Perception and Reality

Perception is more important than people commonly realize. How I perceive the world has a direct effect on my experiences in it. Obviously it will affect whether I perceive things as overall positive or negative, but it does more. My attitude affects the way I interpret events around me, which in turn will affect the way I respond and interact, which will affect the way others interact with me, which will affect the way they relate to the world... If you believe the world is basically a horrible and evil place, you will find that you are right. If you believe that the world is basically a good and beautiful place, you will also find that you are right. If you believe the world is fallen and full of sin, you will find that you are right. If you believe that here, and now, is paradise, you will still find that you are right. You choose your own reality. The hard part is finding the "really real" reality behind all those other realities. The even harder part is determining if such a reality exists.

One level of reality is the scientific one. This is the completely objective and measurable reality, accessible to all observers and repeatable to anyone who replicates the original conditions. Within its own realm, scientific reality is perfectly valid. Most scientists will even claim it's the only reality, the "really real" reality. I can't prove them wrong, but I don't think they are right either. The scientific reality is completely consistent and predictable. On a certain level, so are people. They have set patterns and routines. But throw a monkey wrench into the routine, and there's no telling what will happen. Perhaps on a statistical level you can say X% will do A and Y% will do B, but that's a far cry from knowing what any given individual will do.

So what about other realities? There are mental realities, religious realities, local realities, universal realities, statistical realities, monetary realities... all with their own flavors and personalities. The important thing to note is that these realities need not agree on any particular observation. The more closely related they are to one another, the closer their observations will be.


For example, scientists tell me the earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the universe is somewhere around 12 billion years old. From a completely empirical standpoint, I agree. In the realm of science, this is truth. Yet on another level, I know that nothing has existed before this very moment. Time is an illusion. Thus the earth has no age at all; neither does the universe. I hold both of these views as correct, simultaneously, and see no contradiction between them (making this different from Doublethink :-). So it doesn't make sense to me to get all worked up because your Bible says the earth is no more than 6000 years old and the scientists say it's over a billion. I see no contradiction between these views. They are on different levels of reality. I can tell you that I am ancient, born before the stars had even been dreamed by the gods (or God if you prefer), and I can tell you that I have never existed before this very moment, or that I was born more than 28 years ago in a Pocatello hospital, and in each case I am telling the complete and absolute truth. I am a tiny speck in this vast universe yet the entire universe is contained within me. So how much of a stretch can it be for the universe to be simultaneously zero, 6000, and 12 billion years old? None at all (for me). Admittedly, 6000 seems a bit arbitrary (2^4*3*5^2), but why not?

For those who see a contradiction in these values... well, I'm not you (or am I ;-), but I would guess you're trying to cram all the levels of reality into one. But why? In a single day, some moments will fly by, while others drag. On a psychological level of reality, it would be explained that time itself does not vary, only your perception of it does, yet one time I measured 18 minutes outside a room that went by as five inside the room. Could I replicate the result? Almost certainly not. I doubt I was anywhere near the scientific level of reality on that particular day. So to tell me there's a contradiction between Biblical reality and scientific reality... is meaningless. Why should they be the same?

Oh, I suppose you'd like your God to create a complete and consistent reality for you, all contained on a single level. Hmmm..., I can think of three levels of reality experienced by most humans on a daily basis: being asleep, being alert and aware, and being relaxed and unware. So much for a single level of reality. Oh, but maybe there's a completely objective reality hiding underneath that! Nope. Uncertainty principle does that one in. The more accurately you measure, say, velocity, the less you know about position. Even more disturbing (to anyone seeking a complete, objective reality), any logical system of axioms with sufficient power to describe the universe has been proven to be incomplete (i.e. there are statements within the system which cannot be proven or disproven). So even (especially?) if we steal the scientist's position that the universe is entirely logical and follows an entirely logical set of rules, it is, a priori, incomplete. So logic implies uncertainty and incompleteness. Lack of logic implies...who knows? Perhaps it implies 0 = 6,000 = 12,000,000,000. :-)

(Read Gödel, Escher, Bach for a discussion of incompleteness, or ask Fibonacci about it sometime)