how_do_you_prove_your_existance Stirdeo can you prove it? ... 030715 ... sabbie not at all each one of you reading this is having an sabbie halluciation caused by pollen in the air mixing with the heated dust comming out of your harddrive or something. i pity you. ahahahaha... youve all individually dreamed up something that pities you. and the jehovah blasphmy from gnostic texts runs that jehovah was dreamed up to be god, and becuase he thought he was god, thats where he went wrong. 030715 ... Strideo suicide_honeymoon ... 030715 ... Jabberwock How do I prove my existence? Simple...*poke* AHG MY EYE, THE PAIN!!! My existance is painful, but the pain is what proves it for me...that and the presence of the Green Gummy Bear of Death. 030715 ... the cheer-up kid If my apparant existence is no more than an illusion created by you subconsciously to amuse yourself then why would you bother creating a pedantic bastard who lives only to point out your spelling mistakes? 030716 ... jane i like user24's theory 030716 ... angry j. helllllllo darwinnah! 030716 ... smurfus rex I think Descartes said it best. The tired old "I think, therefore I am". It may be tired, but it's true. I could say I exist because I can perceive my surroundings. But how do I know that's real? Dreams seem real when they're vivid enough. Think about the Matrix. An elaborate "program" to deceive the human mind into thinking it lives in a different world. A dream. So, if I can perceive my surroundings, I can be deceived by them also. But before I can be deceived, before I can perceive, my mind has to Think. Electrical impulses have to course over the topography of my gray matter in order to register memories, symbols, colors, smells, textures, sounds. But then, that process could be a deception too. I'm not a brain surgeon, nor did I design the squishy mass of tapioca. But even perceiving the possibility of being deceived by my own brain necessitates that I have a Mind. If I have no Mind, then all is darkness and silence. Therefore, I exist, because I can think. 030716 ... sixteen I don't. 030716 ... ferret as smurfus said above, if a child were to be brought up believing a certain thing, being told by everyone aroudn him/her that it were true, then they would be "programmed" in a sense. 030716 ... Toxic_Kisses why should I have to prove anything to you, can't you simply except? 031019 ... Dafremen : ) claptrap. 031019 ... endless desire Q: how do you prove your existance? A: well you don't. 031019 ... blather spell check No one can prove what does not exist. Existance is not a word. That's it, I promise. If you wouldn't test me so... 031019 ... levity touch me. 031019 ... Death of a Rose I'm touching levity, poke, poke, yep seems real, going to have to taste you to make sure though. 031020 ... misstree the question of proving existance first assumes that any part of "reality" can be proven to "exist," when in fact it's just a pack of lies that we agree is convenient. i could convince you that it's convenient that i exist, but i've got things to attend to. 031020 ... blather spell check Stop it! The word is existence, people! There is no 'a' in existence! You're going to give me an aneurysm if you keep insisting on spelling this word wrong. I know I'm probably only asking for trouble, but it's not that hard. I mean, come on. 031020 ... Crushing TK your so cute!! 031020 ... User24 jane; which theory was that? 031020 ... blather spell check To quote Ross in my favorite moment from Friends, "Y-O-U apostrophe R-E means you are. YOUR means your!" That may not be an exact quote, but it's close. You get the point. I'm sorry. Now that I'm back (even though I don't mean to be) they just keep coming to me. I'm pretty sure everyone's doing it on purpose, though. 031020 ... Lemon_Soda I'm with Miss Tree consenual_reality 031020 ... Freak you die the fact that your death is acknowledged shows that you must have been living in the first place 031020 ... blather spell check I correct spelling. Existence. 031020 ... celestias shadow after you die, we know that you existed. we can feel the absence. the hole in space/time where you used to stand. 031026 ... a thimble in time Descartes thought the issue was settled when he said, "I think therefore I am." Low and behold some half-witted philosopher came and disagreed with him. This upstart rephrased the famous statement as follows, "I think therefore I'm thinking." What idiocy! What nerve! Such a willful lack of thought! But sometimes the fool coughs up the smoking joint of truth. If thinking proves thinking maybe being proves being. Hence I am here thinking. Or, in the words of Dr. Seuss: "Sam I am! I am Sam!" "Would you like green eggs and ham?" 031026 ... oldephebe heh heh 031026 ... celestias shadow ah, the immortal Seuss. without a doubt the greatest philosopher of our time. 031026 ... breygris i agree with those other people. die!! yay! 031027 ... misstree the problem is not so much proving my own existence, but proving the existence of everything else. it just pleases me to believe it's there. 031027 ... marked . 031027 ... phil lol. prove my excistence, that's a good one.. hahhahha 031027 ... the marker but does thinking = existence? what is the relationship between thought and existence? before we can prove it, we need to define it, and as each of us has an intention to either prove or disprove our existance, how can we give an unbiased definition? we could say that humanity is defined by it's diversity, therefore we exist merely by the fact that we evolve. we could say that humanity is defined by it's emotions, and that we exist because we have feelings we could say a lot of things, but none of them would be true, and if we can't reach the truth, is there any point in continuing? after all, what is the point of philosophy if not to bounce from one idea to another, in the hope of acheiving what science does, but without having to wait for technology to prove our theories? For me, philosophy is the art of knowing the universe so well you can predict the results, but perhaps I've reached a plateau; I know about chaotic systems, and how they affect the physical universe, but what about parallel dimensions? non-physical entities, souls, magic, emotions? how can I think about these things, when there is no science to build on, with no foundation in fact how can I form opinions and ideas on these topics; surely any answer could be true, do we really have no way of telling? --- drifted off topic as usual, but hopefully it'll provide some stimulation for restless minds out there. 031104 ... birdmad existence? well, what does it matter? 031104 ... Dafremen None of you actually READ claptrap did you? Ya just like to yack about this crap dotcha? Sigh. 031104 ... nocturnal aside from the fact that this page is incorrectly titled, I shall give you the answer to the intended problem anyway: you can't, so make your own inevitably arbitrary decision about what answer makes you feel the best, and move on. if you think you exist but we don't, cool. if you think everything exists exactly as we perceive it, that's fine too. don't you see it makes no difference and that any thorough discussion on this issue is little more than mental masturbation? excellent. case closed. I want to see no more posts on this page. 031104 what's it to you? who go blather from