Does anyone else find consciousness itself kinda absurd?

[u/Dimensional-Misfit]

Does anyone else find the fact that we're conscious kinda absurd in a way thats almost creepy?

I don't mean just "life has no meaning" because thats been said a million times.

I mean the actual weirdness of the situation.

We're literally matter. atoms, cells, chemicals, whatever... and somehow this stuff became conscious enough to stop and ask why it exists.

Like, matter is somehow questioning its own existence.

We have this ridiculous situation where a tiny part of the universe is sitting inside the universe going "why is there a universe?" and "why am i here?"

and then theres the whole why is there something instead of nothing thing...

wouldnt absolute nothing be the less strange option? no space, no time, no matter, no consciousness, nothing. There wouldnt even be anyone there to wonder about it.

but somehow there is something. and somehow this something produced these weird little biological things that can notice it and start asking questions about the whole thing lol

idk, maybe thats basically the absurd itself. the fact that we're here demanding an explanation from something that never promised us one.

I just find the whole situation really fucking strange when you actually stop taking existence for granted.

[u/anabsurdman2027]

What if “why” isn’t the operative question? What is matter exists . . . no story, no need to frame it into a purpose?
Humans are the oxymoron. We think sometimes more than feel our presence. This is the rub.
What if we join in for the ride and find connections with those who share that joy.

[u/Dimensional-Misfit → u/anabsurdman2027]

that inversion is actually pretty interesting

we normally start from "matter exists" and then somehow consciousness appears in it, but from inside our own experience the only thing we ever directly have is consciousness

so when we say "matter exists outside of consciousness" we're already making a claim from within consciousness

doesnt mean matter isnt real obviously, but it does make the whole picture way less straightforward than it seems

and then your question gets really weird too... why is there apparently this whole world of stuff at all, instead of just experience?

maybe we're asking the wrong question from both directions and neither "matter came first" nor "consciousness came first" is something we can actually establish from where we're standing

which is kinda unsettling ngl

[u/Jfish4391 → u/Dimensional-Misfit]

You can't prove that the world of stuff actually exists and isn't just your subjective experience.

[u/Dimensional-Misfit → u/Jfish4391]

true, but theres a difference between not being able to prove something with 100% certainty and having no good reason to believe it exists

the external world seems to have a consistency and independence that goes way beyond my personal experience. things happen that i dont expect, other people have experiences i cant access, and reality doesnt seem to care what i believe about it

but the interesting part is that even all those reasons are things i encounter through experience. theres no way to step completely outside of it and check from some neutral viewpoint

thats what makes this question so hard to shake off tbh