Back to Home

God & Science Forum Message

Forums: Atm · Astrophotography · Blackholes · Blackholes2 · CCD · Celestron · Domes · Education
Eyepieces · Meade · Misc. · God and Science · SETI · Software · UFO · XEphem
RSS Button

Home | Discussion Forums | God and Science | Post
Login

Be the first pioneers to continue the Astronomy Discussions at our new Astronomy meeting place...
The Space and Astronomy Agora
Interesting Thoughts

Forum List | Follow Ups | Post Message | Back to Thread Topics | In Response To
Posted by Michael Levine on September 16, 2003 01:04:07 UTC

Dick,

If the purpose of this forum is to have fun, you are the greatest contributor. Someone said you should be thanked for sharing your crazy ideas here; I agree with him, your posts are a riot.

Now I would like to bring up a serious question about the concept of existence. I know you are aware of the fact that your mind can present you with illusions which are not controllable in any conscious way. What I mean here is that you cannot eliminate the illusion by knowing it is an illusion. We generally "know it is an illusion" because we can prove it is "inconsistent with actual reality".

So far so good. That is a good way to tell illusion from reality. Now for the big philosophical mistake:

Suppose your mind were to create a particular illusion which just happened to have no inconsistent elements at all. Does that make it "consistent with reality"?

An illusion which has no inconsistent elements with reality, including the fact that other people can perceive it, is not an illusion. Your question must be rephrased.

In other words can your mind create "real" objects?

The answer is a clear "no" unless someone proves the contrary.

How would you propose to prove it can not?

That's the wrong way to ask for proofs. You can't prove there isn't a dragon in my garage. Even if you open the door and see no dragon, I can still claim the dragon is there, only nobody else but I can see it.

There is, however, an easy way for me to prove I have a dragon in my garage. You should know the difference before venturing into philosophical nonsense.

Just what is a "real" object anyway?

A real object is one that is not created by your imagination. How do you know the difference? Ask a schizophrenic - they are the ones who know what happens when you think the fantasies in your mind are more true than the opinions of everyone else.

That's my last post for now guys, will be away for some time. See you later.

Follow Ups:

Login to Post
Additional Information
Google
 
Web www.astronomy.net
DayNightLine
About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy
Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2024 John Huggins All Rights Reserved
Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post.
"dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET"
are trademarks of John Huggins