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Old 12-16-2011, 05:35 PM   #3 (permalink)
Guybrush
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To quote Albus Dumbledore: "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
I have a slight problem with this idea. We humans are equipped with sensory apparatuses that perceive the world. They are made to perceive the real world and not a fantasy one because if they did, they wouldn't be useful. As far as we know, is if a train is heading straight towards you at speed and you for some reason see it as a harmless cloud of gas, the train will still hit you if you don't move out of the way. Your hallucination has little bearing on that fact.

Healthy people perceive something that closely represents part of reality, like electromagnetic radiation at certain wavelengths. As social animals, humans also synchronize their perception of reality which is part why isolation is often an important step in psychosis. If you have a psychotic version of reality in your head, meeting others may mean meeting more real versions of the world which contradict your own. Most healthy people will challenge their perception of reality if it frequently contradicted.

Perception is flavoured by feelings, but generally speaking, God is felt rather than perceived. Fully conscious, healthy people generally don't see God manifested (not really). Believing in God doesn't mean your prayers will be answered, even if you believe they will. The point is, believing in something doesn't necessarily make it real. You'd have to believe so strongly that you are completely trapped in your own version of reality and even then, the train would still hit you.

I believe the most useful perception of the universe is the one which most closely resembles reality because, put short, it's just more predictable and practical.
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Last edited by Guybrush; 12-16-2011 at 05:49 PM.
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