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    We know nothing

    in General off-topic discussions

    Posted

    I was just reading some theories about the universe, and they made me realize that we really know nothing at all. We humans are creatures whose lives are dominated by an endless curiosity about our own existence. All science, all philosophy, all literature and other forms of art, all religions, everything we do outside of trying to ensure our own survival, is all based on our drive to understand ourselves and the purpose of our existence.

     

    Yet we don't understand anything at all. We have no satisfactory answer to the question of what the purpose of life is, nor do we know what is the true purpose of death. Time is an important element of our lives (in fact, time in many ways defines our lives), yet we have no idea whether time actually exists, or if it is an invention of the human brain to make our perception of existence less chaotic.

     

    To a great extent we have come to understand our own planet, but we still know little about the greater whole to which this planet belongs, i.e. the universe. Is it finite or infinite? How can something actually be infinite, when our perception tells us that everything has a beginning and an end?

     

    And if the universe is finite, then what exists outside of it? We have theories about the mechanical aspects of how the universe came to exist, but even if these theories are correct, then what caused the birth of the universe? What existed before it? And is the universe just part of an even greater whole?

     

    We don't even know if we can trust ourselves, because our perception is really just this - perception - and it is limited because we are human. We might create theories to try to explain why things are the way they are, but in the end, the limits and fallability of our brains make it impossible to be certain of anything. We talk of objectivity and subjectivity, but true objectivity is something we have never had, and never will have. We can only perceive what our brains allow us to perceive, and everything that escapes our human perception, we will never know.

     

    The more I think about these fundamental questions, the more I realize that humanity is like a man born blind, touching things he will never be able to see, understanding them only through the sensations they cause in his fingertips.

     

    We have no answers to anything. We think we understand ourselves, we think we know who we are, but we don't, and we never have. We have no true identity, we only have what we know about ourselves. And we'll never be able to answer the question of what we really are, what our purpose is. We think we are something, but knowing that human perception is limited by its human nature, we can't even know this for sure. We know nothing, and we have nothing.

     

    And this nothingness permeates everything about our perceived existence, from global politics down to the smallest decisions we make as individuals every day. It drives us to try to define ourselves.

     

    Because most, if not all, developments and inventions in human history has just been attempts to define what it means to be human, and what purpose we have. Why invent the wheel, if not to make our lives easier? And by trying to make our lives easier, we are also making the statement that our lives have value. It is symptomatic of our struggle against nothingness.

     

    And what is the purpose of sports, for example, if not to redefine the limits of human capability, and therefore also our perception of what it means to be human? Why do you try to achieve things in your own life beyond mere survival, if not to try to understand what you are capable of, thereby also gaining a new understanding of who you are?

     

    Humanity seems to be on a quest for an understanding, a knowledge, that it will never find. The only conclusions that can be drawn about the human identity, about human existence, is that from a human point of view they are nothing. All we have is nothingness. We battle against it, but this is one battle we can never win.

     

    Even what I have written here is just another attempt at understanding human existence. It is as symptomatic of our nothingness as everything else humans do.

     

    Thank God for our sense of humor and our ability to ignore these things in our daily lives, or the human race would have been extinct by now, I think

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