@Olivier5,
Olivier5 wrote:
Quote:You think the possibility of what you call "yourself" and "your mind" cannot be a universal/shared/all-powerful oneness that allows itself to "experience" experience by operating on a level such as we perceive to be "reality"...so you make that guess.
Well, bite me if if I take reality seriously and don't think I'm the dumb son of God tied on a chair in a movie. What difference would it make to my life anyway, other than leading to suicide, perhaps?
It could lead to being honest with yourself...and to getting over yourself a bit. Sorry you see the choices as between "making guesses about the unknown" or "committing suicide."
Must be lonely there!
Quote:Look at you: what difference does it make in your life, whether you believe in the world or not? Whether it is virtual or real makes no difference, you still got to live in it - no escape xcept death.
Interesting that you consider it "living it"...or "escaping through death." For me...I consider it mostly a delight...with some very hard times thrown in to highlight that the delight is, in fact, quite delightful.
Quote:You still go on with your life, and to do so you assume just as much as I do.
Well, not quite as much. You seem to assume you have a handle on REALITY and the unknown...and I am content to acknowledge that I do not. So you are one up on me there. (Or one down on me, as the case may be.)
Quote:You just don't verbalize it the same way.
I think it is a bit more than "verbalizing" it differently, Olivier. I think you do also...but this was a throw away line that sounded good, so you included it.
Quote:You still (perhaps virtually) wake up every (perhaps virtual) morning and eat breakfast, and meet your (virtual) wife, friends or colleagues, then come to A2K to share (virtual) ideas with (virtual) me...
The round of golf, Olivier. You forgot the most important part of our day...the round of golf.
Quote:It looks like Pascal's wager: let's believe in the universe a bit, just in case it's real.
Egad...between Pascal's Wager and Occam's Razor, I wonder which produces a fit of vomiting first. They are both used by people who either can't, or won't, think things through properly. But I get your point, Olivier...we simply "accept" what we have here as it appears...whether an illusion or a reality. (I wonder: Can you say with authority that you were not created just a few seconds ago complete with all the memories you suppose you have?)
Quote:I prefer to believe in it fully, and get that strange, purely theoretical, depressing, irrelevant and inconsequential idea of the dumb-son-of-God-in-a-movie behind me.
Fine. Frankly, I do not care how you guess about the unknown. But why go for the "son of God" as your theoretical?" Hell...go for GOD ITSELF! Or forget about the "god" designation entirely...and conceive of it as all that exists and has ever existed. Anything is possible...unless you want arbitrarily to designate something as impossible for no good reason at all.
Quote:I prefer to try and live my life more fully. To give it a chance, to make a leap of faith and trust it, to bite in life even if it does not always taste good, to get a hell of a ride from it, to marvel about it and to try to understand it, and to despair about it... rather than ponder forever whether it's 'real or an 'illusion', a question without any consequence anyway...
If you manage to live your life as fully as I have, Olivier...and if your life is as satisfying as I find mine, you will be a lucky individual. I admire that you are heading in this direction.
I don't mean this as an insult, but you sound to me as though you are trying to convince yourself that you are there...but that you are not even convincing yourself, let alone your audience. I hope I am wrong on that.