"How do you actually know you're real?"

[Welsh cake]

I don't care any more.

Reality reinforces my apathy everyday. For instance, I read in the paper the other day that a worker got suspended from the Port Talbot steelworks near me during an investigation into a serious allegation from CCTV footage that he threw a poor little cat into a vat of molten metal.

Fuck this cosmos.

Just like the protagonist from H.P. Lovecraft's Ex Oblivione, I've also come to the discovery that the eternal nothingness, oblivion, is the natural state of things, and this 'existence', as we know it, is merely a brief nightmare, a violation of the void. I strongly feel that existence is an error, that will happily be erased, and corrected by its cessation.

[jonb]

I don't care any more.

Reality reinforces my apathy everyday. For instance, I read in the paper the other day that a worker got suspended from the Port Talbot steelworks near me during an investigation into a serious allegation from CCTV footage that he threw a poor little cat into a vat of molten metal.

Fuck this cosmos.

Just like the protagonist from H.P. Lovecraft's Ex Oblivione, I've also come to the discovery that the eternal nothingness, oblivion, is the natural state of things, and this 'existence', as we know it, is merely a brief nightmare, a violation of the void. I strongly feel that existence is an error, that will happily be erased, and corrected by its cessation.

So a few beers, a bit of sex, and the odd song, will help pass the time till it gets itself sorted out.

[Welsh cake]

So a few beers, a bit of sex, and the odd song, will help pass the time till it gets itself sorted out.

To quote the only part of the holey Bible I actually like:

1 Corinthians 15:32 And what value was there in fighting wild beasts--those people of Ephesus--if there will be no resurrection from the dead? And if there is no resurrection, "Let's feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

[jonb]

Mind you sitting in the dentists waiting room, with only a moth eaten old copy of Essex country living, the whole 'eat drink and be merry' thing does not seem like a viable option.

[Minimalist]

Anybody else have to deal with this shit? And if so, how do you guys deal with it?

I call it mental masturbation and suggest the proponent find a real girl.

[CapnAwesome]

Man, that sounds like some serious hippy shit. What I'd do is kick them in the balls and then ask if that felt real.

[DeistPaladin]

"You can't prove I'm real and you can't prove you're real so you just gotta take it on faith!"

There is one word that describes this "philosophy": Solipsism

Solipsism is ironically both technically true and also stupid to spend any time seriously thinking about, unless of course you're writing a sci-fi story.

Solipsism is the belief that the only thing you can be certain of is that you are experiencing sensations (sight, hearing, touch, etc) that might or might not be real and you have memories that might or might not be accurate. For all you know, everything outside of you could just be an illusion.

See "The Matrix" or "Total Recall" for how this view can be useful in writing a sci-fi story. Outside of this application, it's useless, including in philosophical discussions.

We have to assume that reality that we experience is real in order to function. There is a difference between this assumption about things that are detected and making additional assumptions about things that are NOT detected.

Hope that helps.

[FallentoReason]

This is a thing I've been hearing lately and truth be told it's getting obnoxious.

"You can't prove I'm real and you can't prove you're real so you just gotta take it on faith!"

I can't pin down what exactly about it annoys me but it itches at my common sense. It's one of those things I can't rationally debunk because honestly, someone who says that the use of the five available senses is something not to be trusted...might as well believe whatever the fuck they want to believe.

Anybody else have to deal with this shit? And if so, how do you guys deal with it?

paulpablo already mentioned Renee Descartes' famous quote "I think, therefore I am" which basically refutes any argument a silly theist might have on this topic. "I think, therefore I am" demonstrates that you are able to question whether you exist, and the very action of questioning demonstrates that the question came from somewhere, which obviously is yourself. Therefore, you are.

[Creed of Heresy]

Wait wha?

IOW creed, I can concede the first and still not accept anything on faith. I don't have to believe that I;m real, I can suspect greatly that I am an illusion (though I'd argue that in this case the illusion is -precisely- what I am), or I can simply avoid thinking about it entirely. None of that will interfere with the act of being me, and none of it requires that I pick up any faith.

Oh. Sorry, I had a brainfart when I was reading your post, something didn't translate well to my brain in it.

I see what you mean, it's just...how DOES one convince someone that thinks that the argument that the five senses are not enough to be definitive proof of one's own existence that, in fact, it is all that you have and all that is needed? If you can at all? And is it valid to think that way? Or is it just idiocy masquerading as deep thought that rejects any semblance of tangibility in favor of arguing the inarguable? Take a guess which one I think it is. My concern is just, am I biased? SHOULD I be considering this viewpoint as valid, or...is common sense just working in my favor on this one?

[mr.atheist]

"You can't prove I'm real and you can't prove you're real so you just gotta take it on faith!"

There is one word that describes this "philosophy": Solipsism

Solipsism is ironically both technically true and also stupid to spend any time seriously thinking about, unless of course you're writing a sci-fi story.

Solipsism is the belief that the only thing you can be certain of is that you are experiencing sensations (sight, hearing, touch, etc) that might or might not be real and you have memories that might or might not be accurate. For all you know, everything outside of you could just be an illusion.

See "The Matrix" or "Total Recall" for how this view can be useful in writing a sci-fi story. Outside of this application, it's useless, including in philosophical discussions.

We have to assume that reality that we experience is real in order to function. There is a difference between this assumption about things that are detected and making additional assumptions about things that are NOT detected.

Hope that helps.

I was actually going to reply to this thread with a similar thing.But you put it better than I would of.Thanks