Potatoes do not exist

[Crash Test]

Thou doth protest too much...

I'm still giggling.

I protest too much?  That's the first time I've even mentioned that I wasn't offended :S

[Booger]

If I took you to the grocery store and picked up a potato off the shelf and showed it to you, would you then believe me ?  Or would you claim "that isn't a potato".

If the latter, which it seems many of you think accurately represents a skeptic (even though it doesn't), I would seek then to either define what the word potato meant to your satisfaction, or ask for your definition of a potato and then demonstrate how the thing that I just showed you accurately meets that definition.

If after that you still refused to accept that it was a potato, then I would question your sincerity.  After all, if we define anything, like X, and we say that X has properties X, Y and Z and then I show you something with properties X, Y  and Z and you still rejected it, then you apparently misunderstand the nature of descriptors, and at that point it becomes impossible to show you that anything at all exists, because you don't accept the idea of descriptive words.

What you call a potato has the texture and flavor of something quite different than what I would call a potato. I call it a "strawberry. "

What you see as evidence for the reality of potatoes,  I see as being evidence of a circumscribed point of view,  a point of view limited by the inabity to see beyond the obvious. You might call it empirical evidence;  I call it superstition -- an unwarented trust in the physical senses to tell you all there is to know about the world

[AnimatedDirt]

Thou doth protest too much...

I'm still giggling.

I protest too much?  That's the first time I've even mentioned that I wasn't offended :S

Thou doth protest too much of me laughing......<sigh>

But it still makes me giggle.

[Johan Biemans (jbiemans)]

What you call a potato has the texture and flavor of something quite different than what I would call a potato. I call it a "strawberry. "

What you see as evidence for the reality of potatoes,  I see as being evidence of a circumscribed point of view,  a point of view limited by the inabity to see beyond the obvious. You might call it empirical evidence;  I call it superstition -- an unwarented trust in the physical senses to tell you all there is to know about the world

Great, so we are making progress here.  So, what I call a potato, you call a strawberry.  Ok, so you accept that "strawberries exist" ?  Right ?

Now, on to potatoes (since we have gotten 'strawberries out of the way =D ).  What exactly are you defining as a 'potato' ?  Clearly, my definition is different than yours, so, absent an understanding of what you mean when you use the word 'potato', I am not sure that I can help you at all here. 

I honestly have no idea at all what your second paragraph is talking about though ??

[Booger]

What you call a potato has the texture and flavor of something quite different than what I would call a potato. I call it a "strawberry. "

What you see as evidence for the reality of potatoes,  I see as being evidence of a circumscribed point of view,  a point of view limited by the inabity to see beyond the obvious. You might call it empirical evidence;  I call it superstition -- an unwarented trust in the physical senses to tell you all there is to know about the world

Great, so we are making progress here.  So, what I call a potato, you call a strawberry.  Ok, so you accept that "strawberries exist" ?  Right ?

Wrong. Matter does not exist. It's all in the mind.

Meaning is a projection of felt values/experiences: strawberries for me, potatoes for you. Your felt values/experience can be described as something as bland as a potato, but I find that a totally inadequate description for my felt values/experiences. What you call a potato is, to me, a mere shadow of reality and am amused by your attempts to prove the potato is a substantial reality.

No, potatoes do not exist. But neither do strawberries exist in the sense that you say potatoes exist.

[TheBigOhMan]

Thou doth protest too much...

I'm still giggling.

I protest too much?  That's the first time I've even mentioned that I wasn't offended :S

Thou doth protest too much of me laughing......<sigh>

But it still makes me giggle.

You have problems dude...

[Johan Biemans (jbiemans)]

 You realize that you went from questioning the existence of potatoes to the existence of all reality.  You do realize those are 2 vastly different questions, right?

[Booger]

You realize that you went from questioning the existence of potatoes to the existence of all reality.  You do realize those are 2 vastly different questions, right?

Let's be clear: I do not question the existence of reality per se. I question the reality of things. I question the reality of potatoes and you cannot prove they exist.

Need I quote from the movie Lucy again?

[Booger]

I will anyway:

Humans consider themselves unique, so they've rooted their whole theory of existence on their uniqueness. "One" is their unit of measure. But it's not. All social systems we've put into place are a mere sketch. "One plus one equals two.” That's all we've learned. But one plus one has never equaled two. There are, in fact, no numbers and no letters. [Neither are there any laws.] We've codified our existence to bring it down to human size, to make it comprehensible. We've created a scale so we can forget its unfathomable scale.

(I inserted the bracketed sentence.)

[neil]

Goodness but this thread has become trollrific.

I just like to add that I cannot believe a Dict-tater as cruel as the one we find chip manual can be the embodiment of the all good stew.

[Questions11]

*groan*

[Johan Biemans (jbiemans)]

Let's be clear: I do not question the existence of reality per se. I question the reality of things. I question the reality of potatoes and you cannot prove they exist.

Again, I feel that I have to state this clearly, demonstrating the existsnce of potatoes is vastly, vastly different from demonstrating the reality of all physical things.  The OP was asking for the former, not the latter.  Have you abandoned the question of the OP ?

[AnimatedDirt]

Thou doth protest too much...

I'm still giggling.

I protest too much?  That's the first time I've even mentioned that I wasn't offended :S

Thou doth protest too much of me laughing......<sigh>

But it still makes me giggle.

You have problems dude...

Don't we all, Captain Obvious?

[Booger]

Let's be clear: I do not question the existence of reality per se. I question the reality of things. I question the reality of potatoes and you cannot prove they exist.

Again, I feel that I have to state this clearly, demonstrating the existsnce of potatoes is vastly, vastly different from demonstrating the reality of all physical things.  The OP was asking for the former, not the latter.  Have you abandoned the question of the OP ?

To you, potatoes are an experiential reality; to me, they are a figment of your imagination, a projection. The burden is on you to show potatoes actually exist. Are you begging the question? (Or offended?)

You're facing a problem theists encounter all the time: skeptics asking for evidence with none forthcoming for the same reasons you cannot come up with evidence for the existence of potatoes.

[FNB - Former non-believer]

I feel like this thread is returning to its original intent! I think booger is correct that questioning all of reality does effectively question the existence of potatoes. It is a debate tactic that happens on this site but I know Christians do stuff like this as well at times so I want to be fair.