how can we believe anything??

[ignoramus]

As Simbo said,it won't make any difference to your day to day life will it?
So tell us, what WILL make a difference in your life?

Are you stuck in a rut in the bible belt somewhere?
Let's work through it....

[Jackalope]

It's the same thing as with the Matrix idea. Even if the Ultimate Truth turns out to be that we're all part of a giant computer simulation, or that nothing is real beyond the confines of your or my head, we still have to deal with the reality as it is presented to us. We still need to eat and drink and shit several times a day. The simplest course, embracing Occam's Razor, is to eliminate all that meta-reality stuff as totally irrelevant to the reality which appears to be consistent to us all.

So even if I'm a brain in a jar and all of this is some illusion to keep me from going insane, so what? I'd point out though that a) it's not working and b) you'd think 'they' could come up with something better than this.

Or, in the TL; DR version: solipsism is a wholly useless position to take.

Yeah, it might be a simulation, other minds may not exist - whoopty-fucking-do. Whether the reality we are presented with is "real" or not, it's the only one we have to interact with, so far as we have been able to detect.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Nope.
Everything we know about space we got by going into space.

exactly! but not us as individuals. The majority of people on this planet have never been to space - but we still believe the photos and videos we are shown to be real.

You haven't worked on calculations proving quantum mechanics, yet you're posting on a computer that relies on them.

[MusicLovingAtheist]

It might be time to see a doctor and start anti psychotics.

[psychoslice]

You can only know what you know through your senses, and that's about it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

You can only know what you know through your senses, and that's about it.

In one sense -- pun intended -- that's true. But in another view, you can compare your sensory inputs with those of others, and use corroboration or disagreement to come to a finer understanding of reality.

Now, if you want to say that your brain is practicing an inherent solipsism, that's a fair objection, I suppose -- so long as you can explain the evolutionary value of such a cognitive view.

[RobbyPants]

If you can't tell that I'm be facetious you may need some serious help.

But how does he know?

[Madness20]

I find that for every "science" conspiracionist, there is someone lacking understanding of the same science and/or trying to sell books about those conspiracies.

[RobbyPants]

but I can tell you're not gonna understand anyways.

We understand. We're just not big on solipsism.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Nope.
Everything we know about space we got by going into space.

exactly! but not us as individuals. The majority of people on this planet have never been to space - but we still believe the photos and videos we are shown to be real.

Most of the objects in the cosmos are simply optical illusions. They might have existed at one time but at this very instant they might not exist at all or if they do they are completely different. The secret is to know where the boundary is between what can pass as reality and what is just an illusion.