That would be “what Gib thinks exists” versus “what a child thinks exists”. That is not “what exists (independently from what anyone thinks)” versus “what a child thinks exists”. To think that “what Gib exists” is the same as “what exists (independently from what anyone thinks exists)” is to eliminate Gib from the equation i.e. it is to take things out of context.
It is true that what one man thinks exists is separate from what another man thinks exists. However, it is not true that what exists is separate from what someone thinks exists. For example, when you say “Santa Claus does not exist” what you are saying is “Gib thinks that Santa Claus does not exist”. We remove “I think” from the sentence for the sake of convenience (imagine if we had to preface each one of our statements with “I think” or “In my opinion…”) and not because the sentence reflects something that is independent from what we think.
That’s true.
Exactly. That’s the difference between relativism and egalitarianism. Relativism merely claims that truth is relative to one’s viewpoint (i.e. method of reasoning and experience.) Egalitarianism claims that anything goes i.e. that every possibility is equal to every other. Since possibilities are equiprobable, what you believe is insignificant. This means that other things, such as social cohesion, can take priority and dictate what you’re going to believe.
What’s the point of saying that what you see in front of you is real? Is there a situation in which it makes sense to say that what you see in front of you is not real?
It is assumptions that are either real or not. Consider the work of an illusionist. Whatever you see in front of you (e.g. a woman cut in half) is neither real nor unreal. Rather, it is your assumptions about what goes behind the scenes that are either real or unreal. For example, you might think that at the point in time when the woman appears to be cut in half that her torso is physically cut in half and that she is therefore dead. But if you were to peek behind the scenes you’d see that’s not the case.
Assumptions are about what we did not experience.
There are two types of assumptions: predictions and retrodictions.
Predictions are about what we have yet to experience.
Retrodictions are about what we haven’t experienced in the past (they are also about what we did experience in the past, but we can ignore that.)
Ultimately, the purpose of assumptions is to predict the future, so retrodictions are subservient to predictions.
You can use the word “reality” if you want to but it introduces vagueness. Why say that assumptions are about reality when you can simply and clearly say that assumptions are about what we did not experience?
Does that mean there is no such a thing as an event that does not have an effect?
What does it mean for an event to have an effect?
It means that you can predict some other event based on it, right?
If there is no such an event, then it has no effect.