(December 25, 2018 at 8:41 pm)Dimmesdale Wrote: Let's go beyond my own existence, how do I believe in other minds (besides my own) at all? There is a consensus among most human beings that there are other minds. We at least act as though there are. But what is the proof of this?
I accept that there are other minds because I observe them in action every day. There is a consistency in their actions and they produce information that I do not have available to me that can be checked and verified. The empirical evidence that other minds exist is overwhelming and denying it would require postulating something that can produce such an incredibly complex illusion and yet remain itself undetected. I may not be able to prove that impossible but Ockham's razor makes it unreasonable to believe.
Quote:At bottom, we only believe it because it is accepted, because others believe it, or due to some kind of existential knowledge.
We accept there are other minds because those other minds believe it? That is nonsense. We believe it because of the evidence and, for this particular claim, out of practical necessity. As a skeptic I don't accept any claim because others accept it and I don't see any evidence for "existential knowledge", whatever that is supposed to mean. It sounds like a way of giving yourself a pass for using faith when you have no justification for your beliefs.
Quote:So let's extend that sort of scope of what is evident regarding the divine. I believe, based upon similar common sense, that some kind of Supreme Being or Essence exists, and that knowledge of this being, even only that of a "bare-bones" variety, is natural to our reasoning capacities and personal psyches. I extend my standard of evidence broader than others.
In the case of the divine, there are no consistent results. Among believers the definitions of what they believe vary wildly and there is nothing demonstrable or testable to latch onto in order to even begin to identify what they claim to be sensing. Your standard of evidence isn't broader, it is just much lower.
Quote:And I more than believe, I know, that I am correct and others (atheists) are not, in this regard.
What evidence can you provide?
What evidence would change your mind?
Atheism: it's not just for communists any more!