What makes something real?

[Chaos Theory]

Well how can you tell when something is real or not?

[Lancet Jades]

You can feel it, see it, hear it, sense it somehow, i guess.

[Wallie Wildo]

you cant you dont even know if life is real

[Blake]

yea,before i thought it was one big storybook.

[Wallie Wildo]

for all anyone knows were just a dream or if theres a god just a figment of his imagination

[Laggy]

i think everything ir real.. its more to me of "how do you know when somthing is not real".. thats what i ask lol... but in life the things that cross you..there real

in love?..its much harder to tell what is and is not real..

[Zelphiel]

personally... if I can either touch, see, hear, etc... it's real. or real enough for me to accept it as being real.

[Miles]

My cousin and me talked about something like this. I remember saying. "We could be someone's science prjecect...We could be living in a shoe-box and those things we call "stars" ...They could be air-holes."

I guess you know when somethings real...when you can feel it, when you can smell it, taste it...When you can break it...When you can fix it.

When it hurts if someone throws it at you >.>

[Kurbee]

When it hurts if someone throws it at you >.>

XDDDD

Agreed

[Grave Wisdom]

Only death is real! :D

[Elisa Maza]

What about things that only certain people perceive to be real? Like a feeling, or a myth?

Take.. I don't know.. Santa, for example. If someone were to beleive with all their heart that Santa were real, they would be real to them. Even if other people don't beleive in him and have absolutely no proof of his exsistance, to that one person, he's real.

Would you consider that to be a case of identifying reality, or nothing more than mere delusion? Is reality itself what one makes of it, or is it mearly what one can touch and see and smell?

[Coldasice]

Remember that "Absence of evidence does NOT necessarily mean evidence of absence". Which means, there are things which need faith to know of their existence, but even if you don't have faith, they still exist.

[The Deity]

Keep the spam down please, this is the DT.

What about things that only certain people perceive to be real? Like a feeling, or a myth?

Take.. I don't know.. Santa, for example. If someone were to beleive with all their heart that Santa were real, they would be real to them. Even if other people don't beleive in him and have absolutely no proof of his exsistance, to that one person, he's real.

Would you consider that to be a case of identifying reality, or nothing more than mere delusion? Is reality itself what one makes of it, or is it mearly what one can touch and see and smell?

Incorrect perception is different from real

[Elisa Maza]

Keep the spam down please, this is the DT.



Incorrect perception is different from real

Is it? Some things can be real to someone even without actually having proof of it's exsistance. Feelings of love, for example, can often not be seen nor understood by those around a person, yet the feelings themselves can be very "real".

Of course, feelings can also be openly expressed so that they can indeed be witnessed, but in the case where you don't express those feelings, would those feelings be any less real?

The same thing applies to the Santa thing. (with which I was just using as an example) Even though there's no real proof of his exsistance, that doesn't mean he isn't real, or can't be real to someone, somewhere.

That's why I feel that "reality" is no more than what a person makes of it themselves. Even if one single person beleives something to be real, and everyone around him considers that thing to be nothing more than a delusion, to that one person, it's still real. Even if it's not to anyone else.

That's just how I take in "reality" anyway.

[The Deity]

Feelings are nothing that can really be disputed on a false or real aspect due to only one person judging from their own mindset what they actually feel. Just because someone feels they are in love, it doesn't make it reality. Its just their interpretation of their emotions.

As far as Santa goes, its just a belief in a fictional character. Simply believing in someone or something doesn't make it reality despite your belief in its existance.

[Elisa Maza]

Well, I disagree. I fully beleive that you don't need to see or feel something in order to ascertain wether it's real or not, and I beleive that certain things can be real to certain people while not being real to others. There are countless things in life where people beleive one thing while others do another. (religion, for example, but I really don't want to get into that)

Just beleiving something is real is enough to make it real for you, even if it's not for others. My belief in this type of thinking is real, for example, even though it's obviously not, to you. Yet I still beleive what I'm saying, and therefor that belief is "real".

[Rainbow Dash]

You do.

In fact, the truth is that you are the only one here who IS real - you were in a terrible accident years ago, and have been creating this world in your mind while comatose.

[Grave Wisdom]

Yvl: Your post was almost nightmare inducing for me! ;)

[Rainbow Dash]

Oh, btw, because perception is reality, if every person shares the same opinion, then it becomes fact.

Yvl: Your post was almost nightmare inducing for me!
It sure did get me a bonus point for a presentation on a word in English class last year. Can't remember what it was though.

[Seraph Zero]

Reality... A tricky thing. Technically speaking, reality is our interpretation of what we perceive in the world around us. Who's to say what's real and what's not? I suppose there is such a thing as "empirical evidence" and scientific proof, but then again, even set measurments are created by humans; slaves to their own perception. Everything and nothing can be real... It's all a matter of how you look at the world.

Or I might just be full of shit... Whatever...

~Seraph

[Pinkie Pie]

Feelings are nothing that can really be disputed on a false or real aspect due to only one person judging from their own mindset what they actually feel. Just because someone feels they are in love, it doesn't make it reality. Its just their interpretation of their emotions.

As far as Santa goes, its just a belief in a fictional character. Simply believing in someone or something doesn't make it reality despite your belief in its existance.

You could use the same argument to say that God isn't real.

I think Kimi-chan has it nailed down pretty well.

[Lancet Jades]

You could use the same argument to say that God isn't real.

I think Kimi-chan has it nailed down pretty well.
Of course, the problem is, things still exist. You could believe I'm not reall all you wanted, but I'm still a human, and I exist. Even if to you I'm just a fairy tale, it doesn't change the fact that I DO in fact exist, looking at it from the absolute.

The obvious problem is that you could argue our perception is everything, which it may well be to US, but it has no effect on whether or not the thing DOES indeed absolutely exist. Objective vs. subjective, I believe is a good way of describing my argument.

Thus, you could use Deity's argument to argue that God doesn't exist, but it'd be one persons beliefs vs. another, without any proof either way for both parties, hence rendering it futile and moot.

[Dark Marmosett]

Heh. How did I never post here before...anyway....mainly what lades said....but also watching the truman show movie...it makes you really wonder....are you in some of the same sort of thing like he was? It kind of creeps me out when I think about it like that. ><