I frequently have cause to make a statement along the lines of
"I know God exists" or
"I am as sure of God's existance as I am of the existance of this computer screen sat in front of me".
Such statements are usually issued in response to folk who tell me that I
"can only believe that God exists" or I
"can only think that God exists but cannot be sure he does exist". They sometimes pose
"how do you know it's God and not Shiva?" type questions too.
How do I know it's God and not Shiva indeed! The simple answer is that everything I know to be the case relies in the first instance on my trusting my perception of reality to equate to actual reality. If my perception happens to line up with reality then what I know to be the case is actually the case. If my perception does
not correspond to reality then what I know to be the case is not actually the case. It should be clear that there is no way for me to verify that any of my root perceptions correspond to any reality that might exist. It seems to be an automatic thing to simply assume they do correspond.
Everyone (assuming my perception as to their existance is correct) is in the same boat as me, yet many here seem to suppose they are not. Ask some folk the question:
"how do you know you are a walking, talking, embodied person - and not a brain in a jar?" and they immediately begin to reason in a circle. They point to aspects of the world outside (which they assume is real) to verify the reality of the world outside (which they assume is real). Or they dismiss the question as useless and in doing so, tacitly dismiss the question "how do you know it's God and not Shiva?" as useless.
A number of such discussions are cluttering up threads so I figure to bring them under one roof here. If promoted I'll copy some posts I need to respond to here and reply.
NB: I am not saying that my knowing God exists is offered as evidence for Gods existance (other than by weight of testimony alone). Nor am I saying that my knowing God exists says anything about God existing in any absolute sense. God exists for me just like everything else exists for me: I perceive him to exist and assume that this perception, like all other root perceptions regarding reality, actually reflects reality.
Edited by iano, : No reason given.
™ Version 4.2