Does the belief in something change the reality of its existence?

Question

if no, then why doesn't Santa exist for Jewish children? or the tooth fairy for skeptical children? or the boogie man for brave children?

Nicholas: God exists in physical form? who says??

Answer 1

No. Santa, tooth fairy, and the boogie man are just ideas and stories. They exist as such but not in physical form.

Answer 2

No, the belief in something does not change the reality of its existence. Neither does the belief in something make its existence a reality. So believing in Santa does not make him real. Neither does believing in God make Him real for that matter.

Neither does disbelief change the reality of a thing's existence. Thus, not believing in getting a ticket for speeding doesn't mean that the paper in your hand is NOT a ticket, does it?

The existence of a person or a thing does not find its reality in belief. You may not believe that train bearing down on you is real, but when it demolishes your car with you in it, I'm sure you will have about a nanosecond to realize you were wrong.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 3

You're not talking about real things in your question. No one believes in an actual Santa Claus or tooth fairy or boogie man once they're an adult.

But as far as believing affecting existence, there's a very interesting thing call the observer effect. For instance, if you want to study light and you choose to study it as a wave, you will get results for a wave, but if you choose to study it as packets, you will get results for packets. (I know that's not the scientific term, just easier to understand.)

Answer 4

Belief in something speaks nothing to the reality of that something.

If something does not exist or is not real then whether I believe in it or not does not change the truth about it's existence.

The same would be true if something were absolutely true and real but I chose to believe that the something was non-existent. My belief would not change the truth and could not change reality.

Answer 5

Belief has nothing to do with reality. The ancient Greeks believed that Poseidon was responsible for the tides in the oceans. Now we know that it is due to the gravitational forces exerted by the earth, moon and sun. Beliefs change from generation to generation.

Answer 6

Thoughts occur on a quantum level of reality. Any event which occurs on any level of reality affects all other levels of reality. This is at the crux of The Butterfly Effect. So thoughts affect reality and can then influence the existence of things within that reality.

In other words, thoughts can bring about the existence of something or otherwise alter its existence.

Answer 7

Believing in something doesn't change life, but it changes your perception over life. A lot of people give up a lot of things they enjoy because the bible sais it's wrong (for example, premarital sex).

In university, I learned that there are 2 gods: the real one that we know nothing about, that might not even exist, and the one created by man. The one created by men is not real, but it affects our existance very much

Answer 8

The relative reality of one belief does not affect its ability to alter a broad reality. One did not need to believe in Allah to be killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Answer 9

If we all believe in flying tulips than they exist, is the thought?
Than if one single doubt would ruin it right? yet with a million doubts and one person of greater faith than all those doubts change that. That is fancy but it ignores actual truth and falsehoods. That philosophical approach seems mainly occultic and wrong. Even if a person verses in the occult could make a tulip fly it would be a falsehood. make sense?

Answer 10

In a way. The belief that a piece of paper is worth a meal can alter the reality of the piece of paper, but the belief that there is life after death changes nothing about the reality of death.