A very religious person once told me: “Of course my religion sounds silly when you just describe it. All religions do. That’s why it takes faith.”
That’s maybe the healthiest attitude towards religion that I’ve ever heard. And it’s one that those without faith would do well to remember as well.
Because Descartes.
“I think therefore I am”, right? Except at the heart of Descartes’ book is an article of faith: that he can actually believe his senses because God is too good to fool someone like that.
And without that faith that your senses are accurately portraying the outside world, there isn’t even room for silopsism. There may be nobody other than me… And me might not even exist.
When you stop to consider the nature of consciousness, recent studies strongly imply that our “self” isn’t really in charge of anything, if it even really exists at all. Even our perception of our own thoughts is suspect.
There is faith. Perhaps faith that our thoughts exist. Faith that our senses tell us what’s going on accurately.
But faith nonetheless.
And it does sound kind of silly when you just describe it.