Dontaskme wrote: ↑Tue Sep 25, 2018 6:24 pm
If God is an illusion.
Can an illusion exist without it being KNOWN TO EXIST.
That still leaves the problem of the illusion existing.
To think of something is to create the something and know the something in the same instant.
Veritas Aequitas - How do you resolve the problem of knowing an illusory something that is then known as impossible?
I believe you missed the point.
Theists believe in a God which they think is real.
From a rational non-theistic understanding, that God which theists think is real is actually an illusion, i.e. a transcendental illusion - not an empirical illusion.
Crudely, that is like a Schizophrenic believing the gnomes he 'really talked' with in his garden are 'real'. But common knowledge inform us, the schizo was hallucinating an illusion [empirical] from his neural process within his brain and mind.
Now, let say a theist understood that the God which he thinks is real is actually an illusion.
As such the theist will have to accept the God he believed is not real but an illusion and illusory. Then most of such theists will give up theism while some will remain theists despite knowing the truth.
The question could be, does this illusion exists at all?
What exists as real is only the neural processes that generate the illusion, but not the content of the illusion.
Example, when a person see a mirage of an oasis in the desert at GPS location xxx.xx.xxx. That is an empirical illusion of an oasis. The neural processes and the images in the brain of the person at that specific location and time are real but there is no real physical oasis [a fake] at location xxx.xx.xxx at that time.
Similarly, when a theist believed in a God, there are real neural processes and thoughts of a God in the brain and mind of the theist. But like the fake oasis in an illusion of mirage, the transcendental illusion of a God generate a fake God which theists insist is 'real'. Note, no theists has ever provided real evidence a God exists as real.
In the case of the illusion of God it is difficult to convince any theist of the neural basis and processes of the illusion because it happens at the transcendental level in the brain and mind. In addition there is no real God at all.
In the case of the illusion of a mirage of an oasis it is very easy to convince any one [even the very dumb] there is no real oasis by taking them to the location xxx.xx.xxx to confirm there is no real oasis. Thus one can easily KNOW the illusion is all in the brain and mind reacting to environmental circumstances.
Can an illusion exist without it being KNOWN TO EXIST.
That still leaves the problem of the illusion existing.
Yes, the illusion exists but only represented by real neural process not a real God.
The point is, if theists know that God is an illusion, they will not believe in a fake illusory God who cannot guarantee their salvation.
Because salvation of the self is so desperate [subliminally] to the theists, they will always resist to accept the idea of God is an illusion.
DAM as usual will shift the goal post, i.e. but there is still a knower of the illusion and its neural processes in the brain and mind.
As I had explained in another post,
there is a hierarchy of selves within the basic human self.
The knower [conscious] of the illusion process in the brain is the conscious waking self, not the dreamer, sleep nor heavily sedated self.
The layers of the subconscious self has the potential to know [based on memory, etc.] but it cannot consciously know of the neural processes.
So there is a fundamental self of a living person.
This fundamental self is extinguished when the person is dead.
There is no other self or absolute SELF beyond the fundamental self of a living person.
DAM claimed there is an absolute SELF that merges with the ABSOLUTE SELF or ONENESS that cannot be known. This is a result of a process of transcendental illusion emerging from an existential desperation.
This is the origin and source of a river of belief that had led SOME evil prone theists to commit terrible evil and violence in the name of God and their religion.
As the critical strategy of solving any problem at its roots, why we MUST nip the manifested problem of theistic evil potential at its source, roots and origins.
