Observable Evidence (apparent facts) on which Perceivable Reality is based

1. Typically, people have two types of abilities for trying to understand reality - - an ability to sense reality and an ability to remember and think about what is sensed. These abilities are limited in many ways.

2. A person's belief about something does not make the belief true. Many or most beliefs are partly or totally false.

3. The probability of a belief being true depends on all the related evidence, including evidence about human sensing and thinking.

4. The great disparity in the beliefs of intelligent people, as well as the history of science, show that the nature of, and reasons for, matter, our universe, life, and other fundamental aspects of our existence are matters of great uncertainty. The beliefs show that human minds, individually and collectively, tend to create and perpetuate beliefs that include satisfying illusions of certainty.

5. Widespread evidence shows that people often become certain of a belief in spite of obvious evidence of the great uncertainty of the belief. This allows us to conclude that influences much stronger than logic are shaping people's beliefs.

6. People tend to think in ways that help meet their needs (basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and other needs like recognition, security, control of one's environments, belonging, superiority, etc.)

7. Ultimate Reality includes things and events that have not yet been observed by people. For example, we know that many trees fall in forests without any person being aware of their falling. Similarly, the history of scientific discovery shows that, at any particular time, many important things exist and many important kinds of phenomena are occurring without people being aware of the things or phenomena. People will discover some of the things and phenomena in the future, but there will always be important things and phenomena unknown to people.

8. At birth, most people are similar. But due to genetic and environmental differences, people evolve different ways of thinking and behaving. This evidence about people was observed by Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) as follows: "By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart."

9. Some people never have the opportunity to obtain a realistic perception of reality due to genetic and/or environment causes (e.g. they are born without adequate sensing, memory, or reasoning abilities, or they are raised in an environment where survival is the only concern or where they are taught to believe a system of complementary illusions that is inconsistent with evidence and logic but includes illusions that make it difficult to learn why the system of illusions is wrong.)

10. People want to "know" about important influences on their lives (e.g. Why am I here? What causes the problems in my life? What will ultimately happen to me?). People want explanations that they can understand, that make sense to them, that provide meaning and importance to their lives, that provide hope for the future, and that answer worrisome questions. Many sets of explanations are available globally, although people may have little choice locally.