Imagine not existing. Assuming you DO exist, you probably can, though you may not want to. No problem.
But, imagine the frustration of not existing, and having people constantly insisting that you DO. And, no matter how long you haven’t existed, they just won’t stop.
Anonymous support groups have been formed for a variety of personal issues such as alcoholism, excess drug use, gambling, and overeating.
One more may be needed: ETDEA– Entities That Don’t Exist Anonymous
It would be dedicated to improving the emotional well-being of a special group with a unique problem, that of non-existence.
Non-existence is the ultimate problem, a status that all of us will experience eventually. This association is not for everyone, however, but to meet the special needs of entities that:
(1) Have never existed, and never will.
(2) Have been given identities by human beings who should know better, created in their imaginations out of a desire to believe that such an entity exists, and usually assigned qualities such as a power and willingness to assist mortal humans in some way.
(3) Are confused and perplexed by the paradox of their pseudo-existence within the minds of their believers and their actual non-existence.
A wide variety of gods, ghosts, fairies, elves, demons and devils could benefit. Other non-existences like “widespread voter fraud” and “stolen elections” should also join. Though it should be easy to join anonymously, the end goal will be to emerge from the virtual closet and proclaim to the world, “I don’t exist, and I’m proud of it!”
This, in turn, will also help the humans who would be much better off just believing in reality.
Hey Cosmic, I signed on as Nutsy here just so I can see how the site works for everybody who isn’t a network admin, ie everybody but me 😉
You’ve got a whole lot of stuff in this one, I realize it is humor in part, but I think I would have stopped it at imaginary creatures and not added the voter fraud part, conspiracy theories in general need their own post.
But getting back to your original thought, it is along the lines of “Why do people create myths?” This question has been posed in a number of places, I rather like this explanation of it:
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2006/mar/28/features11.g21
The author quotes David Hume in that, and it is probably a good choice, among his other quotes is this one:
“It is an absurdity to believe that the Deity has human passions, and one of the lowest of human passions, a restless appetite for applause”
― David Hume
A longer discussion about Hume himself is here:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
While I have read a number of philosophers I never delved into Hume’s writings before, seems like as good a time as any 😉
I have thought about the reasons for supernatural beliefs in the past, and I agree that is the essential explanation for their origin. It is a side-effect of the development of a brain capable of intelligence, curiosity, and communication. Naturally there would be a desire to understand causes, incentivized by a need to avoid some events and encourage others. Not surprisingly most explanations were wrong, as it would be a long process of refining thinking to use reason, logic, and science.
In the meantime mythical beliefs began to be exploited to control populations, caused them to be established and mandated.
Yes, my approach was satirical this time, and intended to stimulate thinking about existence and non-existence a bit.
What needs to be better understood is why many humans retain beliefs long after much knowledge has been available to explain real causes. The brilliant potential of the human mind is evident from the achievements, but it would seem that flaws in it remain.