Very interesting reply! Thank you for posting your views, @krnl! After reading several of your posts, I admire your clear reasoning & communications, but I must differ with you on this.

I am well aware of Mr. Passio's views. While I do agree with him on many topics, this is not one of them. Here's my reasoning: If you can find a logical refutation that does not entail relying on my own sense perceptions or my own belief systems to understand & ultimately accept or refute, I would be more than happy to adopt it. I contend that existence without consciousness is meaningless, as you cannot process the experience without having a subjective experience first. I cannot understanding anything without first referring to having an "I." I am just going on my own subjective experience, it is true. But I don't know how to consider the truth value of any claim without resorting to & relying upon my own consciousness to do so.

Incidentally, Descartes, Plato, Leibniz, Berkeley, Kant & many other rationalist philosophers have come to similar conclusions based on the analysis of how they perceive & experience reality. I would be very intrigued to hear how we can verify the existence of an external reality without using our own consciousness. What techniques do you use to verify this pre-existing external reality without reference to subjectivity & a belief system that either accepts or rejects said proof? It is true that this is a priori reasoning, but again, how to demonstrate the truth of an external reality without it?

I am not being facetious - I'd really like to know....