The Half-life of Facts.

Yes, of course. But even "the unknown" must have something linking it to the reality we experience for it to be considered potential fact.

The higgs-boson, for instance, and black holes. Both were theorized to exist long before they were observed.

No it isn't. I can read Mickey-Mouse comics, and the book and my mind will come together, but that doesn't make talking mice a reality.

Exactly. That's what it takes for us to consider it real. But demonstrating it as a fact isn't what makes it real.

According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, reality is "the true situation that exists; the real situation; something that actually exists or happens; a real event, occurrence, situation, etc." Other dictionaries offer similar definitions. They are inconsistent with your view of reality in that the observer's consciousness doesn't play into them, whereas this consciousness is crucial to your concept of reality.

If there exists a part of reality that is unknown, it follows that reality cannot be defined as 'what we know or perceive'.

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No it isn't. I can read Mickey-Mouse comics, and the book and my mind will come together, but that doesn't make talking mice a reality.

Tell that to people reading the bible.

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Exactly. That's what it takes for us to consider it real. But demonstrating it as a fact isn't what makes it real.

Would you care to elaborate on that distinction?

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According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, reality is "the true situation that exists; the real situation; something that actually exists or happens; a real event, occurrence, situation, etc." Other dictionaries offer similar definitions. They are inconsistent with your view of reality in that the observer's consciousness doesn't play into them, whereas this consciousness is crucial to your concept of reality.

Extrapolating some unobserveable or unobserved reality from it is an act of faith. No amount of telling me this isn't so will change that.

I'm not just telling you, I'm giving you evidence. Bacteria caused the Ancient Greeks to be sick, but the Ancient Greeks did not observe this reality. Electrons magnetized the needles of the medieval Chinese's compasses, but the Ancient Chinese had not observed this reality yet. Forget faith! History abounds with evidence of realities unobserved by the people who lived in them.

Are you suggesting that we may never learn something that makes our modern concept of bacteria outdated?

Sure there are places I've not been to and that I don't know the name of.
But these places are not outside of any reality I can potentially observe.

You telling me not to play games....
While all you do is come with these childish semantic riddles...

History abounds with discarded facts. Facts that have been considered true and real once upon a time

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Ordinary Language Philosophy, a school of thought which emerged in Oxford in the years following World War II. With its roots in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language Philosophy is concerned with the meanings of words as used in everyday speech. Its adherents believed that many philosophical problems were created by the misuse of words, and that if such 'ordinary language' were correctly analysed, such problems would disappear. Philosophers associated with the school include some of the most distinguished British thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Gilbert Ryle and JL Austin.

You guys are all atheists right?

Does any of you care to explain how it is you can know that god isn't REALITY?

Are you retarded Lolivier?

The issue here is precisely the other way around. I am questioning the assumption of "absolute reality". I am not suggesting a new assumption.

And you, along with a few other clowns, refuse to admit that "absolute reality", such as it is defined, is an assumption.

So I am not the one failing to admit that 'I don't know'.