(January 16, 2016 at 8:13 pm)MysticKnight Wrote:(January 16, 2016 at 7:56 pm)wallym Wrote: Perhaps, we are programmed to believe in things that aren't real?
Or perhaps we been given knowledge of unseen pleasures and a path. What is delusional about you having a value independant of what you think of yourself. What is it that will make it a delusion? Is that it requires a Creator, a source of the value, or maintainer or one who sees you or is that the feeling one day we will see who we truly are something that makes it false? Or is that we must have a soul that makes it an illusion?
I think the idea is answering a question that already has an answer, because we'd prefer a different answer. If a door shuts by itself, and I go upstairs to check why, and see two windows are creating a crosswind through the house, a crosswind through the house shut the door. There's no reason to think it might be a ghost, or that the door is possessed, or there's a glitch in the matrix, etc...
That didn't use to be the case. Back in the day, things were happening all over the place, and nobody knew why. In that scenario, people have no choice but to consider the unknown. But as we whittled away the unknown, and have explanations for almost everything, it seems pretty clear, we are no longer trying to explain things with religion, as much as trying to create a separate existence that accommodates some wishful thinking.
Why don't people have independent value? I say because there is no reason to think they do. I try to look at it from a 3rd person perspective. An observer of our planet. I look at humans, and I see no reason to consider that maybe there is a magical aspect at play... We look like really smart animals to me. It seems plainly evident. Although, I also see why the smart animals would want to believe in things like independent value and God. But I don't see why that makes a difference in reality.
