Solipsism: Hints Of Theism

I want to show that ontological solipsism, the belief that only my own mind exists, is a form of theism.  Solipsists and theologians from any particular monotheistic religion would certainly disagree over almost everything about the nature of reality, but both worldviews share an inescapable similarity that I have rarely if ever heard other people bring up.

If solipsism is true, everything outside of my own mind is an illusion of sorts invented by my mind.  Now, it is entirely, objectively impossible for everything outside of my mind to be an illusion or for nothing at all to not exist independently of my consciousness and perceptions (logic is something other than my mind which I grasp, and it exists independently of anything else by necessity; matter of some kind exists [1]).  But that is not the focus of this article, as I have already proven that in another post.  Theism is the belief in a creator entity that has caused the universe to exist.  What do solipsism and theism have in common, if anything?  Actually, they have some overlapping components that are perfectly identical.

Both theism (whether deism or the theism of a traditional organized religion) and solipsism acknowledge that an uncaused cause created an external material reality--or in the case of solipsism, an external material "reality."  I have proven elsewhere that an uncaused cause exists [2].  Solipsism requires this by necessity, for nothing can create itself (because a thing would have to exist before it existed to do so) or begin to exist without an external cause (nothing cannot create anything), and if something else created my mind, then solipsism would not be true.  In both worldviews, a thing that has always existed--which is a mind in solipsism and often a mind in theism--and that thing is responsible for causing what is called the material world to come into existence (the immaterial, abstract, and universal laws of logic are uncreated because they cannot not exist).  Of course, in solipsism the material world is just a construct of my mind and does not have any objective existence; it is only a perception I invented.  On most forms of theism, matter is not an illusion.

At its core, solipsism is a kind of theism.  It is not the traditional type, as it deifies the self instead of a being or cause outside of oneself.  But it is a form of theism nonetheless.  Both feature an uncaused cause, a "creation event", and a being of immense power with authority over the material world (although I have already acknowledged that the material world is very different in solipsism).  The necessary existence of an uncaused cause is inescapable because it is absolutely impossible for one to not exist.

I have never met a professed ontological solipsist (though I recall meeting an epistemological one), but upon meeting one I would explain the massive evidence for the uncaused cause being something other than myself.  I know for sure that I exist; I know for sure that my mind is not all that exists; I know for sure that an uncaused cause is necessary.  But for either traditional theism or solipsism to be true, the other must be false in all regards that they disagree on.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-reliability-of-senses.html

[2].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html