transient

I didn't see this reply till today. But yea, I figured out it was confirmation bias after more conversation. I've since been trying to get them to see this too.

Thanks for this advice. I tried at lunch to ask them what is real. For every answer they gave, I reiterated their answer and followed up with another question. The talk was short and they kinda just walked out on the conversation. But they basically said they base reality on sense perception and past experience.

Thanks for the reply. I agree that being skeptical of things can be good. When searching information I tend to check multiple sources so that I'm not taking a single persons word for it. But,I think this person was saying, they didn't want to take a scientists word so instead they should take someone else's. The conversation revolved mainly about religion and parenting. Nothing to do with space. The above quote from the original post occurred when we were talking about theory of evolution. They took a creationist stance on the subject. I left this out originaly because I didn't want to make this thread about religion. It never really got hostile exactly. But they did seem defensive.

So, I was talking to my someone today and I said something about checking the evidence and drawing a logical conclusion from there. They responded with: "I hate when people say 'evidence', I don't know what evidence is real. Is space real? You don't know, you haven't been there..." There was a bit more to it than that, but I can't remember all. Anyway, what I want to ask is how should I have reacted, or how would you have?

@bouncelot Thanks for that answer. It seems so simple I don't know how I could've missed it. @parasait I think you were saying that by gaining new perspective I call into question my old beliefs, breaking them down and even stripping them away. And that through this process I lose some sense of "intellectual stability" or something like that? I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but it's what I was sort of thinking before reading any answers. @j-william A few things I've read are Plato's republic, a couple philosophy textbooks, some work by Henry David Thoreau, philosophic dictionary by Voltaire and I've started a couple more. Though, mostly I just search Google and YouTube for articles, essays, lectures, debates and other related info.

So for the past few years I've been reading through a bunch of different philosophy related material. Basically trying to absorb as much knowledge as I can, to better understand the world and more importantly myself. Unfortunately, I feel like the more I study the more lost I become. Kinda like I'm becoming more stupid the more I learn. I'm pretty sure this can't be the case. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this or what you might think is the reason for this.

Hi. I've been reading through the forums for months now and finally decided to join in. I'm 26. Traveled a bit when I was young as a military brat. I myself joined the army after dropping out of high school. After that I worked various jobs in food labor and sales industries. I've spent basically my whole life following orders and, until recently, barely had a clue who I really was. I was always interested in philosophy but never took that interest seriously till a couple years ago. Before then the closest thing to philosophic discussion I ever had were drunken bull-sessions. I've come to the realization that all my friends and family are irrational hypocrites that don't really know what their talking about. I felt kinda embarrassed knowing I am just like them. I'm so glad to have joined this community. There isn't really people I can talk to about anything of worth in my home life. The path of self-knowledge should be hugely beneficial for me, both for simple curiosity and for practical use in bettering my life.