Reality was around long before we started describing it- so which do u think is still catching up? Us or reality? We exist in the model of reality we have created for ourselves based on what we can see of it- our map to it has become our actual experience of it, but our map is not the thing itself- it is our present description only. Know the difference.

If only material things are truly real, science shouldn't exist at all to say so. Its a self-defeating argument that rational people wish to put forth in 'spiritual' debates- completely irrational and illogical. Science is the study of reality, it doesn't dictate what reality is. So our words or lack of them mean nothing to reality- reality is what it is, and we turn it into language bases like maths and English in order to communicate, convey and express, but at no time are our words or languages substitutes or representations of the things themselves- like the 2D word 'pen' is not a 3D tubular plastic sleeve which contains another smaller sleeve filled with ink with a valve system at one end to slowly release the ink when pressure is applied....see how language is a vast simplification process for expediting complicated expressive communication, and not the actual objects it is describing themselves.

What confirms or refutes reality? Is it third-party perspective- well probably about 4-5 billion out of 7 billion people believe in something, so that doesn't really work does it. Howabout what can be observed and measured then, that is the heart of the empirical scientific method- but what does that lead to? What is the outcome of stating that reality is only what can be observed and measured and given a name- so what u are thinking and feeling right now is not real? Science is based around humans ability to think, but science actually states that thought isn't real, it cannot be measured, observed, proven or predicted- hmm, contradiction, quandary. Science can only be applied to the material, and yet science is the result of the immaterial, the metaphysical- consciousness. So science cannot in fact comment on its own existence and therefore its own validity when dealing with things outside of physical, material boundaries.

but we still like to think we know a lot- much more comforting, like believing in god, who is much like my mate Dave, except for being older, the beard and the superpowers. It gives us the feeling of some measure of association and hence control over this reality, which humans seem to need, probably because they lost their real association when they left their 'spirit' back in the Bronze Age. And we appear to also need to look up to something else, and probably for the same reason we don't look up to the universe or nature (pagan, yes) anymore, so we worship idols of some kind instead. Even with secularism taking over, idolatry is on the rise- just go to a Lady Gaga concert and see the worshippers. For people to behave 'religiously' doesn't even take someone with superpowers anymore, they can in fact be complete fucking idiots and some people will still idolise them. Wow! Humans and our special (perceived) place in existence huh!

We made god in our image because we are completely supercilious, heads well and truly up our own asses...which is why we have such a hard time seeing anything except our own chamber of ass. And more surprisingly is that rational and logical people are absolutely no different- they have even got to the point of thinking they know so much about the unimaginable vastness, in terms of space and time and potential, of the cosmos that they just don't even need the idea of god anymore because they already know everything about everything, without any doubts...except, of course, for all the stuff we just don't know about but don't even think about or consider because its several billion light years away and happened 5 billion years ago and was so far removed from our experience and observation we couldn't possibly know...and anomalies and exceptions in our knowledge base like that account for the vast majority of this vast existence and reality.

I don't BELIEVE in god, but I don't really know what it is supposed to be- however, I KNOW that neither myself, or the other 7 billion people in this world, will KNOW in their lifetime what god is supposed to be and whether it/he/she exists because of blatantly obvious factors that almost everyone who considers themselves to be well educated and smart has seemed to have forgotten. The best reasons to not believe in god come from us, who we are and how we are, not from logical reasoning, rational thought, the empirical scientific method- our ego. The religious myth is that god is a super-HUMAN being of some kind. How comforting is that- that through the unimaginable vastness of the cosmos, the supreme being responsible for all of it is actually just an ordinary bloke on metaphysical super-steroids! How arrogant is that!?!

We have not experienced and observed enough reality to know what it really is, so we most certainly should not ever be stating what is or is not fundamentally possible or plausible- all we can do is best guess and back it up with observation and prediction from our current point of view, our frame of reference. A theory- not a fact. It works until it doesn't, then we have to refine or change the theory and redefine reality again in a slightly different way- so reality changes...how ironic is that! Philosophically then, if reality changes, there is no such thing, except through the conscious condition, because reality is a word to express truth- the truth of existence. If truth changes, how can it still be the truth? Because the truth is- perception is the only real truth. As perception changes so does truth, so does reality.

So our frame of reference dimensionally, empirically, scientifically, for ascertaining the true nature of overall reality is one of knowing next to nothing about it. Which potentially renders everything we think we know completely meaningless as we have, as good as, no experience of overall reality whatsoever- we simply base things on the assumption that tomorrow will be like today, here and everywhere else. Our ideas about reality come from observing reality itself, some people I think get to the point of believing theories from humans actually dictate reality. What we know is based on the past, and things not being different tomorrow, but if reality did change tomorrow we would have to change our theories, its not the other way round.

Everything we think we know about reality is based on what- the last several thousand years of experience and observation here on this world if we are supremely well educated and intelligent, which none of us really are, so it is really based on our own lives, experiences and observations, and those of the people around us and those we choose to listen to and ackowledge and accept the information of. But lets assume we were the former; ok, frames of reference- even one hundred thousand years in universal terms is far less than 0.0001% of overall time, ie; absolutely nothing. And this world, our home, the only thing we have ever had any experience of, accounts for 0.0000000000000000000000...fol­lowed by another hundred trillion noughts then a one, of overall existence and reality.