Will_Newsome comments on Were atoms real? - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (156)
I'm a little startled by you interpreting "more real" as an quantitative comparison, when I meant it as a qualitative one, so I have to back up a bit and ask you to unpack that.
Presumably you aren't arguing that inspiring art, science, devotion and whatnot is what it means to be real, or it would follow that most of the atoms in the universe are non-real and are in non-real configurations, which is a decidedly odd use of that word.
You say later that God is "much more complex," and I can't really see what that has to do with anything... I mean, a tree is much more complex than a wooden pole, but I wouldn't say that has anything to do with the reality of a tree or of a wooden pole.
Basically, I can't quite figure out what you mean by "real," and you seem to be using it in ways that are inconsistent with the way most people I know (including quite a few theists) would use it.
For my own part, what I would conclude from your argument is that God, independent of reality or non-reality, is more important than Santa Claus. Which I would agree with. If God is a reality, it's a more important reality than Santa Claus. If God is a myth, it's a more important myth than Santa Claus. Etc.
Incidentally, many people write letters to Santa Claus, and sometimes things happen that they experience as a reply from Santa Claus. If that is different from what you are referring to as an "answer" here, then I've continued to misunderstand you.
So, let me back up and try again. I'm currently imagining a purple dinosaur named Ansel with a built-in helicopter coming out of its skull and a refrigerator in its belly. Are you suggesting that Ansel is real, since it exists in my mind, and that it would become increasingly real if other people sat around imagining it too?
By the way, User:ata made this illuminating comment which I agree with; see my reply (where I admit to defecting when it comes to using words correctly).
(nods) Cool. This is essentially why I have been talking all along about the use of words, rather than talking about what kinds of things exist; it has seemed to me that our primary point of discontinuity was about the former rather than the latter.