Is there such a thing as objective reality?

[The Mikado]

My inclination is towards no, that the universe we perceive is at least partially created by our minds and preconceptions of how things work, and that therefore there are as many "realities" as there are people. To a person who strongly believes in the healing potential of fairies, illness that ends in recovery might well be the work of fairies, something this person strongly believes in, even though to the outside observer it is just a recovery. It's one issue I've always had with a lot of modern atheists: there's this unstated presumption that there's only one physical reality that is the same for everyone inside of it. The universe is, to me, equal parts the actual nature of things outside of me and how I choose to perceive and interpret it, and the intellectual structures that lead to my interpretation, everything from my past experiences to something like the English language which has words for some thoughts but not others and steers me towards things that I have words for, shape my view of how things work. This view is going to be very different from jmfcst's, for example, but in a real way, in jmfcst's worldview the salvation from sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is far more real than it is in my reality.

I don't feel that there's enough grappling with the distinction between whether reality is the things outside of us or the creation of our own perceptions, biases, and preconceptions. I very much dispute that there is such a thing as one "reality."

Just a thought of the day.

[The Mikado]

If reality is so loosely weaved, leave your house by the second floor window because you strongly believe you will be able to leave the house that way and then see if your assumption holds up.

From your perspective, I might be dead. From my perspective, though, the universe itself would have ceased to exist along with me. That's exactly what I mean. Does reality exist for me separately from my perception of it? Rather, it seems like it's constructed by my perception of it.

[The Mikado]

I was thinking about a little experiment that could be done.

1. Gather 15 mentally healthy people in a room.
2. Have a black medium sized dog (like a lab) walk into the room.
3. Call the dog out.
4. Ask immediately what everyone saw (or if anyone saw anything other than a black dog - a man, a woman, a fairy, an elf, a dragon, etc.).

I guarantee that everyone will have seen a black dog. Then, if there is still skepticism, repeat the experiment with, say, a woman in a red dress with raven hair. Then check immediately to see if anyone saw anything other than a distinct woman in a red dress with dark hair.

Of course this would be a colossal waste of time to prove the obvious, but nonetheless if there exists doubt concerning objective reality, or if we're bending over backwards to say that there is no such thing, then these kinds of things can prove useful to demonstrate that there is.

And then the blind man in the room does not perceive the same reality as the other participants in your experiment and the results are called into question, yes.