Did you have Philosophical thoughts before the age of Five?

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Did you have Philosophical thoughts before the age of Five?
yes 94%  94%  [ 46 ]
no 6%  6%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 49

Danielismyname
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24 Jan 2008, 3:17 am

Sifr wrote:
I do recall questioning the historicity of Jesus and the Bearded Man Upstairs,...


I drew the comparison between the power of Jesus and "God"; and the power of Yoda and the force at an early age.

Yoda won--lifting up an X-wing snubfighter from a bog has everything on healing the blind; also, Vader's, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the force thingy clinched it over "God".



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24 Jan 2008, 3:57 am

I asked a lot of hard questions and poked holes in my parents' religion before I was 5. By 6 or 7, I realized that my senses couldn't prove conclusively that the world was real. It led to recurring dreams where my entire life was an alien experiment, and they were feeding sensory information directly into my brain to study my responses. I freaked out the first time I saw The Matrix years later because of it :D



i_Am_andaJoy
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24 Jan 2008, 5:19 am

yes. i remember one occasion in particular-- getting upset and crying because i couldn't figure out if god was inside my head or controlling me or if i really had free-will because i couldn't think of a way to tell if i was really just a robot or not. this was before i went to school, so i was age 5 or less.


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AngelUndercover
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24 Jan 2008, 6:30 am

I've been having philosophical thoughts for as long as I can remember.



Phagocyte
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24 Jan 2008, 6:38 am

Oh yes, I think it's actually rather natural in early childhood. Children tend to be questioning and curious.



Odin
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24 Jan 2008, 9:56 am

I didn't start the thoughts about existential questions like "why an I here" until the teenage angst hit, though when I was a kid I did often think about metaphysical questions like "Do numbers REALLY exist? or "if you remodel a building one piece at a time until none of the original material remains is it still the same house?".


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sartresue
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24 Jan 2008, 10:28 am

Thoughting about life topic

I remember being put down for a nap in my mother's bedroom when I was four and a half and I was looking at my reflection in a big shiny convex gold doorknob as I was lying in the bed and realizing how small I was. (I stiil have the colour memory of this episode in my mind.) I knew I was a lot bigger than that but I also knew a person was a person no matter how small. Later I could really relate to the Horton Hears a Who book by Dr. Seuss.

Lots of little philosophers in this phorum!


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24 Jan 2008, 11:13 am

I find it hard to pinpoint when things happened in the past when it comes to thoughts. I can remember events happening before i was 5 and I remember feelings, but not really thoughts. So my answer is, I don't know.



mikebw
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24 Jan 2008, 1:24 pm

I'll have to say yes, but it wasn't a question I think I asked myself all on my own. My dad was trying to get me "saved" at the ripe age of 4, being the Baptist that he was, and in trying to reason with me to get me to accept Christ, it was one of the many unanswerable questions he fielded me. He basically got me saved by causing me to doubt and to fear the unknown. I accepted Christ at 5, was baptized of my own accord at 9.

Me and my dad got in many rather one sided arguments, if I pressed the issue he exploded in a fit of rage and his word was law, what he said was true was true("Do what I say, not what I do", was a favorite quote of his) and I was nothing but a little kid who knew nothing, therefore he was always right :help: So, seeing that keeping my thoughts to myself was the easier course, that's what I did, while outwardly going with the general flow.

My parents did the whole Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy thing too. I just couldn't fathom them being real. And of course, being the night owl I am and the sneaky Indian I was, I saw them putting our presents under the tree and I was pretending to be asleep when my mom traded my tooth for money. So I "knew" that it wasn't Santa or the Fairy, but I played along for their sake. :wink:



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24 Jan 2008, 2:04 pm

i questioned god and religion.
i questioned the right to authority given to authority (not sure if that sentence makes sense *shrugs*)

i also remember clearly between the ages of 5 - 10 of having strong and discriminatory thoughts/views towards adults for various reasons.



MikeH106
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24 Jan 2008, 2:16 pm

It was around that age that I asked my father who created God.


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markaudette
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24 Jan 2008, 2:20 pm

I can vividly remember being in Kindergarten at age 5 and seeing all the kids around me crying and balling their eyes out. Screaming that they wanted their parents. And I swear to you that I disctinctly remember thinking to myself the ENTIRE time I was in Kindergarten "These stupid kids are so immature. They're such babies." I swear to you that I knew what the word immature meant at age 5. I was so embarrassed being around so many kids screaming and crying. I was a little scared during my first few weeks in Kindergarten myself. But I didn't react to it like all the other kids.

I think I was about 6 years old when I finally figured out Santa wasn't real. I just did all the math and figured out there was no way a man could stuff himself down every single chimney or front door of every house in the entire world (or Christian countries!) in an 8 hour time span. I started asking a lot of people how Santa could do it. And when no two people could come up with an aswer even remotely similar to each other, I knew something funny was going on.

Take the song "Thunder" by Fleetwood Mac. There's a line in there that goes "Thunder only happens when it's raining. Players only love you when their playing." And being a 6 year old kid, I knew exactly what that line was talking about. I knew it meant that a person like a musician, artist, gambler or (as the song likes to imply literally) a ladie's man all are only really alive emotionally when they're doing what they are best at - what they're born to do or what they love to do the most. An artist is only alive while doing his or her art. A musician is only alive while performing. And a lady-playing schuck is only alive when he's breaking someone's heart. (You have to take into account the song was written as stab at Stevie Nick's breakup with band mate Lindsey Buckingham.) And even as a young kid I knew there must have been problems with someone's life to have written a song like that.



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24 Jan 2008, 2:42 pm

I typed this out painstakingly when I was four, and it's still on our refrigerator:

"I was the only one who thought about it. That once I was a little child and when I will be an adult. But now I am a child full of strength, love, imagination, thinking and memory."

Clearly, I was not the only one who thought about it, but I guess maybe it felt that way when I was four.


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28 Jan 2008, 1:48 am

My mom tells me I told her when I was 4 that I didn't believe in the easter bunny, but santa was probably real, but I knew the guy at the mall was a fat guy in a fake beard because I could see the cloth back to it. Now this was before Christmas so she figures I had decided the hell with the whole lot of 'em but I probably was afraid not to get my presents.



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28 Jan 2008, 3:05 am

Its difficult to remember my thoughts on Santa that far back,
but i do distinctly remember killing a mosquito and thinking
"I'm as dead as you but just not yet"

I tried to use it in a haiku
"A mosquito bites Slap it dies
surely I am a dead man"
without knowing what the rules for haikus were.


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whitedragon
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28 Jan 2008, 7:02 am

don't swat the fly!
praying hands
praying feet
Issa, translated by D.G.Lanoue

Little Fly,
Thy summer's play
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
W. Blake

Excuse me for doble digression (not on topic, not about mosquitos). Couldn't resist it.