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My Reality vs. Your Reality vs. Real Reality |
Many people say, "I have my reality and you have yours, and who is to say which one is real? Maybe my reality is real to me and your reality is real to you?" Some say, "If I believe in it – it's real to me." Do we have our own individual realities that are somewhat isolated from objective reality? Does believing in something make it real?
Suppose a Christian who sincerely believes that God can make him fly and a Muslim who believes that God can make him fly both jump off the Golden Gate bridge at the same time. Who will hit the water first? Perhaps we should try it and see. Then, we can get thousands of people praying for both of them and keep repeating the experiment until we find someone who defies the law of gravity. If any of them fly then all us Realists will convert to the religion of the person who God makes fly. If neither flies, then we Realists will bury the faithful and the planet is ours.
The point here is that gravity is real and it doesn't need you to believe in it for it to be real. Gravity doesn't require your faith, it doesn't love you, and it treats everyone equally all the time. When you stop believing in gravity, it doesn't go away.
Believing in something doesn't make it real. If something is real its reality doesn't depend on belief. Therefore, if you believe in something that is real and I don't believe in it then you are right and I am wrong. My belief, even if I believe strongly with all my might doesn't make it real.
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