything, and therefore must include the set of laws which allow things to come into existence. Therefore, the laws which allow for things to come into existence could not have come into existence unless they already existed, and so nothing could exist "before" them.

The same logic can explain why there was no 'before the universe'. In short, the universe does not have an outside.
 

prplchknz

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see I understand their was once nothing but what is nothing? and don't say it's the lack of something...cuz well duh. But what does it look like?
 

Domino

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Matter and anti-matter produced by the collisions of space branes?
 

CzeCze

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Q. What boggles your mind?

A. Boggle. Sometimes Scrabble. Definitely 3D Sudoku.
 

reason

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see I understand their was once nothing but what is nothing?
The opposite of not-nothing i.e. something. The definition of nothing is tricky to express, since we define a term by assigning it properties, but what properties can nothing have? Surely nothing does not have any properties, but isn't the absence of properties a property itself? Therein lies the paradox. There is a solution and it involves no more than eliminating the inconsistency. Do not define nothing by the absence of propertires, nothing does have properties, but only those which it must have on pain of contradiction, and nothing more. The properties which remain are all self-referential, and preserve nothing but a consistent nothingness.
 

Provoker

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Feb 4, 2008
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On things that boggle my mind...

The first thing that truly baffles me is how intelligent some people can come across in person and how stupid and herd-like they are in a group dynamic. The second thing I find rather interesting is the law of superposition: that a particle can exist in more than one place at the same time (something I've spent a fair bit of time contemplating). Third, people with an extremely low level of consciousness (sometimes I wonder if we live in the same world). Fourth, sensors...I don't speak sensor and most sensors don't understand the language of intuition - there's a huge intellectual disparity between the two...every so often I try and teach sensors a few words of intuition and they say something completely ...ok I have to stop before I blow a gasket. That's all for now.
 

Steff196

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1. How primitive humans are and yet we're arrogant enough to think otherwise

2. An incomprehensibly large number like infinity or googol (1x10^100). A googol is more than the number of atoms in the visible universe.
 

TheLastMohican

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What is nothing? because the word nothing is still something so is darkness and how did it all begin? and was their every nothing because their is always something their is the ground the trees, the earth, universe, everything had to come into existence somehow. I mean how do you create something out of absolutely nothing?

Quantum theory is such a wonderful thing, isn't it?
The problem I have with nothing is trying to imagine nothing existing at some point. Imagine that the world as we know it doesn't exist. You can't even define where you are in space, because there is nothing anywhere. In fact, you can't even call it space. The intangible observer is at no location and can sense nothing.
That gives me headaches.
But according to some intriguing new theoretical mumbo-jumbo, there is no nothing. "Empty" space is bubbling like a shaken Coke can. Matter is appearing and disappearing all around us, too small and fleeting to detect. Possibly the known universe started as a little bubble of spontaneous matter that happened to be big enough to stick around.
I know, I just made it all a lot worse for you. Blame Michio Kaku.

Let's assume God exists who/what created him? This is one of those things that has bugged me since I was about 11 or 12.

Now here's one I know I can answer.
Why do you start with the assumption that God must have come from somewhere or something? There is no reason why He couldn't be eternal. Assuming that everything must have an origin only makes things horribly complicated, and there is no basis for that assumption anyway. We might as well also ask questions like "What made time" or "Where does gravity's energy come from?" Occam's Razor guides the way.

By the way, matter/energy could also be eternal, but not in the same way. We can observe matter, and we know a lot about how it operates. We know that atoms are not eternal, because at one point all the matter in the universe was squished into a ridiculously small singularity with no room for wasted space like electron orbitals. Our familiarity with matter unfortunately causes many to reason about God's existence under the same rules, even though those rules have no basis when not applied to matter as we observe it. We cannot see God expanding like the universe does, nor do we know anything about his structure, or whether he has any structure that we can comprehend. It's awfully vague, and in the absence of anything solid to go on, the simplest assumption, and the one we should have until something indicates a reason to believe otherwise, is that God, if He exists, is eternal.

so what are your hangups with the universe?

I have a love/hate relationship with numerous paradoxes. Currently I am focused on a few involving Christianity. It might be stupid to psychoanalyze God, but I have a hard time leaving alone anything that I think does not make sense. Why did He bother with us? Why doesn't He make His existence obvious, provided He wants people to believe in Him?
Perhaps I should just look up some theological arguments and stop doing all the work myself.
 

aguanile

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Why did He bother with us? Why doesn't He make His existence obvious, provided He wants people to believe in Him?
Perhaps I should just look up some theological arguments and stop doing all the work myself.

That is what messes me up about Christianity. It seems logical because according to the bible, God is trying his hardest to get everyone to believe in Him...with the alternative being hell. Why not just appear. Stand up and say, "hey guys, over here!"
 

dnivera

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Hegemony, political control, illuminati, conspiracy theories, people like David Icke. Knowledge, and all information as we receive it, is subjective. Is there any absolute truth at all?

Most things that are beyond scientific explanation boggle my mind, but I don't entertain such ideas too seriously. They're fun to think about, though.
 

reason

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Is there any absolute truth at all?
That is the only kind of truth. If a statement is true then it is not false and if a statement is false then it is not true. There is no third alternative called 'absolutely true'. If a statement is not absolutely true then it is false, and a statement which is false is not true. Therefore, a statement which is absolutely true is a statement which is not false, but then a statement which is not false is true. In other words, a 'truth' and an 'absolute truth' are the same thing. The original question can be read as: is there any truth at all? This question requests a statement which describes the facts, but a statement which correctly describes the facts is a true statement. Therefore, answering negatively would describe a world in which truth did not exist, but then if this the statement describes the facts then it is true, by definition. Therefore, any answer to this question would imply that truth exists.
 

TheLastMohican

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If nothing existed then what is "some point" doing there? And why is there a "there" if there is nothing?

I meant at some point in time, before now. Of course, when there is nothing, there is no time either. As for location, I already said that there is neither anything there nor any "there" in the first place. There is no frame of reference. It's completely empty, except that there is nothing that is empty, since there is no space.

...nothing.
 

dnivera

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heh, thanks for saying what I wanted to say.
 
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