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submitted 1 year ago by unmarketableplushie@pawb.social to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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Image transcription: a section of a Wikipedia article titled "Relationship with Reality". It reads "From a scientific viewpoint, elves are not considered objectively real. [3] However," End transcription.

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[-] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

Would you say that feelings, thoughts and numbers do "exist"?

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Would you say that God has the same power as the number four?

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Where enough people have believed in the reality of elves that those beliefs then had real effects in the world, they can be understood as part of people's worldview, and as a social reality: a thing which, like the exchange value of a dollar bill or the sense of pride stirred up by a national flag, is real because of people's beliefs rather than as an objective reality. Accordingly, beliefs about elves and their social functions have varied over time and space.

There are a few crusades and jihads that point towards gods being just as meaningfully real to us as dollar values and national pride

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Again, that's actions taken by people based on beliefs, not actions taken by that in which they believe.

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Same goes with trading a dollar bill for goods and services. That dollar doesn't have legitimate inherent value, but it can manifest change in the world via the people that believe it does. Same goes with pride in your country/city/state/province when you see your region's flag. It isn't physically real, but the wiki never claimed that it is.