- Finally, if there are still people who are not sufficiently convinced of the existence of God and the soul by the reasons I have given, I want them to understand that all the other propositions they consider themselves more certain of—such as having a body, the existence of stars, and the earth—are actually less certain. Even though we have a strong moral assurance of these things, and it might seem absurd to doubt their existence, no one in their right mind can deny, when it comes to metaphysical certainty, that there is enough reason to doubt. This is evident when we consider that, while asleep, we can imagine ourselves having a different body, seeing other stars, and another earth, even though none of these things are real.
- The self awareness of the conscious mind (danielleeadair.wordpress.com)
Lucas Cranach- The elder Adam and Eve. This was a popular subject in 16th century art and is an interesting painting in terms of self awareness. It is capturing the moment in the biblical story where Eve takes a bite from the apple from the tree of knowledge and is about to give the apple to Adam. Adam in doubt, she has been transformed by eating a piece. The animals around them lived in a semi aware blissful state, after there is more self awareness with Adam and Eve. It is a process we all go through as babies are born in a blissful state and don’t even know they exist having a continuous blissful state and acquire later on that we are separate from the world and within conflict within the world. We are thrown out of our own garden of Eden by consciousness. No body knows like humans of our own existence, our own minds and unique position we occupy. Humans are the only beings that can reflect on their own mind.
- Finally, if there be still persons who are not sufficiently persuaded of the existence of God and of the soul, by the reasons I have adduced, I am desirous that they should know that all the other propositions, of the truth of which they deem themselves perhaps more assured, as that we have a body, and that there exist stars and an earth, and such like, are less certain; for, although we have a moral assurance of these things, which is so strong that there is an appearance of extravagance in doubting of their existence, yet at the same time no one, unless his intellect is impaired, can deny, when the question relates to a metaphysical certitude, that there is sufficient reason to exclude entire assurance, in the observation that when asleep we can in the same way imagine ourselves possessed of another body and that we see other stars and another earth, when there is nothing of the kind.