Expert: Sue Kayton Date: 7/10/2008 Subject: Do our senses really perceive the real world?
Question Hi, I have read article from some website...and I have some issue concerning the existence of science and human, which is more toward philosophy, but I want to get some scientific view from you....as simple as possible...thanks
"Another point to be considered is the sense of distance. Distance, which is to say the distance between you and this book, is only a feeling of emptiness formed in your brain. Objects that seem to be distant in that person’s view also exist in the brain. For instance, someone who watches the stars in the sky assumes that they are millions of light-years away from him. Yet what he "sees" are really the stars inside himself, in his centre of vision. While you read these lines, you are, in truth, not inside the room you assume you are in; on the contrary, the room is inside you. Your seeing your body makes you think that you are inside it. However, you must remember that your body, too, is an image formed inside your brain.
The "external world" presented to us by our perceptions is merely a collection of the electrical signals reaching our brain. Throughout our lives, these signals are processed by our brain and we live without recognising that we are mistaken in assuming that these are the original versions of matter existing in the "external world". We are misled because we can never reach the matter itself by means of our senses.
Moreover it is again our brain that interprets and attributes meaning to the signals that we assume to be the "external world". For example, let us consider the sense of hearing. It is in fact our brain that transforms the sound waves in the "external world" into a symphony. That is to say, music is also a perception created by our brain. In the same manner, when we see colours, what reaches our eyes are merely electrical signals of different wavelengths. It is again our brain that transforms these signals into colours. There are no colours in the "external world". Neither is the apple red nor is the sky blue nor the trees green. They are as they are just because we perceive them to be so. The "external world" depends entirely on the perceiver." http://www.islamicity.com/Science/quranandscience/mystery/GeneratedFiles/quotThe...
I feel very disturbing after reading the following article...and this part of it only.....I actually wish to brush it away as some religion theory....however...I am very upset to accept the truth that it indeed has some scienfic prove in it, which I can't deny. Please help answer some of the question about my life?
- If we encounter barrier like wall when we walk, and I can feel it hit it with my hand, do the wall "exist" outside of my body?
-Do huaman have body of their own in the external world? Hands, legs? arm? eyes? nose? Do our body system exist?organ like brain, lung, heart....
-Is there a world "outside our body" exist?
-our senses, touch,sight,hearing,smell and taste, do they actually exist in the external world?
-Do we really fall sick? Do we really need treatment? am I alive?
-The information, we get through our senses about this world, do it really exist?
-How can we prove the existence of our world?
-Do our senses actually exist? if it exist, what is the use of senses? do it really help us to survive in this world?
-we perceive the world through the electrical signal to our brain...but where do the signal come from?
-Does the perception of the senses exist with a reason in mankind? How about pain and sensation?
-Are we really human we think we am? I can see the body of others and others could see my body...do it exist?
-How we do perceive the surrounding? Why do we need to perceive the surrounding? do the surrounding really "there?"
-If I point to the red apple to another person, he will also "see" the red apple? do we perceive the same signal?
Are we living in the reality? do the reality exist? do our world exist?
-How can we prove the existence of another human being? the existence of other people? Is my parent, friend, kins, family all really exist?
-In your view, Do you think you really exist?
-when we "see" a apple over there, there is a "apple" over there right?
-Do the law of science really exist and applied in the reality? law of physic..law of chemistry...
-How we sure that the passing of time? Is perspective of time also a perception of mind? Do we really grow up and grow old? Are we still the same person as who we are when we are small?how to prove?
-Is it true that 2 matter will never touch each other? Atoms are never in physical contact with one another? no atoms of any one object can ever touch the atoms of another!?
-Is that true everything is make up of energy? if it is true do the material world still exist?
-Do the world still exist when we sleep? When when we sleep..does the world and surrounding still exist? Is there still reality?
Answer Engineers and scientists see the world very differently from philosophers. Philosophers ask questions like, "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?" Engineers think that's a really stupid question. Of course, it makes a sound. Of course, the apple is really there. Unless it is the reflection of an apple in a mirror. Or a photograph or painting of an apple.
Philosophers waste a lot of time asking these kinds of questions. I'm an engineer. If I touch a brick wall, it's really there and I don't lose a second of sleep wondering what the brick wall is thinking or feeling.
Your senses, almost always, will tell you correct information about the real world. You can be fooled by mirrors, fun houses, and echo chambers, but there are really the exceptions rather than the rules.
We all know what an "atom" is. It's a tiny little bit of matter. But atoms can't touch each other due to electric fields generated by the atoms. Except in a neutron star or black hole, where matter gets compressed to the point where the atoms no longer exist, and everything is pushed together.
Red apples are indeed red. "Red" means something that absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects other wavelengths. So yes, the apple is indeed red, even if you are colorblind or totally blind.
Do yourself a favor. Find something real to worry about, like global climate change, and leave these philosophical questions to others.
