Image source: Stubborn Dad
Thought for the Week
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ~Hamlet
I’ve had hearing loss ever since a wildly flailing college racquetball partner smashed a ball into my ear at 100 mph. Therefore, I need to carefully protect what’s left of my hearing. Which made me a bona fide fool when I rented a chain saw a few years back, and used almost no ear protection.
The next day, when I climbed into our van with my family, I began to laugh. “What’s so funny?” they asked.
“Listen!” I said. “The open-door reminder sounds completely different than before!”
“No, it doesn’t, Dad,” my kids replied, “it sounds exactly the same.”
“Honey,” my wife added, “the sound hasn’t changed.”
That was when I realized what had changed was my perception. The chainsaw hadn’t just lopped off those dead tree limbs, it had lopped off a whole cluster of tiny receptor cells in my ears! But what really stunned me was that nothing sounded “wrong.” It simply sounded different. So which perception was right, the former or the latter?
Neither.
Human senses are remarkably weak. Our pets see and hear things we’re oblivious to. Butterflies taste things with their feet. Salmon use the Earth’s magnetic field to guide them. Ants communicate with pheromones. Catfish are like giant tongues, covered in taste buds that sense 25oo times what we do! Dolphins can sonographically see inside other creatures (including us)! We see a spectrum made from three primary colors–but there are actually twelve. Manta shrimp see a vast array of light and color that is completely invisible to us: ultraviolet, infrared, gamma rays, x-rays, and beyond!
In other words, we don’t perceive Reality, we only perceive our perception of it.
After a lifetime of studying the universe, Max Planck, the originator of Quantum Physics, concluded that “all matter originates and exists only by virtue of consciousness…matter is derivative of consciousness.” In other words, trees are not trees, they’re code which our senses interpret as trees.
And who wrote the code?
It’s as though we’re looking through a keyhole into an infinite complex, and attempting to reconstruct the entire building — if it even is a building — from a partially-obscured view of a shoe rack. What are we failing to perceive? Everything. We live in Plato’s Cave and think that, by observing shadows on the wall, we know all that dwells Beyond, or worse, that there is no Beyond.
But there is.
And it, not this, is Reality.
A small window of the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s our reality. I’ve written novels about it. A girl with no nervous connection – no sensory input. What is her universe?
That’s an intriguing story premise, Opher, and a uniquely challenging one, I imagine.
The reality of course is God. And He made us with the senses necessary to perceive Him in the created order, just as He gave the other creatures what they need to survive. The difference between us and the critters, is that we have a spiritual dimension that can perceive God, when He calls us to faith.
My hearing is very poor, but in what I read, and in what I see, the Spirit allows me to hear what my Father has to say.
Very informative post Mitch. Merry Christmas!
Right you are, Rob. Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you and yours!
C.S. Lewis again. What we think we know about our lives is imagination.
Yes.
Merry Christmas to you & your family Mitch! 2024 has been pretty tough but we take the good with the bad & thank the Lord for the lesson in all of it. Your life lessons have been such a blessing to read. They’ve reminded me to keep faithful in faith & give our best to the Lord as we serve.
Thank you for your kind words, and Merry Christmas to you and yours, as well (unfortunately, I don’t know who this is). So sorry to hear it’s been a tough year for you. Praying.
Very profound, Mitch!
Thanks, Abe.
So there is no reality and status quo so our perceptions will always be off even it they are true insights. One thing is true, however: inflation and corporate strangulation of the consumer last 4 years has reduced the purchasing power of my fixed income. Seems like another reality is that it’s going to get worse.
Well said, Mitch. The Bible say it has never entered into the mind of man or even his imagination what the Father has in store for us in Heaven. No matter what we can dream up about how wonderful our future home will be, we will be wrong because we have no basis to interpret the reality on the other side : outside time, space, and the three dimensions we are familiar with. It will be such a shock to witness REALITY for the first time. Thanks for your well-crafted missive.
It will be a shock indeed, my Anonymous friend, and thank you.
Wonderful!
Thank you, Caleb.
Teach it, perfesser! Embracing this kind of perceptual truth is abundantly liberating. Thank you, Mitch. ~Ed.
My privilege, Ed.
Amazing concepts to contemplate, Mitch. You hint at another name for God: Code-Maker or Code-Writer! How incredible that Someone all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful invites US to know him! I am humbled yet thrilled at the same time.
Exactly, Nancy.
Yech! About the catfish. Sorry to read about your hearing loss.
What, What, What did you say Mich? 😉💗
;>)
Nice. Thought provoking.
Thank you.
Planck may have been a smart guy, but he is wrong about trees; they really are trees, not depending on my perception of them.
Truth exists whether I perceive it or not.😉
Merry Christmas, Mitch.
You too, Gabrielle.
Perception is everything these days, and sadly it often misses truth and reality completely. Merry Christmas.
Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you, Susanne.
Great reminder, Mitch. Definitely another reason for us to stay humble.
Merry Christmas to you and yours! 🎄
Thank you, Sarah!
Faith IS “the evidence of things not seen.” Fascinating article! The more we understand from science, the more reasons there are to believe in God. Merry Christmas, Mitch! Enjoy the celebration of God’s Greatest Miracle!
Thank you, Caroll!
I like this thought, like a Matrix(y) thing that we’re supposed to accept.
My thought has been that since Adam ate the fruit, that mankind lost the value of true perception; everything has been dulled down, and even the sun is too bright for our eyes – along those lines.
Blessings
Great insight, Pete.
🙂
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