How the universe came to be?

[Blob]

I'd agree. Look at the unreliability and inconsistency of witness reports, for example. And look at the human ability to delude ourselves such as the phenomenon of believing one's own lies in order to fool others for our own benefit.

[Kurieuo]

If this is so, then where would that leave us with regards to believing anything? We are trapped with uncertainty all around us, never knowing whether anything is real. Perhaps everything is an illusion, created by our wishful desires for things to be structured, ordered and so forth in what might otherwise be a cruel chaotic world to live in. Perhaps we live in our own delusion?

Kurieuo

[Blob]

Who knows? I certainly find such a scenario conceivable, though personally I consider some kind of external reality to exist because it seems to kick back. It is grindingly abysmal when my needs go unfulfilled, and unmeasurably wonderful when I quench a terrible thirst with fresh water (say).

But whether such a bleak, confusing conception as you portray is valid or not I will still get out of bed and work and play and laugh and cry everyday.

Won't you?

[BGoodForGoodSake]

It has been pointed out by some that if we are the product of natural processes our rational faculties would not be calibrated towards truth, but towards surviving. Therefore we can't be certain that our rational faculties would lead us to truth.

Just thought I'd throw this in for some reflection.

Kurieuo

Survival depends on knowing that there are rules to the environment you are trying to survive in. Such as a lion is a predator. A full moon at night allows better vision. Water flows downhill. These are also truths, callibrating towards survival is calibration towards perceived truths.

Human beings only need be exposed to a situation a few times to reach a conclusion. That is why for many it only takes a few experiences to generalize incorrectly. Here, a few annecdotes.

"I don't like purple people they are always mean, just like that lady at the toll booth."
"The medical doctor won the green card lottery? Only educated people win the green card lottery, it's rigged."

If I were to tell you that when I drop this pen that it will float there instead of falling you would look at me like a lunatic. The fact that you instinctively know it is going to fall, is key to survival.
If I tell you something which goes against you're beleifs you would react in the same manor.

In the human mind there is no distinction between these two types of beleifs.

[Kurieuo]

Who knows? I certainly find such a scenario conceivable, though personally I consider some kind of external reality to exist because it seems to kick back. It is grindingly abysmal when my needs go unfulfilled, and unmeasurably wonderful when I quench a terrible thirst with fresh water (say).

The same "kick back" within experiences you talk of here, is how many feel about their experiences of God. For example, your mother would perhaps be no exception here in believing she had very real spiritual experiences. And you do write as though confused about her dramatic change, so a real spiritual experience would perhaps explain your mother's change would it not? It certainly carries much explanatory power.

Now just as our physical experiences may be illusory (and also religious experiences illusory), by the same token I feel people are justified in accepting a religious experience for the same reasons they are justified in accepting their other experiences. And surely it must be obvious to all that with our emotions such as love and hate, our free thinking abilities, artistic and creative abilities and so forth, that it is reasonable (very much so) to suggest that there is more to us than mere atoms? Do atoms love or feel? Can they be creative? The absurdity in answering positively to these questions appears to me readily apparent. And so there appear to be some very good reasons to assume that there is more to us than mere atoms.

For sure, people across many religions have many experiences, perhaps even differing experiences. Thus experiences may not be used to justify a particular religion above another, however this doesn't mean nothing is really experienced as an atheist might suggest. Just like someone may see blue while another sees red, doesn't take away from the fact some object is being seen which is absorbing and reflecting different wavelengths of light.

Given, you may not have had such an experience. But for those who have, wouldn't such people be in a better position some how than those who haven't? And here we must question the motives of such people. For example, would your mother have any alteria motive in telling a lie, or for claiming to have a higher cognitive experience than you and many others? If there is no alteria motive, it may of course be true that she is deluded in her experiences, as we all may well be in every one of our experiences, but going against post-modern thought, could it be that our experiences infact tell us something true about reality? Indeed we would be driven into insanity on our beds as you say if we did not make the decision to embrace what seems obvious to us.

Kurieuo