Philosophical questions from a young age.

[QuickTwist]

I had a very active imagination as a kid and still do to this day. Much of my imaginative thinking lead me to ask some question or other that was unanswerable, at least by my parents, or simply one that I could not put into words well enough to be answered. I have also been one who would draw conclusions from the tinyest amount of information when I realized everything can be analyzed. I was that kid who always asked why and the more I was given an inadequate answer, the more I wanted to know why.


The purpose of this thread is for an entertaining discussion concerning what kinds of philosophical question we had at an early age granted anybody even responds to my post. If you can, try and come up with a question you had as a child that even us as adults cannot answer.

I remember thinking, when I was very young, how is it that I am here and how is it that there are so many people in the world? I guess what I was really wondering is what is the probability that I exist as a human and what is that probability for that of everyone else both individually and as a group along with the question of why do we exist. I believe this question came from the assumption that I am different from the other people I have a personal connection to.

 

[Milo]

I was indoctrinated pretty heavily as a kid unfortunately which kept me from asking real questions. I would always ask if things were okay in a religious sense to do. I remember asking if technology was bad.

Only when I stopped believing did these philosophical questions occur to me.

 

[Duxwing]

I had a very active imagination as a kid and still do to this day. Much of my imaginative thinking lead me to ask some question or other that was unanswerable, at least by my parents, or simply one that I could not put into words well enough to be answered. I have also been one who would draw conclusions from the tinyest amount of information when I realized everything can be analyzed. I was that kid who always asked why and the more I was given an inadequate answer, the more I wanted to know why.


The purpose of this thread is for an entertaining discussion concerning what kinds of philosophical question we had at an early age granted anybody even responds to my post. If you can, try and come up with a question you had as a child that even us as adults cannot answer.

I remember thinking, when I was very young, how is it that I am here and how is it that there are so many people in the world? I guess what I was really wondering is what is the probability that I exist as a human and what is that probability for that of everyone else both individually and as a group along with the question of why do we exist. I believe this question came from the assumption that I am different from the other people I have a personal connection to.

I realized my own mortality at age seven, but not in the abstract "Oh, some day I'm going to die" but "I am going to DIE!!". If my mom hadn't indoctrinated me, then I think that I would have proceeded into existential crisis.

-Duxwing

 

[pariahmariah]

I remember asking my Dad who God's dad was. He said we're not supposed to ask things like that. I was 8 yrs old when I asked him that. Now I'm 32. I haven't believed in God since. I completely lost interest in religion personally. I also recall wondering all the time what I was in my past life (like maybe I was a frog or a tree) and whether I would be American or pretty in my next life. I hoped that I would at least be smart lol. I never asked about that second part out loud. I didn't think anyone would understand.

 

[SpaceYeti]

I used to have the "What if I were a thing or person who is not me, would I still be me but them, or all them, and then how would I know I'm not them now and they're me and I just can't tell because we switched all the way?!" sort of question.

I also actually started my bit religious search when I was... I dunno, 8ish? It started when I asked either my mom or my step-mom (don't remember which!) How God created the world. I didn't stop at that first person. Everyone I asked gave me some variation of "God can do anything". They didn't even realize that it didn't answer my question. So I looked into holy books, parapsychology, etc. All I wanted was an actual answer. In my searching, I discovered religion doesn't actual answer any questions, it simply allows you to pretend whatever you want is the answer. Not very satisfying when you're aware that reality extends beyond your imagination.

I was also always super interested in how things worked, in general. I one time took my radio controlled car apart, figured out how it worked, and was satisfied in never putting it back together.

 

[QuickTwist]

I am sensing a trend that these questions are big picture in nature. So much so that some of them cannot really be nailed down with any sort of specific objectivity... well done indeed.

I once asked my mother what is above the sky. I'll give you 3 guesses of what she said. Heres a hint: it made me want to ask another question which started with the word how and when I got the answer to the second question I was sorely disapointed.

 

[pariahmariah]

I am sensing a trend that these questions are big picture in nature. So much so that some of them cannot really be nailed down with any sort of specific objectivity... well done indeed.

I once asked my mother what is above the sky. I'll give you 3 guesses of what she said. Heres a hint: it made me want to ask another question which started with the word how and when I got the answer to the second question I was sorely disapointed.

And now if you don't tell me what she said I'm going to feel that same disappointment... Here's my guess. Heaven? If so, my grandma would say they walk around on the clouds up there. Then when I ask what happens on days when the sky is clear, obviously we're not supposed to ask stuff like that. Hmmm... So that's where my dad gets his answers from...

 

[QuickTwist]

You are correct in your answer, good job. Would you like to take a guess what my second question was?

 

[JimJambones]

I remember two of significance to me.

First one was during my Catholic religion education class in first grade when I asked the instructor what God was made out of and she told me that "He" was a soul, so I asked what a soul looked like. The drawing on the chalkboard resembled something like * combined with #. That left me more confused.

I think the second one was maybe fourth grade, not sure exactly, whenever I first learned and understood the word universe. I asked these questions to myself as I lay awake at night waiting to fall asleep: If God made the universe who made God, and who made God's God? If the universe is something and all things have a boundary that define it, then the universe must have a boundary, so what is beyond that boundary? Since that boundary is also the boundary to what is beyond it, that must have another boundary too, so what was beyond that? It made me of the universe as a sort of matryoshka doll that went on indefinitely. Of course, I couldn't have articulated my thoughts like this at the time, but it best describes the imagery that was going on in my head. These thoughts made my head spin.

 

[ummidk]

@OP question as a child: I remember thinking "Why does anything at all exist? How does something come from nothing?" I mean even when I was a small child and believed in God, the answer of God always has been didn't really work for me living in a Casual universe.

As for your second question: How do you get to Heaven?

I realized my own mortality at age seven, but not in the abstract "Oh, some day I'm going to die" but "I am going to DIE!!". If my mom hadn't indoctrinated me, then I think that I would have proceeded into existential crisis.

-Duxwing

I was raised catholic and I don't specifically remember my belief structure at the time of practicing Catholicism, I don't think I had too much of one, a lot of it was you know you believe what the adults tell you at a very young age, I know I believed in Heaven/Hell though which leads me to my next point. I specifically remember thinking, around the age of 10-11, well if Christianity is false, there is a pretty good chance that someday I'm not going to exist, not just going to die, I realized this prior but I wasn't going to exist at all, the world would carry on, and i just wouldn't be a part of it.

 

[Duxwing]

@Everyone

I think that we can all agree that INTP's are tenacious little philosophers even when armed only with the mental faculties of a small child. If I ever had an INTP kid, then I'd teach him logic, make him swear to disavow my assistance, and send him into a church to argue with the priest.

-Duxwing

 

[Absurdity]

If I ever had an INTP kid, then I'd teach him logic, make him swear to disavow my assistance, and send him into a church to argue with the priest.

-Duxwing

My god. Do you know what those people do to little kids?

 

[Duxwing]

My god. Do you know what those people do to little kids?

You're right, he could be in danger there. I'd give the kid a pocketknife and tell him to shove the thing up the priest's butt if the old fart tried any funny business.

-Duxwing

 

[SpaceYeti]

I'm kind of hoping my daughter is a T. My son is very like me but it seems he's far more emotional than I ever was. He may still be a T, but he bases his decisions on his feelings enough that I have my doubts. My daughter, though only five months old, seems more introverted, with the same intense searching her environment I remember doing. She likes her family, but she's more than content playing with whatever bobble she could reach. She cries and screeches, sure, but only when she's tired or hungry, and those problems tend to get solved when she cries, so... positive reinforcement, yo.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I wondered how could two people(specifically Adam and Eve) be responsible for the human population considering the moral and biological implications of incest. I discovered later that the two stories of creation in the book of Genesis were interpreted as describing the creation of humans in general and creation of Adam and Eve from different perspectives; there were other humans, but they were outside the Garden of Eden.

I wondered if baptism would still be considered legitimate, even though baptism happens at an early age when children don't really understand the nature of what's going on when they accept the Lord as their personal savior.

I wondered if God(Christian) would be forgiving of humans who didn't believe in him, either because of lack of convincing evidence or because there are many other gods that are talked about making it hard to be sure of what's true.


I can't remember any others.

 

[QuickTwist]

Duxwing is correct in answering the second question. Anyone what to geuss the answer to the second question?

My take on philosophy and how it ties in to being an INTP is that INTPs crave organization and this applies to ideas as well as the utility of tools. INTPs need ideas to be layed out in an organized fashion, thoroughly, so that they can identify whether it is accurate or not. If there are flaws, not to be confused by the idea being complex which some other types take as not making sense, then the INTP will be able to disregard the premis for the idea that was brought to their attention.

 

[Philovitist]

First philosophical idea od mine was solipsism. Didn't get over it completely until middle school.

 

[Brontosaurie]

what happens when you die?

how could free will exist?

how could all be several?

 

[Absurdity]

I always wondered why there was something instead of just nothing. Then I would try to imagine what nothingness would look like (contradictory and impossible as that is).

Sometimes I would purposefully try to forget my own societal identity and just exist as a mammal.

Not sure if it's related but I was raised in a strictly Christian household so whenever I was alone and my parents were late coming home or picking me up I always thought the rapture had come and I had been left behind. Seemed much more plausible to me than them just being delayed.

 

[QuickTwist]

Nothingness is truly hard to imagine. In this reality there are always 2 equally opposing criterion. Infinity is also a hard concept to wrap your head around. We (humans) have such a limited view of what truth really is.

It seems like a lot of us struggle with who we are and why are things the way they are. I am curious to know whether any of you think these questions can be answered from a perspective of true reality. Why is it that we can come up with ideas whos meaning eludes us? How do we know it is true? What gague do we use to measure truth?

 

[nanook]

i don't remember my childhood that well. for me this "conclusions from the tinyest amount of information" goes against having questions, i am so creative/speculative, that i may remember speculations, but not questions. i mean, it was always so clear, that no one in my live would add to my understanding, so there was no point in verbalizing questions. "imagination" is kind of visual, silent.

 

[QuickTwist]

You would be correct if all I did was make conclusions with a very small amount of information but even as a child I knew to do my research and ask the right questions. Sometimes I asked to see if my theory was right and sometimes out of pure curiosity.

 

[gilliatt]

At an early age I looked at this world and thought, 'What in the world.' I thought there is something fundamentally wrong here, thinking of this earth/planet. I thought, it is not politics, no, it is (philosophical). I had read the Greeks, Aristotle, Plato, etc when young. Anyway, I was trying to find the 'cause' of the wrong. I read Aristotle, I thought, that is one mind that understands somewhat. Yes, 'Change the World', right. That is a real problem because each mind has to absorb the correct material of knowledge. I thought, I can teach persons the right philosophy, and their minds will do the rest. What is the right philosophy, comprehensive view of life? But people are indifferent to ideas, lots of people do not care about ideas. They are social ballast, they do not care about the world if it goes to hell in a hand basket!! Some of these people, like applying abstract principles to concrete problems and to advocate a consistent course of action. You got to be kidding me!!!!
One more thing, when I went to church, my mother made me go, I saw people praying, I thought, who are we praying to, are we pretending there is someone out there in space listening. At that moment I said to myself, this world is insane, crazy, illogical, irrational and a lot of other words!!

 

[praisetehsun]

When I was about 10 I was still being brought to mass by my school (catholic school in Ireland).
One day I was really quite pissed off about how people would sit in a church asking for what they wanted instead of doing something to get it, and also that people would not ever answer questions about god in any way that made logical sense.
My father is Buddhist and taking from that I lied to the teacher , saying that now I was Buddhist and that there had even been a large ceremony and what not. He let me sit outside with the foreign kids. It was great.
We got to read books on science!

 

[QuickTwist]

The trend of 'having a spiritual awakening' at a young age continues. Very articulately put Gilliatt, and I found that hilarious praisetehsun.

 

[NormannTheDoorman]

"If time keeps things in order is there any free-will?"

That was a question I always asked when I was a child. I sort of stopped asking philosophical questions recently, but the fodder to do so was added again just recently after I watched 'The Lego Movie'.


What made me ask the question again was the ending.

Everything Emmet did was controlled by the child and father, but he had some degree of 'free-will'.

When I was a christian I always asked the question about free-will.


God created man with free-will. But He already knows what is going to happen.


Is free-will the lack of any 4 dimensional sense?


I could add more but I need to organize my thoughts before I continue.

 

[QuickTwist]

Well I will say that based off of the thinking that time keeps everything in order naturally conflicts with the idea of free will. Two separate ideas clashing and clawing to make their way to the surface. In your case (and many others) the idea that time is the real and only way to measure whether or not anyone really has any choice is the one that ends up not drowning while the other argument cannot escape from the depths of the undertow.

The other thing to consider is that if everyone has free will, why is it that some have never had the gospel preached to them? Isn't this unfair to those who do not know who Christ is and what destiny awaits them in the afterlife?

I would say that eventually the people of even the most fundamental faith will eventually adopt the view that there is no hell and that all dogs go to heaven. Then again there is a lot of money to be made on the fear of Hell. I will never be able to see the day when this happens though.

 

[NormannTheDoorman]

The other thing to consider is that if everyone has free will, why is it that some have never had the gospel preached to them? Isn't this unfair to those who do not know who Christ is and what destiny awaits them in the afterlife?

Another reason why I disagree with the whole 'God has a purpose for you'.