Where does darkness go when it departs....?

Question

....keeping in mind that minuses are pluses of another kind.

Who is to say what is an illegitimate question? Was it an illegitimate question when Einstein asked himself, "Hmm...what would it be like if I could ride on a beam of light?"

The most wonderful thing about philosophy is that it dares to look silly. How many other categories of human endeavor can make that claim?

Disclaimer: The above two remarks do not constitute chatting. They are made simply in support of the legitimacy of this question and to further point to its essential philosophical nature.

Perhaps I should also point out that according to both religion and science it is darkness not light that is primary in the universe. We all know the story in Genesis where God said, "Let there be light." And according to modern physics it was eons after the Big Bang before matter congealed into stars and light first appeared. So it was darkness that reigned supreme before light.

Now wouldn't you expect that something that reigned supreme for countless millions of years was something more than the absence of something else?

Contemporary physicists pretty much agree that even today most of the universe is comprised of dark matter and dark energy.

Then, of course, there are the many varieties of psychological darkness which surely must be admitted to having self-existence at some level. At some level these mental and emotional disorders must be more than simply the absence of this or that chemical or the absence of mental health. If mental illness were simply the absence of mental health, how would one explain the existence of so many different varieties of it?

And there is the poet's darkness of unrequited love. Surely this is not just the absence of love but also the very real pain and anguish one feels in response to that absence or loss.

As is also true of the darkness of grieving and mourning the death of a loved one.

What of the darkness that inhabits the mind and spirit of the potential suicide?

And let us not forget the darkness of the hairs that certain periodically-challenged-blonds bleach to oblivion.

If I had actually considered this a validly scientific question I would have placed it in a science category. I purposely chose a category where it might appeal to philosophers and poets and that all too rare prober into the mystery of things who happens also to work in a field of science.

That is, to that all too rare prober into the mystery of things who happens also to work in a field of science but can see beyond his/her own special discipline and in other directions/dimensions.

Difficult as it is for some to imagine, there are categories of human thought and valid varieties of human questions that exist outside the scientific approach to investigation of reality. And what I am referring to here has nothing to do necessarily with religion.

Answer 1

as the sun rises, the night condenses into shadows and creeps into the woods and forests hiding from the light of day. and as the sun goes down it rises like an opaque mist into the sky to allows the glory of the stars and moon to shine down upon us.

Answer 2

Light has a physical source, that emits it. Darkness is the lack or absence of that physical source. There is a planet that sends us light. There is no planet sending us darkness.
Light exists. Darkness is non-existence of light.
Non existence, darkness, will always be non existence. There is no place to "go" for something that is non-existent.

You also mention that "SOMETHING THAT REIGNED SUPREME FOR COUNTLESS MILLIONS OF YEARS" is "SOMETHING MORE THAT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING ELSE". Consider this example.

You were non existence before you were born and had been non existence for countless billions of years. ( From non existence you came into existence because of your parents.)
Do you really think that those countless billions of years that you were non existent could compare in any way to just one second of your existence? How could then billions of years of non existence "reign supreme" over just one instant of your real life?

Answer 3

Darkness never departs. It is always there, underneath everything, inside everything. Waiting. Hiding. It is just invisible in the light. As soon as the light goes out, darkness is there, all consuming. The void. The blackness. It is the light that departs. So temporary. Only an illusion.

Ok or maybe I'm just over-tired & feeling bleak because I have to work dayshift this weekend!

:)

Answer 4

The same place the emptiness of this question goes to when it is replaced by rational thought. These questions are illegitimate and make philosophy look silly.

Answer 5

Darkness fades into the nearing of light . But awaits the kiss of dusk . When the light fades to darkness . She sleeps and awaits the dawn .

Answer 6

well first off darkness does not exist. darkness is simply the absence of light, so when this "darkness" thing you are referring to departs, there is simply a prescence of light.

Answer 7

It always remains in place and never departs. The idea that it goes away is mere illusion, Grasshopper.

The same darkness remains, but it gets flooded by zillions of photons which are so bright that you cannot see through them into the darkness.

Answer 8

Into the light, is one answer.

Another: Somewhere else (like around the world to the other side)

Another: It becomes invisible - still there, but invisible

Answer 9

darkness... where does it go? being that darkness has separated from light it would have to be the farthest out from light, maybe the container in the vast universe , what i know is that it is out there, furthest away from the light i live from.

Answer 10

It don't go any where, it will just hide behind the light - to come back after the light disappears.