Does it matter if 'reality' is real?

No one can objectively prove that anything is real. Solopsism cannot be disproved because there's no way to know for sure if anything outside of one's personal experience is real.

Do the above issues matter as to how we live our lives?

For me, the answer is no. I'm an empath. When I hurt an innocent person, I hurt myself. Does it matter if there is no other person as to whether I'm going to feel pain when I hurt them? Since I can't determine whether there is another person out there outside of myself, I have to assume that it doesn't matter to me if there is another person out there outside of myself. As far as I can tell, I would feel the other's pain either way (even if the other person doesn't actually exist).

I think a good way to look at this issue is chatting with someone online. If all you have to go by is text on a screen, you have no way of knowing who or what you're dealing with. My conclusion is if you're getting what you want out of the exchange, it doesn't matter who or what you're dealing with. That's why some people enjoy chatting with artificial intelligence programs. Somehow they're getting what they want even though they know the thing they're communicating with isn't real.

Another pertinent example is playing a complicated game such as chess with an AI program. It may not be easy for excellent chess players to find humans who can challenge them. However, an AI program could give a chess master constant challenges. Does it make any difference if the challenges are coming from a source that isn't real?

My conclusion:

If the consequences of one's actions are real, it doesn't matter if 'reality' is real.

a reply to: Profusion

Reality is real, it's just that evil people make reality unstable and unreal.

a reply to: Profusion

Good point.

I personally think reality is real, and that it is surrounded by thousands if not millions of other, parallel realities which are also Real - which one you perceive is simply dependent on your position in the continuum.

But regardless what I think, I agree - it doesn't change the fact that we should be striving to make THIS reality, which we all share, a better place for all of us. After all, we're all stuck in it for the moment being.

a reply to: Profusion

Reality is real from you own perspective just as other peoples reality is real from theirs. The real question is how much of a shared experience and/or interaction is taking place?

a reply to: Profusion

Reality is real and subject to the laws of its level, its just not the only level of reality.

Reality at any level can be proven by its laws, equal and opposite reactions ect and interaction between levels or paranormal. In the case of our level being affected and influenced by a greater level, more normal.....more real affecting the 4 square level we live in now.

It doesn't matter if the reality we live in is real or not. When you hit your thumb with a hammer it hurts and sometimes the nail comes off. We bleed we die if something goes wrong.

It does not matter to me if this reality is real, we can't change it anyway. We just need to act in a way that makes us finish our lives without regrets and not have harmed the rest of the life without a decent reason.

I feel this reality has been formed to test us to see if we are worthy to get to the real reality. Maybe it is an advanced program beyond our comprehension tied to a developing child. Maybe from our future, maybe from something else. If we are to enter this reality we are required to pass a test to make sure we are not going to disturb their society.

Now the reality at hand is corrupt, with deception running most everything in societies in most places. Everyone's idea of bad and good are different to some extent, with exceptions that break the main rules allowed all over. I want no part in the greed or deception. I have to observe it and try to avoid it but I do not want to participate if I can help it.

S&F

I thought about this myself recently. If reality is all just an illusion, what happens when you die. Will heaven, also be some highly developed construct of a heaven. Maybe you have some part in designing your own heaven, based on the beliefs you develop during your life. That would be cool.
oq=nic&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i60j69i57j0l2j69i61.2334j0j4&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

a reply to: Profusion

Hey pro,,, A while back I invented a little mantra for myself that goes "Just because it's all an illusion does not mean it is not real." There, for what it is worth.

there's no way to know for sure if anything outside of one's personal experience is real.

I posted this in another thread a few days ago and thought you might like to read it. It concerns my own wrestling with the existential question you raise above. So with the mods permission I will post it here. Mind you this is for amusement purposes and in no way should be taken as how one should face their own existential crisis's.

Classic I-thou existential dilemma. So let me tell you a short story of my ventures into these depths.
I was 17 when I was first asking these questions. One night, my younger brother by two years were having a talk in our bedroom and it curved into some of these questions, these deep questions that at time plague us all. Well I ventured into this one with him and even though he was only 15 he knew exactly what I was taking about. Anyway, it went on for about two hours, this conversation. It was amazing to me that he had also given consideration to these questions of existence. As the two hours drew to a close and it was time to go to sleep, I was in awe of my brother and found that I had had my first real adult, grown up philosophical conversation and it had been with my best friend, my brother.

So at that point I had to go take a pee and told him I would be right back. As I left the bedroom and got into the hall I all of a sudden was filled with existential fear. Where a moment before I had awoken to the realization that I was not alone in my thoughts, that indeed my brother had also had the some thoughts, I now as I walked down the hall was faced with the reality of my own fears. That my brother, my only link with this deeper self of independent thinking, might, if these suppositions were true reality, that he might be nothing more than a figment of my own imagination were ground shaking. That as I walked out the door and left the vicinity of that conversation, that he would just blink out of existence until I returned to cause him to blink back was shattering. SHATTERING.

So I quivered as I peed and trepetitiously, filled with fear that maybe, if he was really only a figment of my own imagination, might not be there when I returned, I walked back to the bedroom. That maybe somehow just realizing that he might be a figment, could be enough to pop the illusion and I would be without a brother because he was nothing but my own illusions after all.

So as I came back into the room I was an existential wreak, at 18. Was he gone? No. Was he sitting on his bed like he had been when I left. No. He, knowing exactly how I would be thinking as I left the room, was standing on top of our dresser, posed in a position resembling the famous sculpture 'winged victory', and completely naked. COMPLETELY NAKED.

In that second of seeing him like that, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I, even in my most creative dreams, could not have made that up. Could not have anticipated that completely 'left field' concoction. My mind settled, my fears dispelled and I never again thought that it might all be just a figment of my own divine illusion.
And that was all 50 years ago.

a reply to: Profusion

You have effectively described my view on life.

a reply to: woodwardjnr

I remember two of my previous deaths -once I died in a plane, in the other from old age. I don't remember any afterlife though, just kind of shift to the next reality/lifetime. Given a new chance to start again. Your soul doesn't remember much from the life before except always the same feeling (but then, it is the most important feeling to remember): next time I'll get it right.

All that matters is that you be the best, most awesome man (or woman) you can be. Perhaps that is the whole point of existence: be remarkable, deafeat the silence of Darkness.

a reply to: swanne
Be all that you can be...

The mirror reflects what the artists creates and it only lasts little less than a second. So it is with human realilty it just doesnt last! Now is it good to call that reality? Is reality describalble ? How could we really know? All of these questions are impossible.a reply to: Profusion

a reply to: Phage

I know you're being sarcastic, but I really mean it. Once you see Death, once you see the end, the one thought that eclipses all is the feeling that you should have done so much more. You regret each seconds you've waisted in trivialities, and you find it in you to forgive even your enemies - which I know sounds weird. The only thing you want to do is embrace the whole world, accept it for not what it is but what it could be. So much you want to say but not enough time to do it. The very last breath you take feels like precious gifts - every single parts of it. Then darkness wins over your mind, though you find it in you to venture one final thought: "death has won the battle but not the war; I will get it right next time".

This is the ultimate irony - Death is the victor but with each of his strikes, our souls get more and more determined to rise again - is mankind blessed to have souls like phoenixes? - and defeat him.

a reply to: Profusion

No one can objectively prove that anything is real. Solopsism cannot be disproved because there's no way to know for sure if anything outside of one's personal experience is real.

Oh, its real alright. That statement and this reply is really real.

a reply to: Profusion

This short video addresses the subject of realty rather eloquently.

This is the point where I felt hit some sort of enlightenment. When my journey went full circle. The end of the road, where the unknown is embraced, and strangely enough, we are finally grounded.

This might not be real... but it's all we've got. You work with what is in front of you.

It is a strange sort of security that lies in the acceptance of unavoidable insecurity.

Does it matter if "reality" is real to me? Nope. In fact, my understanding of my religion is that this "reality" is just a temporary simulation that serves as a beta testing ground for our souls. So I guess that means I'd never accept this "reality" as the reality anyway, if that makes any sense (as in, the real "reality" is what comes next).

And ever since I was a kid, I've been a "visionary". That's a glorified way of saying I've rejected reality at face value and tried to change it to fit my imagination. I've also always been an artist, which literally involves me turning my imagination into tangible things (aka "creating things that weren't a part of reality before I imagined them"). Now I reject our reality at its social, political, and economic levels and am trying to replace them with my own imagined versions of temh.

Though to fair, I also used to think no one and nothing existed until I encountered it lol. That means I literally rejected the very existence of everything that wasn't a part of my personal reality. Hmm, saying that out loud sounds way crazier than it does in my head. My mental filter's almost completely gone right now so yeah... Now that I think about it, I don't think this is what you meant in the OP, either. Meh.

originally posted by: rickymouse
It doesn't matter if the reality we live in is real or not. When you hit your thumb with a hammer it hurts and sometimes the nail comes off. We bleed we die if something goes wrong.

It does not matter to me if this reality is real, we can't change it anyway. We just need to act in a way that makes us finish our lives without regrets and not have harmed the rest of the life without a decent reason.

I feel this reality has been formed to test us to see if we are worthy to get to the real reality. Maybe it is an advanced program beyond our comprehension tied to a developing child. Maybe from our future, maybe from something else. If we are to enter this reality we are required to pass a test to make sure we are not going to disturb their society.

Then change your "feeling" to point somewhere out of nonsensesville, because no one should ever claim you have to be "tested" or anything else to you; as if whoever would be behind such stuff wouldn't be hiding an agenda!

Asking if reality is real is like asking if falsity is false.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Asking if reality is real is like asking if falsity is false.

Really?
Is it?