"Annoying" Philosophical Questions

[Left]

What is the most irritating, mind-numbing philosophical question a person can ask?

 

[friend of]

What is the meaning of life

 

[Left]

What is the meaning of life

Oh my.

 

[Left]

It always bothers me when people ask me "What is justice?"

But surely that can't be the most annoying.

 

[CrystalDragon]

What is the meaning of life

Isn't it obvious? 42!

... Oh wait, that's the answer to life, my bad.

 

[Left]

Isn't it obvious? 42!

... Oh wait, that's the answer to life, my bad.

I once asked the question "What is the meaning of life?" and said "You aren't allowed to say 42."

People ended up using other references from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to answer the question instead.

 

[Emli]

What is the most irritating, mind-numbing philosophical question a person can ask?

I once heard this question seriously being asked in a university philosophy class: If a squirrel is running in a circle around the trunk of a tree, is the squirrel moving around the tree, or is the tree moving around the squirrel?

What?

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

"Why does God let babies die?"
"Why does God let evil people live to old age but nice people die young?"
"Who created God?"
"Why does God let people go to hell if He loves them?"
"Why does the battery life of my Ipod only last about 30 minutes?"

 

[2PhiloVoid]

What is the most irritating, mind-numbing philosophical question a person can ask?

"Who made God?"

 

[Left]

"Who made God?"

You win this thread.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

I once heard this question seriously being asked in a university philosophy class: If a squirrel is running in a circle around the trunk of a tree, is the squirrel moving around the tree, or is the tree moving around the squirrel?

What?

Was it an Asian Philosophy class in which you heard this question? The question about the squirrel almost sounds like a "koan."

 

[Emli]

Was it an Asian Philosophy class in which you heard this question? The question about the squirrel almost sounds like a "koan."

No, it was just a "regular" philosophy class, in Sweden. What is a koan?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

Where do CF members go to, when they leave this forum?
What percentage of CF members go to Hell?
Can you recommend an insurance plan that gets me to Heaven?
What is the meaning of Trump?

 

[2PhiloVoid]

No, it was just a "regular" philosophy class, in Sweden. What is a koan?

In short, a "koan" is a paradox of various sorts that is used in Zen Buddhism for contemplation, but it is applied so as to somehow escape the confines of human logic. It's a part of their practice of reaching "enlightenment."

 

[Left]

Where do CF members go to, when they leave this forum?

Some outside world which the people call "offline".

Wikipedia link: ________

 

[Emli]

In short, a "koan" is a paradox of various sorts that is used in Zen Buddhism for contemplation, but it is applied so as to somehow escape the confines of human logic. It's a part of their practice of reaching "enlightenment."

Buddhists have the weirdest definition of enlightenment. Instead of, as in Christianity, realizing Truth, they do all the can to ignore it and move around it.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Buddhists have the weirdest definition of enlightenment. Instead of, as in Christianity, realizing Truth, they do all the can to ignore it and move around it.

Yes, Buddhists are strange in that regard, and it makes me glad that the Christian meaning of knowledge and wisdom is, to some degree, a matter of connecting to God as He is and being imparted with a relationship to God that is not simply the divesting of one's individual identity. As Christians, we are just a drop in the Ocean that decides to jump back into the Ocean, melding away to become nothing more than "one" with the Ocean. We have Christ, and He made us to be who we are....and as we will be.

And by the way, if I haven't already said so, "Welcome to CF!" (...and CF is not the Machine).

Peace,
2PhiloVoid

 

[Left]

I'm really bad about noticing who is new to the forums and who isn't.

 

[Emli]

I'm really bad about noticing who is new to the forums and who isn't.

I believe you. You seem aloof. But I bet you can tell when new philosophical ideas enter the forum, can't you?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

In short, a "koan" is a paradox of various sorts that is used in Zen Buddhism for contemplation, but it is applied so as to somehow escape the confines of human logic. It's a part of their practice of reaching "enlightenment."

I think the challenge of a koan is to go beyond logic, beyond thought. Not sure I'd use the word "escape".