PSI Blog 20191030
Reality an illusion?
Among the stupidest ideas in regressive physics is the
claim of UC Irvine prof Donald Hoffman that was highlighted by New Scientist
recently: https://go.glennborchardt.com/Reality.
Of course, this is nothing new, just plain old immaterialism—the blurb by
Chopra is the kiss of death.
If you wish to
read the book this came from, here it is: Hoffman, Donald D., 2019, The case
against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes: New York, Norton,
272 p.
Apparently, the
well-worn central thesis of this mess is that perception is never perfect, and therefore
we can not trust it completely. Well, that is how the Infinite Universe is. The
materialist view is that reality is quite simple. Our perception is usually
good enough to tell the difference between a wall and a doorway. Neither is an “illusion.”
It they were, we would have been dead long ago. Granted, there are an infinite
number of complications both to the wall and the doorway. Univironmental
Determinism (e.g., evolution) has taught us to focus only on the important
features of our world. That does not make either the important or the
unimportant characteristics any less “material.” Shame on
New Scientist for publishing such claptrap.
I think where these guys lose there minds is space. Space is the base ingredient of everything. It is the infinitely variable analog nature of space that makes up the entire universe and everything contained within it. Science tends to treat space as something apart from matter or energy. They think we exist as something else within space. Some other material substance I suppose, like "pure energy", for example. They even tend to believe space was "created" at some point in time, which would mean that energy existed without, and/or before, space. Energy in their minds is greater than space. It would have to be greater in their minds, right? The entire universe in their view was defined as a point of "pure energy" that somehow exploded into a universe creating space and time in the process. Show me a bottle of "pure energy" or "time", and I might agree. We know that will never happen though, because neither exists independently in the motion of space. If they "believe" energy is real, it's little wonder why they would see our existence as an illusion. In that context, existence really is an illusion to them. What causes an illusion though? A lack of understanding or knowledge.
ReplyDelete"Apparently, the well-worn central thesis of this mess is that perception is never perfect, and therefore we can not trust it completely. Well, that is how the Infinite Universe is."
ReplyDeleteTrue, both statements, then you deny the truth of the first statement.