Why Is Anybody Convinced There Is A God?

Why Is Anybody Convinced There Is A God? Aug 21, 2017 8:18:51 GMT

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Post by Terrapin Station on Aug 21, 2017 8:18:51 GMT

Aug 21, 2017 8:00:43 GMT Toasted Cheese said:

Aug 20, 2017 11:00:13 GMT Terrapin Station said:

It's certainly not completely absurd to me, it's rather completely obvious to me. And mental phenomena are physical, which is also completely obvious. People who think otherwise are confused at best.

Then you are limiting yourself and not looking at the larger landscape or deeper into the subtle mind and body. Mental phenomena is only a projection of our own realities and it is all illusion. What you perceive as physical, is your own power or creation and none of it is permanent. It is just all a state of meaninglessness.

I'm limiting my ontology to what's factually the case, yes.

Mental phenomena that are only mental phenomena, such as desires or aesthetic judgments, for example, can't be an illusion, because there's nothing to get wrong. Illusions require that something really is such and such way, but you get it wrong for particular sorts of reasons (which we could detail). Meaning is one example of something that is a mental phenomenon only, and thus it can't be illusory. (Though someone could have the mistaken belief that meaning isn't mental only.)

Re perceptual content, I'm a "direct realist." It's worth noting that epistemically, there's no justification for saying that anything is an illusion unless we (a) know how it really is, but (b) know that our perception of it doesn't match how it really is (for the sorts of reasons that normally account for illusions). However, if we know this, then we completely undermine the notion that everything could be an illusion. If we don't know (a) and (b), there is no grounds for saying that anything is an illusion. So "everything is an illusion" is quite nonsensical.

Finally, that something is physical in no way implies that it's permanent.