AboutRalph Salier-Hellendag Expertise Science Fair Judge for many years and experience with robotics, biology, chemistry, industrial processes, metalurgy and metal forming.
Experience Science Fair Judge for many years and have helped several students get to state level competition. Most recently 2 of my students received state level awards and one went on to the nationals in Washington DC.
Education/Credentials BA Archaeology - Anthropology
MA Business Anthropology
Expert: Ralph Salier-Hellendag Date: 7/14/2008 Subject: Do our senses really perceive the real world?
Question 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: Hi Rambo,
I understand your confusion. The premis of the U-Tube film in my view is nonsense. Yes every thing around us is there by perception but it is also physically there even if we loose our senses. I will still be stopped by a brick wall if I am blind, deaf, have no sense of touch, taste or smell and walk into the wall. So the basic premis of the world being all perception is basically irrational.
Now of course if we are all part of a great big virtual game in cyberspace, then ok, what we see and do is all electronic but, even if this were the case, the electrons themselves are made of matter as are the wires, circuits and box the game is being played on. I hope this makes some sense to you.
The religious side of things is a bit more complex. Religions have both a physical manifistation as well as a non-physical one. Regardless of the religion (for the most part) all have a scripture or set of rules (written or not) and these help humans live with each other. There may be other rules or stories which help us to understand the basic premis of the religion we grow up with. These may include stories which are called alagories and metaphores. These are designed to help us think out side of ourselves. The reason that religions want us to do so is so that we can experiance the broader world and see things as mysterious. This can lead to a sense of "awe" which is then associated with "G-D" or the Great Spirit. Something which exists beyond us and our understanding.
Can science provide proof of "G-D" or the Great Spirit? No, this is a construct of our brains and is literally beyond the scope of science and should be so. Just by looking at the world around us, knowing that the universe is so huge and that we are so small in relationship to it should point to the our inability to grasp the fullness of the whole. Thus a combination of both science and a sense of the "G-d" or Great Spirit is all we can hope for.
So, yes, there is an external world around us and yes we are quite alive. We do get sick and we do die just as we are born, grow and think. Matter does exist as does energy and we, all of us are made of both. When we die, the energy leaves us and it is this essense that we call our soul. Does it meld with the Great Spirit, yes as the "G-D" or the Great Spirit or what ever you may call it is the energy which binds us, holds us together, surrounds us and IS what keeps the univers together.
You ask the question if atoms of matter can touch each other. The answer is yes. Look at any solid. Is there space between the atoms, yes there is but when you are looking at such a tiny bit of matter, the space is infinitsamally small. So long as the electron orbits are joined, they are in sync with each other and function as a unit of matter.
Atoms can also be split, that is how the atomic bomb is made. When you pull an atom apart, it can generate so much energy, it causes a hugh explosion.
I hope that I have put your mind to rest with these explanations. If not, please ask me more questions, just fewer at one time (5) so that I can adequately answer them.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: 1) How can I prove the existence of other people? Even I can prove they really exist? how can I prove that they was not just a illusion of my mind?
How can I tell whether they have a mind of their own? How can I know they have a soul and mind like me? how about animals? How is it possible for me to put myself in other people other people shoes?
2)Does it mean you believe everyone have their own mind, and is alive by own conscious? How is it possible for us to understand each other? how can I know they think like what I do? or do think what I think?
Everyone come with their own thought and intelligence? do everyone really have free mind or free will as we think?
Do we feel the same when we happy? when we sad? Do we have the same feeling?
3) How do I know what they feel like? how can I possible know they will feel the samething as me when face the same situation? Do human have the same mood and emotion? Is it possible for human to feel the same, have the same thought when they encounter the same issue e.g. when you face danger, you think of running. Feel awkward when we face the same situatiion. Our mind seem to trigger the same thought when we encounter the same thing.
How about mood? do we have the same mood? how do we define good mood? Do we feel the same when we have good mood and bad mood? if we have similar reaction? e.g. when we are bad mood, we tend to scold...we are in good mood, we tend to smile.
How about emotion? Why do we feel sad? happy? nervous? agitated? or scared? how we feel that? are all human born with those emotion? does it come naturalyl? Do we have the same feeling of emotion as each other? e.g. When our love one die, we all seem to have tear and feel like crying. When we are excited, our heartbeat rate increase. Does taht mean? it has the same effect in our? we feel "happy" when we are happy?
where do our feeling come from? and how did it occur?
Answer Hi Rambo,
We are conversing via email. I am human so is the person sitting next to me. Thus we have proof of our existence. Since our conversation contains intellegent use of words and pharses, we know that we each think and think differently from each other. To place your self into some one elses shoes, takes immagination and trepidation. To understand how some else sees the world is often difficult but has great value.
I know that any satient being from mice to humans think, they may not all think alike and may have different focus points but we all think and feel the world around us. and yes we may feel sad at the same time or happy at the same time depending on the event such as 9/11 or people winning at the olympics may make many very happy or also sad if some one looses.
There are some deeply human feelings we all have like happiness, sadness, the fear-flight-fight reaction to danger, shock, anger etc.. these are all survival reactions to daily life and it is deeply ingrained in our genetic make up.
Moods and emotions are deeply base on these human feelings, we all have them but the meaning may be different from one culture to another. Each culture has different emotional reactions to life events such as death. Some people are happy when someone dies while others may feel profound sadness.
We are all different, see the world differently one to the next or one culture to the next, But it is one proof that we all exist and have satient minds that can think independently from each other.
