Peegee
03-22-2007, 01:46 PM
OOC: Yes I know I posted in GC
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Somebody from another forum posited a scenario that is irrefutable, but made me think all the same.
If there was a person who was just like us in every way except that the person was braindead, had no sensory abilities, and by some magical feat of suspension of disbelief was either not in our physical realm or was not able to interact with it (or invent whatever mentally feasible justification for what I'm trying to say), would that person exist? We couldn't sense the person and the person has no sensory abilities or cognitive ability.
The quick answer of course is the person doesn't exist -- we can't sense the person and the person can't sense the external world.
But it made me think -- there's a theory of existence where (generally) it is stated that because person A is thinking or has invented/created an idea, that idea, and thus the concept exists. Naturally thanks to solipsism of the mind the idea itself doesn't exist in the minds of others (until other people are told about it), but ultimately and in the end, the idea can be shared, and yet not 'exist'.
One can then make a loose idea that God exists because there are billions of people who have the 'idea' of God. God need not physically exist to 'exist' in this definition, though naturally it is now subject to the idea that God's existence is wholly subjective (which naturally believers don't attest to).
Thoughts / flames / pies?
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Somebody from another forum posited a scenario that is irrefutable, but made me think all the same.
If there was a person who was just like us in every way except that the person was braindead, had no sensory abilities, and by some magical feat of suspension of disbelief was either not in our physical realm or was not able to interact with it (or invent whatever mentally feasible justification for what I'm trying to say), would that person exist? We couldn't sense the person and the person has no sensory abilities or cognitive ability.
The quick answer of course is the person doesn't exist -- we can't sense the person and the person can't sense the external world.
But it made me think -- there's a theory of existence where (generally) it is stated that because person A is thinking or has invented/created an idea, that idea, and thus the concept exists. Naturally thanks to solipsism of the mind the idea itself doesn't exist in the minds of others (until other people are told about it), but ultimately and in the end, the idea can be shared, and yet not 'exist'.
One can then make a loose idea that God exists because there are billions of people who have the 'idea' of God. God need not physically exist to 'exist' in this definition, though naturally it is now subject to the idea that God's existence is wholly subjective (which naturally believers don't attest to).
Thoughts / flames / pies?