Whether it’s some rare invention or a thing that happened to you, some things, no matter how real, might appear as if they’re straight out of fiction.
There are times when it can be very exhausting to try to convince someone else to believe in something that you’re sure is true. So, when someone online asked what those things are, people flooded the comment section with the answers, and you can read them all below!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
How depression can make it impossible to do things. I once made a custom knife for a friend, wrapped and boxed it, then let it sit there for well over a month before I was finally able to mail it. Intellectually I know that it’s a very simple task to tape on an address label and drive it five minutes to the post office, but I absolutely COULD NOT DO IT. I would get irrationally mad at myself for being unable to complete such a mundane and simple task, and yet I still couldn’t do it. That kind of mental roadblock was impossible for me to understand myself, let alone anyone who hasn’t experienced it.
How crippling the pain from menstrual cramps can be. I have endometriosis and it's absolute hell. My sister does too. I'm child free but she told me that when she was in labor the first time, she didn't even realize because it wasn't as painful as her period cramps on endo. She asked the nurse when it would start and the nurse looked at her with raised eyebrows and was like "ummm like an hour ago." And yet I've had an actual doctor laugh in my face at the idea of getting medicine to help with the pain for my cramps.
Nobody takes it seriously. It really, really sucks. I f*****g dread my periods bc I can pretty much count on there being one or two days out of every ~29 or 30 when I can barely even stand up. I have to save any sick time or time off for those days if they fall during the work week. But everyone is so dismissive about it.
Edit: wow so many supportive comments and information about treatment strategies! I feel more validated than I ever have for this suffering. Thank you everyone and anyone else reading this who suffers like this, there are so many really helpful and validating comments below.
Turn signals. They work on my car; surely they MUST work on other cars.
Mental health issues. It's amazing to me how many people think the brain, the most complicated structure in the known universe, is the only organ that's *not* capable of malfunctioning.
Incurable diseases. I have multiple sclerosis and I hear a lot of things day to day like "You're just too dedicated to your diagnosis", or "have you tried the Wahls diet" or "have you taken magnesium supplements" or "you need to be more positive" or my favorite "It's OK, god has a plan".
Having experienced the actual thing degrading my brain for eight years, done high dose chemo and a bone marrow transplant, and poisoned my immune system over 200 separate times... I can definitively say that some processes (death, degenerative neurological diseases, autoimmunity, etc) are unavoidable and something people don't always actually have the power to beat regardless of the amount of positive thinking, dieting, or exercise one does.
EDIT: I just want to point out how multiple people have replied back to try to convince me that my condition is curable, or recommending treatments that I have already done and failed. Quite literally proving my point. 😆
EDIT: One person has interpreted my comments in this thread as me saying that any attempt to treat a chronic illness is hopeless or meaningless. This is not what I was intending to say (hopefully that is obvious). I am merely stating that many people have health conditions they can't fix or control despite best efforts, and that this experience is real and they deserve to have that experience respected.
Autoimmune sufferer, I completely feel this. OP is absolutely right - there are days you simply. Can. Not. Function. and "mood" and "attitude" have NOTHING to do with what is physically happening, and yet people... and that's all I'm going to say. People.
That people living in the late stages of dementia are still people with valid feelings and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity .
Restless Leg Syndrome.
People think it's just being a little uncomfortable and not finding a good position to sleep in. It's actually an uncontrollable urge to move your legs that feels almost like muscle spasms and it is absolutely maddening.
Weirdly, if my cat is sleeping on my bed, I can pat him and it makes it stop. I have no idea why.
Because cats are magical creatures worthy of worship. But seriously their purr is at s vibration believed to have calming properties, this is why a cat in pain or under stress will sometimes purr.
You can't get autism, it's a neurodevelopment disorder, you are either born with it or you don't have it. Vaccines can't give you autism, medicaments won't give you or your baby autism, however genetics will, bang an autistic person and you will likely have autistic babies. When the baby has it, likely someone else in the family has it as well.
Corporate greed. People saying costs are up because they are forced to pay better than slave wages, but still making record profits
❌ The wages are stagnant even though corporations report record profits. ✅ The wages are stagnant BECAUSE corporations report record profits.
Being unable to force myself to do something with adhd. It is like I'm physically restrained when I try to force myself to do something at times.
Human contribution to climate change. I worked in a lab for a couple years for my undergrad in geophysics. Most of the data was brought back by a team of professors and grad students who took yearly trips to Antarctica. Climate change turning into a political issue is a sin I can never forgive humanity for.
Ignored by successive governments worldwide, actions substituted by lipservice, sorry kids you inherit a burnt out husk
That when you chase the validation of others, the only thing you get is tired.
Facts. Sometimes you don't know what they are, then you do. There are facts you know and others don't. And facts others know and you don't. That's ok. Be willing to learn and teach.
There are facts right now that NO human knows. Someday we'll learn what some of them are.
And even if you don't like them, that doesn't make them not-facts, or opinions.
Reality is what it is, whether or not you're willing to admit it.
I like this :) it’s like - if we wanted to prove the sky was blue, how would we go about doing that? We’d run an experiment (say, a bunch of people looking at the sky and recording what colour they see). Then we’d share the details (guess what, everyone saw blue!) and come to a conclusion (the sky is probably blue). And there would still be people fighting it and saying “why would you blindly trust science like that you idiots” and all sorts of cringy stuff. Maybe someday we’ll find out the sky is actually Blorange and we just don’t have the eye receptors to see Blorange. Stay open-minded and always be willing to learn and change your mind! Blorange is still Blorange whether you believe in it or not.
The utter meaninglessness of humans in the overall fabric of the universe.
Why is it depressing that there's no "meaning" to life? We create our own meaning.
The amount of people that don't know narwhals are actual animals
Increasing taxes on a higher tax bracket doesn’t mean 100% of your income is taxed at that rate the second you enter it.
Yes, one can always tell people who've never been in the higher tax bracket - they worry about being worse off if they get a raise.
The government is not spying on you, but you are giving away way more information than the government cares about to advertisers and loyalty programs so you can save $.50 on Doritos...cool ranch of course
Most of us are don't have an interesting enough life to be spied on all the time. What will they see, honestly?
OCD can be a lot more debilitating than people realize.
And OCD isn't just organizing your room ten times a day. I have frequent problems like when I twitch one foot I must twitch the other, and I also try to avoid certain words like "just". Also I don't ever want to clean my room because I know where everything is, even though it's messy.
Most Americans already pay for other people’s medical care through their health insurance policy, yet a lot seem to think that being taxed is what will cause them to pay for other people.
The sensation of deja vu, whether real or not.
I get these sometimes, particularly from dreams. One I remember was when I was around 10, I had a dream where I walk into my backyard. There was a table full of items. I reach into an open shoebox, and pull out a business card for a shoe store. I remember as a kid I found the dream to be weird, and that dream stuck with me for awhile. I would occasionally remember it. A few years later, there was a major earthquake. There was an inspector going through our house check for damages, so we had to move stuff out of the house. I was bored, so I was walking the house, and I went into the backyard. Déjà vu. Really freaked me out. Apparently that shoebox was originally stored in my dad's closet for years, from his old job he hadn't worked for a decade.
I have celiac disease. This one really gets me because I have every medical test under the sun to prove it. Yet I still deal with constant comments, "Why is everyone allergic to gluten all of a sudden?" "Oh it's so trendy to not eat gluten."
There are always (unnecessary) trends, and not all of them need to keep away from gluten? And when they cheat/change the diet people start to wonder? Or just the ordinary story of haters, "I'm not celiac, so neigher are you!" or "No one was celiac when I was little, so there can't be no advancement in healtcare/understanding of the human body after 1960!", or, "everybode have problem with gluten, man up"... 🤷♂️
That a bird once flew through the open windows of my car, straight through and out the other side, while I was driving at highway speeds. I was alone in the car and I swear it happened.
My reaction, "Did that just happen?"
With a bit of luck, you may be accompanied by ducks and geese on the country roads where I live, taking advantage of the slipstream of the cars...imagine, looking out of your side windows, gently startled by 'em...you don't need to panic because they won't hit your car or something ...👍🏼...it must be like swimming with dolphins, I suppose...
That much of what we “remember” isn’t real. The brain is a sieve, losing memories. It fills in holes of knowledge with assumptions, interpolations, & justifications.
This might off the vein a little but my answer is:
Bad things can happen to your child as a direct result of your negligence. People truly don't believe that their child could be internally decapitated, mangled, or die of internal injuries because you didn't enforce the right kind of car seat or even a seat belt. Children 3-8 are the largest demographic I've seen that are injured in car accidents as a direct result of being improperly restrained. And people don't believe it. They don't believe that not doing any child restraint research, and lacking in their own due diligence can lead to their child's death.
Source: paramedic.
In Canada, the rules are now that no matter what your child's age is they must be in a booster seat if they are min. 4'9" or at least 9 years old. All kids under 6 years old, and under 40lbs have to be in a car seat. The biggest struggle is convincing older family members who refuse to update their knowledge of child safety because "back in the good ol' days we rode in the box of the truck and we survived."
That nuclear energy is actually the cleanest most powerful way to power a community. People hear the word “nuclear” and freak out. They think that somehow they have a bomb sitting in their community. They think Chernobyl is the norm. In reality, there were a lot of things that led up to the Chernobyl disaster that would not happen in any of the modern nuclear reactors that provide power to much of the world. With good regulation, safety, standards and upgrades, nuclear power is clean, plentiful, cheap, and efficient. But people get so freaked out by the word “nuclear” they assume it’s bad and they’ll put oil in the furnace instead😑
Concrete Boats. Rare, but they do exist.
Everyone I tell thinks I'm winding them up
Me when I tell people I have Aphantasia (I cant picture things in my head) and vice versa when people tell me they can picture things in their heads
One of my kids has this. I don't know if there is duch thing as hyperphantasia but if there is I lean that way. I find is so asy to picture things to the smell, taste etc that I feel like I am there or am holding something.
lucid dreams
I finally had one where I became aware I was dreaming. I knew I could wake up easily so I had to be careful to stay in the dream state, Everything around me was psychedelically colorful and I could feel the ground beneath my feet. Then I was like, "I can do anything! What should I do?" So I tried flying because it was the first thing that came to my mind, but struggled with going forward. Then I lost it and I guess went back into normal sleep. I haven't managed to repeat the experience. Wish I had thought of something better than flying
Extraterrestrial Life exists.
We haven’t met them yet, but they are out there.
If you were looking at this planet from a distance, you'd give a big swerve if you were in the neighborhood.
I believe most people aren't actually working in offices and we're all sitting here trying to fake eachother out with the goal of seeming necessary.
The tangible and intangible benefits of exercise.
Why is she doing her yoga on the floor next to the spare yoga mat?
Energy. When someone is looking at you, you somehow sense it and look back no matter how far they are from you.
How absolutely weird this universe is.
Like I'm not religious but the universe actually just doesn't make any sense.
What the hell are quantum physics? Why is there so much mass? What is Dark energy? Why do things just seem to work completely different when you go to atomic levels?
Like every single aspect of physics is a deep rabbit hole of weirdness and contrivances. We have to keep coming up with isoteric rules and equations to come close to describing the weird phenomena we see. Yet... without these weird quantum mechanics interactions, without gravity just oddly being weaker then the other three forces, without all the constants being finely tuned the way they are, without the rules of physics just coming up out of nowhere after the big bang.... there wouldn't be life.
That's before even getting into the really weird s**t like the fact our meat computers are conscious. Like that didn't have to happen. It is reasonable to expect that even if life came about, humans could just be philisophical zombies and nothing would change. But we aren't. And that's before all the other really weird stuff like dreams and near death experiences etc.
And weirdest of all:
Why does it exist at all?
This all leads me to believe that there is something more to all of this. All arguments against this don't hold any water imo. I think the anthropic principle is bogus as well. But nobody seems to care to talk about any of this or just pretend like nothing is weird about existence.
This is why I believe in God. Many of these reasons and many more past these. The science part can be deviated forever ( which I will happily do with anyone for any amount of time because I love talking bout this and all the strange hinge of universe). However, one cannot assume meaning ( individual or collective) without also assuming a God. Just like how money needs precious metal to back it up, meaning needs some authority behind it to be worth something. Otherwise meaning is simply an implied feature that has no effect on anything outside our perceived reality. So if you believe in meaning and purpose then you believe in some type of intelligent design. This doesn’t have to be a certain religion but it does mean you believe in some time of intelligent starts and sentient plan to the universe.
On the opposite side, this is why I don't believe in God. As we've continued to study the universe-including Earth herself-we keep seeing more and more the inner workings of nature. The answers run deep, and it's fascinating seeing the facts come to light. There's magic in science; the so-called supernatural isn't needed to explain it.
Load More Replies...
There doesn’t need to be a why. It just does. No god, no higher authority, no need for a reason at all. We exist, it’s just how the universe works. The need for a who or why or whatever is a construction of the human mind. God/s come and go like buses, don’t like this one? Wait a few hundred years and another one will be along soon enough. The current crop of gods are pretty poor, humans have used and abused them to kill, destroy, harm and control. Move on, accept that the universe is to be explored but not necessarily understood and get working on making this little corner of it a nicer place to be. Accept it is what it is and it doesn’t need a purpose or a creator, our frailties don’t need to be accommodated.
Lol just funny fr Really good points. First of all I won’t be accepting gods are bad because people do bad things in their name. Yeah people could do terrible things in my name but I’m no the problem. If you haven’t noticed people are f****d up. So yeah. Why so many religions? Amazing question. Most religions say that they were separated at some point which led to different Memories or ideas of the first god. I’m Christian, and we have the Tower of Babel. I can’t argue the why, that is a personal question. Augments above were based to people who believed in meaning without a god. Meaning is a personal thing and I can’t argue that.There are many theories and ideas to state that it does need a creator and quantum physics show us that the universe needs consciousness to work properly. Fine tuning and the incredible “ luck” of life and the lack of an explanation to the jump from life to non life to life are only a few things that might need an intelligent designer.
Load More Replies...
I've always kind of hoped that when we die there is some form of consciousness remaining that would get answers to all that. Not likely, but one could hope.
Theoretically consciousness is just your brain filled with a certain amount, and certain kind of electrical signals with its own individual exact information, so it’s completely possible that after death this is extracted by a form of higher consciousness, and taken to a new realm, and this is where we get the idea of an afterlife, there’s not much hope without some type of higher consciousness, or God, because there is nothing to hold the consciousness or soul of a human together, so most likely, if there is no forms of higher consciousness, or a God, then death is the end however, if higher consciousness exists, or if the universe is a form of intelligent design, created by a god, then most likely an afterlife does exist
Load More Replies...
Absolutely. This needs to be upvoted higher. Quantum weirdness and General Relativity weirdness are both extreme, and they don't even agree with one another. I have an idea that the split between QM and GR occurred in the early universe as a result of the split between time and temperature. I also have an idea that Quantum weirdness isn't so weird, we're just using the wrong (Cantor) definition of infinity instead of the correct (Conway) definition. As for where all this weirdness came from, evolution seems to be the simplest answer. Complicated universes evolve from simpler ones.
The fact that you ask questions about existence shows that as a race, we are still learning. Each time we get an answer to a question it raises more questions. The universe is infinite and time as a constant is infinite. Each discovery made shifts the universe in imperceivably subtle ways that causes new paths to growth and more discoveries to an extent that old theories and discoveries will be no longer relevant or correct. It's quite mind boggling when you think about the possibilities of one decision in your life and how it affects everyone and everything
I find it fascinating to talk about. One of my personal theories is we have the laws of physics all wrong. Everything obeys the laws until it gets near a black hole, then the laws cease to exist?... The ancient Greeks believing that the earth was the center of the solar system made a formula that explained the movement of the planets. We know now it wasn't correct, but it answered the question they had & made sense to them.
The Greeks developed a system of epicycles that explained the motions of the Sun, Moon and planets. It worked very well for around 2000 years. I'm not even convinced that it's "wrong", but it's making calculations with the assumption that Earth is fixed in space. This is a valid choice of reference frame, but it certainly makes some calculations much harder. I'm curious if some of our current problems will require a similar "change of reference frame" to find solutions that more readily handle our observations. We will look back and wonder how we could have ever come up with such stupid answers :p
Load More Replies... 
Yes, it's the argument from incredulity, a known fallacy.
Load More Replies...
We're "blessed" and cursed in our search for meaning. I got overwhelmed with these concepts too, but instead of turning to an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent imaginary friend to soothe my insecurities, I realized much smarter people could explain things, in a simplistic way, so I could wrap my head around them. These people can turn complex concepts into rational cause and effect scenarios that made it okay for me not to know the finer points, because I can count on someone else to grasp reality, when things become too large (so where's the end) and too small (so where's the beginning). Brian C*x and Neil deGrasse Tyson are good at this. I think believing in intelligent design is a cop out and truly cheapens the wonder and circumstances that enabled existence, and if we always used intelligent design when real answers are difficult to find, we wouldn't solve any problems because people are vein/hopeful enough to believe there's divine providence, there's not, and that's okay...
This argument assumes that this is the only universe that has ever existed or will ever exist.
Yes it does. Most physicists agree that despite what modern media tells you that a multiverse is unlikely and currently we have no way to prove it and no evidence of one.
Load More Replies... For me, God exists because I can't explain love. How can I love someone to the point of even being willing to die for them? That is, the brain and instinct would lead to survival without any second thoughts, and instead....
Love exists to engender a more stable/advantageous environment for offspring, thus increasing their chance of survival.
Load More Replies...
"Why does it exist at all?" This is a huge assumption. "Nothing" doesn't exist (weird I know, but true). So the assumption that nothing is the natural state is the error.
Study philosophy and focus on metaphysics and you can discuss this stuff with super engaged people for the rest of your life.
This is true. Philosophers specialising in metaphysics know more about pure mathematics than Pure Mathematicians.
Load More Replies...
I like to think it's all a chain of events that starts small and builds up. Things become more complex and complicated over time until they either collapse and start up again or don't.
The need to believe that there is a reason or guiding force is not evidence that those things exist.
Sure, this is just a BoredPanda post and I hope you didn’t take it as serious evidence. But there is plenty of serious evidence that these things exist, would you like me to share some links with you? Tbh I always thought the small-minded religious worldview was kinda sad because they’d never be able to enjoy these amazing quirky perfect wonders of the universe and physics that the rest of us can marvel at, simply because they’re not listed in their 2000-year-old rule book. There’s some mind-blowing stuff out there - according to the bible, God created the rules of the universe too, didn’t He? Why can’t we celebrate those? (And I’m not religious at all, but there have definitely been physics lessons that have made me consider the presence of an omniconscious being - physics is the most convincing church I’ve ever been to! Some really amazing and unexplainable phenomena, kind of sad some religions don’t want to give their god credit for that and consider it “impossible” and “lies” - our species would probably be so much farther along without them)
Load More Replies...
Look into chemistry, it's even weirder and more special. Starting with water, so amazing.
So, your lack of information demands the intellectual equivalent of sweeping it under the rug. I guess Voltaire was right.
Physics is modern man's need to explain the world in a scientific, non-religious way. I really don't think the universe cares either way.
The non believers in deities are going to get downvoted big time here.
If you think that the size of the universe is mind blowing, think about this. Everything has to be held by something else. Goldfish in a bowl, bowl in a room, room in a house, house on a planet, planet in a galaxy, galaxy in the universe. BUT WTHAT IS ON THE OUTSIDE AND HOLDING THE UNIVERSE?????
On theory I like to ponder is what if we are part of a giant being. each solar system is simply an atom.
"It" exists because of the Life Force. Life creates itself. No need for a prime mover. And yes our spirit does not die.
Ok so you are still describing a god just in a different view
Load More Replies... I do not think that word means what you think it means. Isoteric - having the same number of valence electrons in the same configuration but differing in the kinds and numbers of atoms.
My husband and I saw Richard Clark forcibly kissing a young ingenue on his New Year's Eve show. We both saw it, even though they cut quickly away. Nobody believes us.
Basic Economics.
This should be much higher. I believe they ended compulsory economics studies from public schools in the US so people would no longer be able to understand what those in power are doing...and it's lead to conspiracy theories to fill holes where knowledge should be.
The power of a large amount of people to get together to make a positive change.
Most people think you can’t change things, or even gather people together for one purpose for that matter.
But I think you could, if you **really** wanted to. Only issue is nobody is SOO motivated that they motivate others nowadays.
Even motivational speakers need motivational speakers nowadays. And it shows when we watch them. Nobody can just simply take pride in who or what they are anymore, it has all become a unending competition of “who is best”.
The Conservatives have tried their level best to ban the right of protest in the UK.
A lot of these were either wrong or fallacies, or are a more nuanced situation then just yes or no.
Most of these are spot on correct. In contrast to other similar lists where a 50% correct rate is common.
Load More Replies...
A lot of these were either wrong or fallacies, or are a more nuanced situation then just yes or no.
Most of these are spot on correct. In contrast to other similar lists where a 50% correct rate is common.
Load More Replies... 