Is reality subjective or objective? (religion, self)

[ukrkoz]

I'll try one more time
yes, there is objective reality of some sort.
Human, being an intelligent being, forms his opinion, understanding, of how and what that reality is, based on sensory feedback. There is no way around it. This is how humans are.
As the result, truly, what any human perceives as an objective reality, is an "image" so to speak, of it, as processed by a human mind, based on that particular body physiological and mental uniqueness.
Hence, it is a subjective opinion about objective reality.
7 billion computers, connected to the same data source, will have exactly the same opinion about what the data source provides them with.
7 billion humans, will have 7 billion opinions about what the reality is.

[L00k4ward]

Your question is impossible to answer as you use the word “reality” as applicable to beliefs and perceptions of people’ and their consciousness

What are you actually trying to discuss? That material physical world, including the parts unknown to science doesn’t exist and it is to put it crudely “the figment of our imagination”?

That it is just a product of your thinking and senses?

Perhaps you could clarify?

The short answer - the real physical material world (including invisible to us world of the universe, the atoms, the electrons, the radio waves, photons, etc + the parts unknown) is objective, doesn’t depend on our (human) will, perceptions, senses, etc

Our perception of that objective world is subjective. Some comments already briefly covered that

There are numerous ways developed In philosophy, physics, other science to ensure that the subjective part doesn’t obscure the objective - there are even sciences devoted to that - as one example -epistemology, gnosiology

Objectivity and subjectivity always exists as a unity of 2 opposites and could be found in all objective as well as subjective phenomena - that what makes everything exist and develop and change - whether it is a material physical world around us - or something pertaining to humans thinking, human will and human senses

Apologies if I misunderstood and your question was pertaining to something completely different that you wanted to discuss

[Nancy739]

If I accidentally burn my hand on the stove, it's not subjective.

[Basiliximab]

If reality was subjective I would NOT be dropping my medicine, chapstick, hairbrush, car keys, hair clips, etc. etc. etc. Every. Single. Day.

[bale002]

Is reality subjective or objective?

Why is this an ‘either/or’ question?

Better question, why do humans insist on mentally strait-jacketing themselves?

[DesertRat56]

"Is reality subjective or objective?" Yes.

We all have a reality that we share, concrete, physical reality that is objective, and we all have our own reality based on our bias, fear and mental proclivities which is subjective.

[cb2008]

Originally Posted by DesertRat56

"Is reality subjective or objective?" Yes.

We all have a reality that we share, concrete, physical reality that is objective, and we all have our own reality based on our bias, fear and mental proclivities which is subjective.

Yes

[Sonic_Spork]

I see a lot of people talking here about THE observer, any one given particular human being, in contemplation of the subjective...

But what if we considered ALL observers?

If every thinking mind of any and all known species were to be simultaneously obliterated, if the Earth itself (presuming no extraterrestrial life) were to explode into tiny bits and all life eliminated... Would all of everything still exist? Would the "rules" we have puzzled out and observed that can be quantified mathematically still exist if no mind were left to observe or calculate them?

I believe so.

But if no mind is left to observe or believe, then what meaning does all of existence matter?

In eventual, distant eons of time would the particles inevitably come together for the formation of new life? What was there before us, what will be after? Is life as we know it inevitable and meant to be, or an extremely rare fluke? Is its delicacy and transience proof that one day the experiment will end and the cosmos will march on through the cold void of space in a purely lifeless state, free from the filthy machinations of microbes and primates alike and all their breathing and eating and crapping and breeding and violence? Is it elegant and beautiful, life? Or tragic and horrific and disgusting? Is its essential nature one of suffering or one of joy? Is it good? Is it evil? Is it neither?

Is there an intelligence of any kind that directs the choreography of the dance, or does it simply exist by accident?

Religious and mythological storytelling springs up in our efforts to answer these kinds of questions, because we can reach for an imagining of our own non-existence. We can contemplate that as a possibility. And while many atheists may say that science refutes and shuts down these kinds of supposed superstitions, sometimes what we discover in the course of science only reinforces the fact that while we may dust off portions of the greater blueprint and seek to understand the nature of the universe around us, we did not draw that blueprint nor build that reality ourselves, yet it seems to exist. Since multiple intelligent minds may observe and describe the same phenomena independently of one another, we presume that an objective reality exists independent of any observation.

But it is an unanswerable question really. Because in order to test it, would require not the elimination of ONE subjective observer, but ALL of them. And with no one left to ask a question or answer it...the question itself is rendered moot.

[msgsing]

Subjective is what you personally think happened. Objective is the external reality that exists independently of human emotions and feelings.

[considerforamoment]

Subjective in this case can also be thought of in terms of quantum physics and the fact that the observer changes the observed just by observing. So there can be no objective reality - there is no way it could be perceived or measured.