When people believe in things that don't exist, we use words like delusional or gullible to describe them. In some cases, we'd say they are paranoid. A strong belief in something that doesn't exist is a sign of mental illness.
To avoid this, some resolve to believe only that which can be proven to exist. However, that turns out to be just as maddening as a belief in things that don't exists, because nothing beyond our senses can ever be proven.
If we resolve to believe only that which we can prove through our senses, we quickly end up with the problem of ascertaining if our sensory inputs are real or mere simulations. We have no way of knowing if we're living inside an advanced simulation, or inside a real world with real things.
We must, at this basic level, make a choice. We must either believe that the world around us is real, or we must believe that it's a simulation. However, only one choice leads to sanity, and that is to believe that the world around us is real.
People who partially or fully believe that only they are real, and everything else is mere scenery have no way to judge what other people think or feel. There can be no empathy in a world where only I exist. There can be no love, and no real joy. Everything becomes merely a matter of sensory inputs. We love only that which gives us physical satisfaction.
Such people are sociopaths. They don't connect to the world in a healthy way. It's all about them and everything else is secondary to their wants and desires. Such people are avoided and despised, because they have a mental illness that's not only detrimental to themselves, but to everybody else as well.
The only sane way to approach the external world is to accept three things:
- The world around us is real.
- We're no more special than everyone else.
- We're equipped with a free will.
Only when all three points are accepted can we conclude that the world is real and not a simulation. However, none of the above points can be proven. We have to accept them on face value. We have to have faith in the above in order to live healthy lives with love and empathy, and a sense of purpose.
This is why the above three points are central to Christian doctrine. We're told to believe in God and His creation. That's point 3 and 1 respectively. We're also told to love others like we love ourselves. That's point 2.
We're told to believe in all of this because it's the only way to live life fully.
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