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In life, there are some truly unanswerable questions. Be okay with not knowing.
By NyRee Ausler
Last updated on Dec 21, 2023
Curiosity is human nature, and people have an undying desire to answer every question that comes to mind.
With advances in technology and the connectivity of the Internet, some questions unanswered for eternity have now come to a conclusive resolution. However, even with all of the information at our disposal, there are some questions we simply can not answer.
Some of the questions are about the concept of time, science, or philosophy. Others are random, weird, or funny. While some are centered around curiosity and not a bonafide need to know.
100+ Questions With No Answers
1. If God made everything, who made God?
2. Do ghosts exist and, if so, how do we know?
3. How did life first start?
4. Is there anything that can travel faster than light?
5. How did we first determine there was a consciousness and a subconsciousness?
6. Do beings on other planets consider us aliens?
7. If everyone has their truth, how do we know what the real truth is?
8. Why are cars built to go faster than the speed limits?
9. What came first, the sun or the Earth?
10. How far east can you travel before you start traveling west?
Confusing Unanswerable Questions
This next set of questions can take you down an endless trail of confusion, thinking and rethinking your answers. In the end, you'll have to accept you simply don't know.
11. Was math invented by humans or simply discovered?
12. When you forget a thought, where does it go?
13. What makes you uniquely you?
14. If rules are meant to be broken, why make them in the first place?
15. What do people who have been deaf since birth hear when they think?
16. What do blind people see when they dream?
17. If you try to lose on purpose, but accidentally win, did you win or lose?
18. If you are expecting the unexpected, isn’t the unexpected now expected?
19. When your soul leaves your body, does it look like you?
20. If Adam and Eve were the first and only people, aren’t we all related?
21. If you enjoyed wasting time, were you really wasting time?
22. Who was the first teacher’s teacher?
23. When you wait for your waiter to come take your order, aren’t you now the “waiter”?
24. What exactly was the first person to milk a cow really trying to do?
25. What is the exact definition of perfect health?
26. Do animals have a subconscious?
27. Will reincarnation ever be possible, or does it already exist?
28. Do you really need a license for a self-driving vehicle?
29. Is it possible to know it all?
30. Can technology be used to control our emotions?
Unanswerable Questions About the Concept of Time
Time is a big topic. We use it to decide when birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions occur, so there tends to be many unanswered questions about the concept.
31. When did time first begin?
32. Is there a reason you are here at this point in your life?
33. Does time end at some point?
34. Will time travel ever be possible?
35. Why do we keep time?
36. Who decided age is based on rotations around the sun?
37. If the early bird gets the worm, why do they tell you that good things come to those who wait?
38. Who created the first calendar and how’d they know where to start?
39. How do we know the future is not actually the past and vice versa?
40. Will there come a time when people will live forever?
41. Will people still drive in 20 years?
42. Does time always move forward?
43. Are past, present, and future real?
44. Is time infinite or will it one day run out?
45. Does time really exist or is it a shared mental construct?
Scientific Unanswerable Questions
Science has resolved a lot of questions for humankind over time. Still, there are many curiosities for which there are still no answers.
46. Is the Earth alive?
47. Where does the universe begin and end?
48. If you drill a hole through the middle of the earth and leap through, are you falling or floating?
49. Were there people that existed before the universe?
50. If everyone on Earth leapt into the ocean at once, would we flood the world?
51. Do caterpillars know they will morph into butterflies or do they just like cocoons?
52. If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys running around?
53. Who decided February should have 28/29 days while all the rest had 30/31?
54. Will a journey to the center of the earth ever really be possible?
55. Will we ever find a cure for cancer?
56. How long before people can opt to clone themselves?
57. Is there life on other planets?
58. Will we one day be able to back our brains up on storage devices?
59. If a human being is genetically enhanced, are they still human?
Funny Unanswerable Questions
These questions won't necessarily change our lives if answered, but will definitely garner a chuckle or two.
60. Why do people bake cookies but cook bacon?
61. At what age does old age begin?
62. How do you know your life isn’t just one crazy hallucination?
63. If you hit yourself and it hurts, are you weak or are you strong?
64. If something is described as “indescribable,” hasn’t it just been described?
65. How would you look up the word “dictionary” in the dictionary?
66. How far up do bald people go when washing their faces?
67. Why do people say “slept like a baby” when babies wake up throughout the night?
68. If a cyclops closes its eye, is it winking or blinking?
69. Are eyebrows facial hair?
70. Can you talk down to a person taller than you?
71. Are prisons equipped with emergency exits?
72. If you dive into the fountain of youth but can’t swim and drown, will you still live forever?
73. If Cinderella fit the lost slipper perfectly, how did she lose it in the first place?
74. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how do we find it?
Random Unanswerable Questions
Do you know someone who randomly asks questions that make you wonder how the question got there in the first place? Well, there are some things they might have tossed around in their strange minds.
75. What are dreams made of?
76. How long will people remember you once you die?
77. Why set goals if everyone is eventually just going to die?
78. Are soulmates really a thing or do two people just like each other a lot?
79. Why do we have belly buttons for our entire lives?
80. What do they call French kissing in France?
81. What is the wealth and fame threshold for being “assassinated” and not “murdered”?
82. Do dentists go to other dentists?
83. If R-rated movies are for adults, why do children act in them?
84. Are braces removed when someone dies?
85. Since tomatoes are a fruit, should ketchup be considered a smoothie?
86. Does hating hateful people make you a hateful person?
87. If the number 2 pencil is most widely used, why is it not number 1?
88. If people forget about you after you die, did you really ever exist?
89. Do we all hear sounds the same?
Philosophical Unanswerable Questions
Many thinkers have attempted to provide responses to philosophical questions. But there are some questions that might forever plague us.
90. Are we actually free-willed or are our actions predetermined by destiny?
91. What happens after you die?
92. Is it really possible to be objective?
93. What is the purpose of human beings?
94. What is God?
94. What is the Devil?
96. Who decided what was right and what was wrong?
97. If killing is so wrong, what makes us kill people who kill other people?
98. Was there a time when nothing existed?
99. Is karma real or are we just making it up so people will be kind?
Weird Unanswerable Questions
Some questions can only be described as "weird." Sure, we might want to know, but is it really necessary?
100. Which came first, the fruit called “orange” or the color?
101. Are we really living or are we actually dying slowly?
102. At what point does it go from partly sunny to partly cloudy?
103. Why does glue not stick to the inside of the bottle?
104. In the word “scent” which letter is silent: the "s" or the "c"?
105. What is the color of a mirror?
106. If it loses its wings, is it still a “fly”?
107. Why does a “cold” make your body temperature hot with fever?
108. If you drop soap on the floor, is the floor now clean or is the soap now dirty?
109. How do we know when it’s “all said and done”?
110. What came first, the chicken or the egg?
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NyRee Ausler is a writer who covers lifestyle, relationship, and human-interest stories that readers can relate to and that bring social issues to the forefront for discussion.