The Endless Dabate

Dear Abbot:

Intelligent people do not belive in God. How can you believe in the reality of a thing that is not physical?

Bright


Dear Bright:

We actually live in the mental world, and it is the physical world that is conjecture.

It is easier to talk to others in detail about, and come to consensus about, the physical world, because, as you say, of the common point of reference, but that is not the same thing as proof of reality. Nor does it make what we say about the mental or spiritual world arbitrary.

All we know is the mental experiences we have, our sensations, along with our thoughts, emotions, dreams. To suppose that any of these correspond to a reality existing independently of the experience itself is already conjecture. And there is really no better reason prima facie to conjecture that sensations do than that emotions, thoughts, or dreams do.

So the entire physical world is hypothetical.

But the mental or spiritual world self-evidently exists, because we experience it directly. The experience of it is the thing itself. We are spiritual beings.

Abbot