Zak -

What you say is perfectly reasonable. To put it another way - we might just be a kind of by-product of the divine intellect meditating on itself. Who knows? Nobody does.

I suppose I take an existentialist line, saying that we have to deal with the phenomena that our consciousnesses provide us with. Teh first thing we have to accept is that there is a lot of uncertainty about fundamental reality.

We then have to decide how we engage with that uncertainty. Pascal recommended we take a gamble on faith in a benevolent God who is interested in our fate. I suppose my arguemnt woudl be we should (a) try and enjoy the life we have and (b) engage with the uncertainty in constructive ways.

Despair seems to me an odd path to follow, since if everything is uncertain then everything is possible.
I think it is a rather positive state of affairs, not unlike youth itself - when we are young and the pattern of our life is undecided, it is an exciting time. Difficult perhaps, but potentially full of hope and joy and expectation.

David

"if everything is uncertain then everything is possible. "

That is a great quote. It explains alot for me. Thank you.

"Reality is an illusion, although a persistant one."

--------Albert Einstein

are you familiar with relativity?

simply put, you aren't likely to move through things that are harder than you, such as brick walls but will move through softer things than you, such as air.

...THAN YOU is the relative bit.

'real' is one rotational energy experiencing another rotational energy. this is often called 'sub-atomic structure'.

you are real relative to like, perceptible energies.

or not. that's up to you- belief is also relative, after all!!

sean