Proof Mind is Fundamental and Matter Doesn't Exist

[Redbeard The Pink]

my model is monistic idealism, so the answer to your first question is no. your second question, close. my model is that there is one mind that is simulating all of reality. but this mind has created (from thoughts) other minds (us). he has also created the world we experience as a simulation. it exists as part of our experience but has no existence apart from that. think of it like a video game like skyrim. your character is on a huge map, but the environment is loaded as you change your position and view point. it has a consistent layout, but only manifests itself on your screen when it's in your viewing perspective. this is how the world would also work.

as for this greater mind, since nothing exists apart from him and his thoughts, he would have all knowledge and full control over everything. in other words, he would be omniscient and omnipotent. this greater mind could thus adequately be called God. we are all mental constructs of God's mind experiencing a reality simulated also by God's mind.

Oooh you're on of the "simulation" people.


This is already starting to sound like that other guy's thread about the Magic Consciousness that permeates everything. Better get my salad dressing handy...


Ok, so there are several problems with this premise that make me seriously doubt whether it should even be seriously considered. My first red flag is that you have chosen to lead with an argument rather than with a piece of evidence. This leads me to question whether there is any evidence of your claims.


The next thing that perks my skepticism is the fact that your premise is apparently designed to avoid being testable or falsifiable in any fashion. I can only assume this is because you intend to reserve the right to shout "You can't prove this false!" any time somebody tries to explain to you the holes in the logic you have crafted, or why it's not up to anyone to prove your claims false before they're accepted as truth.


And now we move to the meat of your actual statements. I gotta say, #1 is already looking like a cleverly worded attempt to assert the existence of something and then demand that its nonexistence be proven before it is dismissed. You didn't wanna get called out on it, so you didn't say, "I believe that there is a God-Mind dreaming up everything, and you can't prove that such a thing does not exist," so that's not technically what you said, but that is what you're saying with your argument.


Now, there's no proof whatsoever that mind is a substance, fundamental or otherwise. No mind has ever been observed to exist outside of a brain, so at this time there's no reason to believe a mind could exist in the absence of one. All evidence available points to the assertion that the "mind" is nothing more than the direct result of a series of chemical and electrical processes in an animal's body, mostly in the brain. That of course doesn't mean that such a thing is proven to absolutely not exist, unless you're one of those people who believes that consciousness without matter is an impossible object (like a square circle) rather than a possible object (like a horse with a horn on its head).


The other problem with the simulation thing is that (like most god claims) it fails to actually explain anything while raising whole new questions of its own. If reality is a simulation, what is the point? Why is the simulated Universe so huge, and why are sentient beings apparently such a small part of it? If the simulated Universe only looks that huge, why think up all those shapes in the sky and make it look like they're so distant and numerous? Was this done just to keep us occupied so we wouldn't think we were in a simulation? If so, then wouldn't you technically be a glitch of some kind?


What is reality "simulating," for that matter? "Simulation" implies that there's something to be simulated...something for the simulation to be like. That's part of what "simulation" means. God's dream can't be the only reality and be a simulation. It'd be the exact same thing as having a creator god who merely speaks things into existence, except it would merely "think" things into existence instead. You haven't raised a new premise at all, you're just trying to put science fiction paint on the same crock of dodges and baseless assertions that all the other theists are using.