What will you/I/we NEVER understand?

[Antinor01]

@cmyk

:dubious:

I’m a little skeptical that you have a hard time understanding it. Nothing personal, but you even stated in this very post the understanding: Procreation = the persistence of our species. You, in all honesty, can’t fathom the fact that there might be some inborn instinct on the majority of the population to desire having offspring? Besides, even if you personally don’t see the lure of having kids, surely you’ve met people who genuinely love being parents, and love children. It’s a very strong, innate human element that seems to be the essential factor in life and evolution. There’s a practical side to that libido, y’know.

I don’t personally understand it, though I get that other people have it and do understand it. Like I said, I see that procreation is needed to perpetuate the species, but I don’t understand why that is such a necessary thing. I know the instinct exists in others (or at least I’ve been told that it does) but I don’t get that instinct. I can sort of see it on an intellectual level, but I don’t really equate that with understanding.

I guess it boils down to I get the mechanism and the how, but the heart of it…the why just doesn’t seem to gell with me.

[joyfool]

@Anne Neville

Ah, it may be my isolation from a lot of pop culture at work here. Never seen Poltergeist or It. I wasn’t allowed to watch stuff like that as a kid, and now I’m just not motivated enough to go rent them on DVD. I used to try to catch up on watching stuff I missed as a kid, but all I learned was that a lot of these things don’t age particularly well. (Maybe I would have been allowed to watch It at age 15, but my parents had control of the TV (no remote yet, but they picked the channel to watch), and I never found out about it.)

This is what spawned an entire generation of clown haters, if you’re just dying to see what all the hoopla is about that you missed.
And thanks for reply Lobsang. Glad to know I hadn’t derailed your thread much.

[Lobsang]

@Antinor01

I don’t personally understand it, though I get that other people have it and do understand it. Like I said, I see that procreation is needed to perpetuate the species, but I don’t understand why that is such a necessary thing. I know the instinct exists in others (or at least I’ve been told that it does) but I don’t get that instinct. I can sort of see it on an intellectual level, but I don’t really equate that with understanding.

I guess it boils down to I get the mechanism and the how, but the heart of it…the why just doesn’t seem to gell with me.

It may or may not help you, but I would reccomend reading the Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins.

it kind of says that humans/animals are simply survival ‘machines’ for genes. And he explains why genes erm… continue themselves.

But I can’t remember he explanation. It’s been a while since I read half the book (I haven’t finished it yet)

[Antinor01]

@Lobsang

It may or may not help you, but I would reccomend reading the Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins.

it kind of says that humans/animals are simply survival ‘machines’ for genes. And he explains why genes erm… continue themselves.

But I can’t remember he explanation. It’s been a while since I read half the book (I haven’t finished it yet)

I haven’t read that book, but I’ve heard similar explanations. That adds to the intellectual side, but not the overall understanding. (I’ve realized I’m probably using understanding in a little different way than you are)

[Hampshire]

I will never understand the thought process of people like the ones in this thread about registering guns.
I mean I knew there were some hardcore gun lovers out there whose motto is “When they pry it from my cold dead hands” who think we are consistently on the edge of the government swooping in to take everyone’s guns away and once they do that “THEY” have control and “WE” are helpless but I didn’t realize there were sooo many.
Is there really this prevelent fear of the government out there amongst gun owners? As if the only thing keeping them from complete and total control of our lives is the fact that some people own guns?
I really don’t understand this mind set.

[Lobsang]

@Hampshire

I will never understand the thought process of people like the ones in this thread about registering guns.
I mean I knew there were some hardcore gun lovers out there whose motto is “When they pry it from my cold dead hands” who think we are consistently on the edge of the government swooping in to take everyone’s guns away and once they do that “THEY” have control and “WE” are helpless but I didn’t realize there were sooo many.
Is there really this prevelent fear of the government out there amongst gun owners? As if the only thing keeping them from complete and total control of our lives is the fact that some people own guns?
I really don’t understand this mind set.

I have to agree with you here. As an outsider I have a hard time understanding the whole idea that ‘the right to bear arms’ means you MUST ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO OR YOU’RE AN EVIL FAILURE OF A SCUMWORTHY HUMAN BEING. And you have to have a gun in case the govornment come for you… to me that’s no different from tin-foil hat craziness.
I’ve heard that under manx law I am Legally obliged to shoot scotsmen on sight. Doesn’t mean I’m going to.

[ChiefScott]

@Lobsang

It’s incompatible with how zips work. At the bottom a zip is permanently connected. If you zipped from the top, the top of you pants couldn’t open. you wouldn’t be able to get them on.

Yet we have “opening” zippers all the time on jackets and such.

[Lobsang]

@ChiefScott

Yet we have “opening” zippers all the time on jackets and such.

They connect at the bottom. A pant zipper is permanently connected at the bottom.

I realize that the mechanics could be reversed to produce a zipper that you can connect at the top then zip down, but it seems combersome to me

[Thudlow_Boink]

The “My mother has a gambling problem” thread in the Pit reminded me of something I’ll never understand on a gut level, even though I basically do intellectually: Addictions. Why people choose to do things that are so obviously and profoundly against their own self-interest.

[gravitycrash]

I’ll second or third the origin of the Big Bang. What the hell was there before that, nothing? Ok what does nothing look like? Is it gray, total darkness, something that looks like a heavy fog?
It makes my small chimp brain hurt.

[ivylass]

People who brag about how little they read. I cannot wrap my head around that concept…how can you NOT want to read?

[Helen_s_Eidolon]

Foucault.