Can we prove anything is real?

[ajay]

Is it at all possible to prove anything is indeed a thing. What you say? It's become clear that it is impossible for a human being to prove to another human being that anything truly exists, or to a lesser extent, that this object is what it appears to be. I'm no nihilist, well, maybe I am, subconciously.

Consider the following:
You have an object, lets make it a table. Now this table is sitting in your room. This table has always been there, its round and its red, hell you've loved this table your entire life. Naturally, you've never doubted its existence or that its a round red table. But a late night drug induced thought makes you realize something: that table has never repeatedly looked the same.

The table from one point of view, will look more oval, another view more round, horizontally it will look square, the light will reflect differently from different views, the light will make some red lighter than others or even no colour but white, you touch it with different parts of your body and it feels different, fingertips it seems soft, knuckle it seems harder.

In the end, you realize this table can never truly be proven to be a 6ft diameter table made from soft pine painted in blood red, and that no one can see the same table as you at a given time.

So, can you see the point I'm trying to make? I like red tables.

Anyways, I'm sad I have noticed this part of the forum before, I always just came here to see the show listings. I'll go cry myself to sleep. ciao

[MrBad]

"YOU'RE ON DRUGS!"
No mom, I'm not on Drugs, I'm just thinking.


You're not real man, you're not. All of you, seriously. You're all in my head. If i actually have a head. Who knows! You can't prove it to me that I do or I don't. Everything in my life, in this world, everything that I ever come into contact with. I made it all up Pain. Heartache. Happiness. You, me...life. All created by me.
There's no point in talking to you because I made you up, I made what your saying up.....all Subconciously. Fuck, I even made up Subconcious.
I just have a really bad memory so I can't remeber making this stuff up.

Or did I do it on purpose!?!!?!??!

Nah, I'm just screwing around. Pretending I'm on drugs.
(it's just as good)

But it's true. You can't convince me to believe anything.

[ajay]

Dude that mushroom I gave you was a portabello (ha! ha!)

[MrBad]

......I knew that.


Dude. That time you thought your mom was watching a horror movie and screaming in her room. That was actually me, humping her. In the dark. Watching a horror movie.

[ajay]

So....in the end....I was right....she was still watching a horror movie.

[MrBad]

yeah.

[Arkham]

what you are talking about is from a subjective standpoint. from a 'your perspective' perspective.
what must be determined about your table is whether or not it exists apart from you. if you tell a hundred people to come in and take basic measurements of your table you would quickly discover that it does not rely on your perception to exist, it is an objective object.

[gillies]

according to Descartes, the only thing you can prove exists is yourself. By asking yourself if you exist, proves that you are a concious being that is somehow in existence.

[Sushi Destroyer]

there is a spoon and i just ruined its shit

[Tragic]

I love your question/post thingy. Here's how I approach it all...

Descartes' conclusion of "I think, therefore I am," isn't satisfactory. He is based the reality of his existance on his own intellect. The human mind is too unstable and flawed to carry the weight of the real. You cannot prove that something exists, like a pretty red table, when you rely only on your own perception of it. You are focusing on the wrong thing. Don't question the table's existence. Question your perception of the table. Don't drive yourself insane (I nearly did while asking the same kinds of questions you are asking) trying to prove beyond a shadow's shadow of a doubt that the table exists. You can't. There is always some way to cast shadows. Accept it; there is a table there. As much as it seems to change texture and shape, it exists. The confusion comes from trying to understand how the table relates to you, and you to it. Simplify it. You know that if you set a glass of your choice beverage on the table, it will rest there and not fall through to stain the rug. You can trust the table as far as you know to act like a table and follow certain rules. You perceive the world you live in to be a certain way (following certain rules). Whether or not that reality is truly true is incidental. You believe it to be a certain way, so live according to that way.

So far, that's the best I can do apart from explaining how a belief in God would tie it together.

Please don't be a nihilist. Even those who claim to be nihilists aren't, because by claiming to not believe in anything is to state an ideal, which to a nihilist does not exist, so they cancel themselves out. You can listen to a nihilist ramble on for hours about how nothing is real, but no matter how he or she is convinced of their beliefs, they will always look down when you tell them their shoe is untied.

[t]

Tragic said:

Accept it; there is a table there. As much as it seems to change texture and shape, it exists. The confusion comes from trying to understand how the table relates to you, and you to it.

hahahahaha
i love life.

[t]

speaking of points of view..
isnt it crazy how eagles can see field mice from way up in the sky?

i love that shit!

[josiah]

dear tracey,
please write a book soon.

sincerely,
josiah

[xwheelercorex]

whats green and invisible?





































this cabbage.

[neilsucks]

what? i dont see it. and that PISSES ME OFF.