If you're a parent or you work with children, you've probably been asked at least one question that you initially brushed off as silly, but then later went "...oh wait..."
Sometimes, it's the questions that seem the dumbest that can send you down the rabbit hole of thought. Entire schools of philosophical thought can be built on the back of just a few seemingly-stupid questions.
Reddit user Newgatsbyfitness asked:
What's a question so stupid it gets more complex the more you think about it?
The responses... well ... they certainly got us thinking.
Lemon
Why does store-bought lemonade have imitation flavoring, but furniture polish contains real lemon juice?
Does It Flam?
Flammable, inFlammable, noninFlammable Why are there 3? Either a thing Flams or it doesnt!
- Seiren-
A Pile
GiphyHow many grains of sand do you need to make a pile?
Are you guys seriously expecting me to believe that if someone pointed and said 'look at that pile of sand' and it was just 4 grains, stuck together in a pyramid, you'd be all 'Yeah, that's a reasonable usage of the word pile'?
That's not a pile - that's just some sand.
Sunglasses
Why are most cartoon suns drawn wearing sunglasses? What are they protecting their eyes from?
- -eDgAR-
Who's In Control?
On the Ricky Gervais show Karl Pilkington once came out with: "Do you control your brain or does it control you?"
They mocked him but damn that made me hmm.
- minxamo8
Colors
Are we seeing the different colors in our brains but using the same word to name them? Like is my blue a different thing from your blue?
- Rallak
The Crane Conundrum
How are cranes built? Immediate answer is with cranes. But how was the first one built?
Green Ranger
Why does the Green Ranger have a dagger that was a flute, that sounded like a synthesizer that's trying to sound like a trumpet? And he blew into it with his helmet on.
The Upside Of A Sloth
GiphyI once saw a nature documentary say that sloths spend 80% of their lives upside down. That just sounds to me like we're wrong about which is the upside of a sloth.
The Speed Of Dark
My grandpa used to always ask me how fast light travels. If I could remember the numbers in the moment I would tell him. If not I just told him it was faster than anything else.
He would then say "ok, but how fast does dark travel?" I have thought about this so much over the years.
I think my final answer was that it doesn't, it's just always there. But my mind can't just stop with that. Why is it always there? What is it? Is it just nothingness that we have given a name and definition to, simply so we can contrast the existence of light to the absence of light? What would it be if there were no lights to determine it? Does it have a primal form? It was a very simple question that has taken me down too many rabbit holes in my own mind.
Cinderella
Had a 1st grader ask me this today: "if Cinderella's slippy fit so perfectly, why did it fall off in the first place?"
Infinite Power
If I found a genie with infinite power and asked him to grant me infinite powers which one of us would have infinite power?
A Hole Is What?
Many Philosophy questions often sound incredibly stupid up to the point in which you actually try to adequately answer them. Case in point, this one is an incredible pain for me and hurts my brain trying to think about it: "What is a hole?"
- duhemain
Tiny Clone
"If you had a tiny clone of Hitler who did nothing wrong, but had the memories of the original, would you kill him?"
This was said on a letsplay and, outside of the heart amount of comedy that came from asking it, it really makes you think whether the perceived action of an individual can allow disciplinary actions.
Eating Cake
So for me the phrase "You can't have your cake and eat it too" just always sounded so dumb.. if I have it then why can't I eat it? Then one faithful day I smoked some weed and realized what it actually means.
The reason you can't have it AND eat it is because once you eat it you no longer HAVE it. Now I like that phrase since I get to explain this to everyone else who uses it now knowing what it means.
Last Names
When did people start creating last names? Also, when did people stop creating last names?
Orange
Did they name the fruit orange after the colour or the colour after the colour of the fruit?
Chicken Punch
GiphyIf kinetic energy can be converted into thermal energy, how hard do I have to punch a chicken to cook it?
Your You-ness
How are you, you? Like think about your singular consciousness inside your mind. How is that you? This experience of you existing. What is it? Why does it happen?
Mike Wazowski
Does Mike Wazowski wink or blink?
- ppxghost
If you cut off Mike Wazowski's legs and arms, do you also behead him?
Blindness
What's it like to be totally blind?
Everyone just assumes that being blind is the same thing as closing your eyes. But I don't think that's accurate, because we're "seeing" what it looks like with our eyes closed. That's not the same thing as not seeing at all. And we can't ask a blind person to describe it to us because.....how could they? The best I ever heard was here on Reddit where a blind person described being blind as "trying to see through the back of your head."
Giphy
