Look at the quote in the grandparent. For the purpose of this thread I’m using the word “real” in the sense of “existing outside and independently of your mind”. By that approach beliefs are not real and sentences “X exists” and “X is real” have very different meanings.
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Things that don’t exist can’t have effects.
Religion is real. God isn’t, but the belief-in-god is and has effects.
Value—a shared pattern between brains—is real and has effects.
Look at the quote in the grandparent. For the purpose of this thread I’m using the word “real” in the sense of “existing outside and independently of your mind”. By that approach beliefs are not real and sentences “X exists” and “X is real” have very different meanings.
If you stop believing in religion, that does not stop fundamentalists from existing.
If you stop thinking money has value, the economy will not collapse.
Even if you don’t trust your own brain, a shared meme can still be “real.”