Why are humans so obsessed with having the answers to questions?

Question

Has a question no value of its own?
Is not the process of pondering the question itself not where the truth strength of mind is?


..... I'm just going to think on this awhile.
It doesn't matter if you respond or not...

[And no, this question itself isn't some self-reference to the site we're on.]

{ BAL :~ ... Good catch. You got me there. I'd like to admit that this is one of those "D'OH!" moments....

If I had a means of correcting my text to remove that blatant demonstration of my inability to keep my mind on the right track through a single sentence, I would.

Regardless, I'm sure you understand what I was TRYING to say despite my error, right? }

{ ...... Ok... so most folks have no clue at all what I was getting at. Nevermind. }

Answer 1

*Blinks*

Lot of answers.

I'm betting you don't want any of them though.
They might, but I figured only those strange humans living in monastaries in the himalayas ever bother asking questions that they don't expect an answer to.

Humans are social critters. The question is a means of trying to determine information based on what others have interpretted from their separate experience. The answer is an expected response to that.
The use of a question to trigger the mind into a different mode of thinking is a stranger derivation from that.

Answer 2

This is possibly due to our own nature. Biological or "God given," our insatiable thirst for knowledge is arguably our very own saving grace. If the Sumerians did not ponder the question, "how could we create a new, more convienent means of travel?" then the invention of the wheel would have never happened. If man had not wondered what lay beyond the skies, he would have never landed on the moon. Questions, and the intrinsic need for their answers, is therefore possibly the most major source of motivation towards evolution mankind possesses. Our need to anwser them can thus only be considered natural.

Answer 3

I can see your point but it's a selfish point your judging what other people are asking and wanting. It may mean nothing to you but what about the asker. I'm sure there are a lot of people just looking for attention but who are we to judge that? Why must we judge that why can't we just accept it?

so if i ask a question about sweaty socks and you don't have a sweat proble i can see it not having value to you! but you are not me and i have sweaty feet so that is valueable to me!

the question that you ponder sends signles to respons! hense the answers! you can only ponder so long before coming to a conclution.. or there would never be any choices made if we all just pondered!

Like i said i see your point (i'm a very selfish person) but at the same time i feel for others that you are placing a value on there questions and answers!
hope my thoughts help you ponder on other mind opening topics!

Answer 4

We, dumb creatures of habit, have a problem with the unknown. That is why people run around screeching about proof of the existence of God, proof of life on other planets, proof that when they flush the commode it does get cleaned before returning to the system as clean water, ok the last one was silly but you get my point. It is curiosity that makes us learn about things. The only way to get answers to things we are curious about is to ask a question and search like rabid dogs for an answer. Actually, the question is the most valuable. I mean honestly without the question there would be no answer. Had someone not said, "Wouldn't life be easier if we all had some way to have light in our homes and work places?" then we wouldn't have electricity. So the most important, in my opinion is the question posed.

Answer 5

Not all humans are obsessed with answers. Jews have many answers to the same question and love the debate itself.

I often wonder the same thing about Christians insisting on learning what happens after death. It's like beating their heads against the wall!

That's what intrigues scientists though. They want the answers, but each answer brings more questions. Perhaps it's the journey they enjoy, not the destination. Wouldn't we all benefit by thinking of life as a journey, NOT a destination.

Good question!
.

Answer 6

In this age of instant everything, people don't want to wait and ponder questions, which may result in a very sad future where people loss the understand of how to find the answers themselves. English classes want children to write and they fail to teach spelling, which could really bite everyone in the butt when spelling becomes so bad that spellcheck can't find the words.

The thinking process is being lost in public schools which in turn might produce a newer version of sheep who question nothing since they have lost the ability to shape a question. Private schools and the elite will be able to control everything, since power and control was always linked to keeping the masses ignorant and uneducated. Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me!

Answer 7

Yes, questions do have a value of their own -- but our obsession is just a human thing. I find the fact that the 'answers' to the really meaningful questions in life are ever evolving. Some of the greatest epiphanies I've experienced in my life have come when I suddenly had a new answer to a question I thought I already had the answer to. Why so obsessed? Like you said, it's the constant pondering, and the strengthening of our mind that forms the obsession and to lose the questioning nature would be to die. We are ever in pursuit of answers...

Answer 8

Personally I am very curious and think about things until I can understand the answers. However I am not content to just make an answer up. And if it takes 20 years to get the right answer then so be it. I certainly will not just take someones word for something, I learned long ago that other people are not any better at coming up with answers than I am.

Answer 9

We have an over enlarged frontal lobe, thus causing us to be free and inquisitive in our natural nature, before man even spoke he wondered why and how, thus creations such as clothing, the wheel and how to honest fire were created.

Often I think that the most powerful question in the world is often asked out of annoyance; Why?

Seriously if you can answer the question, and then answer the question why after wards then you fully understand the purpose of the original question.

Answer 10

Have you ever read Krishnamurti?

Can you imagine a philosopher who writes books with only questions in them?

Is it possible that thinking one knows the answer to something is less valuable than having a question to ask?

Is writing a reply with only questions in it annoying?

Have you ever read the book by Georges Perec, originally written in French, but translated quite successfully in English,
called 'The Void', which does not once contain the letter e?

Why would someone undertake so preposterous an exercise?