The world as we see, feel and understand is based upon the five senses. All that we know about ourselves and the world we live in is made up of these senses. What we see, hear, taste, feel and smell is all we know.
I once went a whole month without looking at any mirrors (there were none available) and finally when I was able to look at myself – I was shocked to see how much I changed.
If we are to make a decision based solely on the perception of the material world, i.e. matter is the ultimate reality, it is important to scrutinize the way we know about this world too. All the sense organs send electric signals to the brain. Brain interprets the signals into meaningful bits, which we are able to distinguish and make out meaning of.
I don’t want to go into the details of this process. I just want to point out that what our brain tells us and what actually exist may significantly differ. For instance, colorblind people see things in different colors than most of us do. Some people hear noises that are not there (because of ear trouble). Some people hallucinate and see things that are not there. So it is the interpretation of brain that shapes our knowledge, not what actually exists out there. We do not see radio waves, we see fewer colors than a kind of wild bird (which uses four colors to see the world in place of our 3 colors), and we have 3 types of senses less than a shark. All these mean that our knowledge is limited within a boundary and susceptible to mistakes. If we sense something then we believe that it must exist. So in order to make someone see a car, all we need is to input some electric signals that will give the sensation of seeing a car. There is no need for an actual car to exist. Te same thing can be said for all we know about the world today. Think about the last time you dreamt, it all seemed so real, yet none of it really existed.
So, now we can say that all we know about the world might just be an illusion as our senses can be tricked. As recently this was proven as a blind man was able to see again in the form on black and white dots. They put a camera in front of his head and send signals via a chip directly to the brain. What if the camera was put somewhere else? The man would think that he was somewhere else!
I am not the first person to speculate this, nor am I the last. Many have felt like this and they described this like the only thing they knew for sure is that “I exist”. But they were not sure what they what they looked like or if the others around them are real.
But now, I have talked about the brain, electric signals etc, which is my knowledge acquired via the five senses too. So there is actually no need for a real brain and chipset to make someone think of a car. As the brain may not exist in reality either! Which leaves only one thing intact, the point of all input, the ‘self’ or ‘soul’.
Yes, the only thing that I can be sure of is that I have soul. It stops to exist in the material world one day and starts feeling a different reality– death and life after death. There must be someone controlling this whole mechanism.
Allah says in the Quran, “And indeed We have created man, and We know whatever thoughts his inner self develops, and We are closer to him than (his) jugular vein.” [Qaf: 16]
I am not writing this to prove existence of Allah; that is a different discussion. My point is that life, as we know in this world, all the realities – none of these matters may count all.
Allah says, “Nothing is the life of this world but play and amusement.” [Al-An’am: 32]
“Short is the enjoyment of this world: the Hereafter is the best for those who do right: Never will ye be dealt with unjustly in the very least.” [An-Nisa’: 77]
(If someone tried to think about the qualities of Creator based on our perception of this world this would be erroneous, as we cannot visualize about the reality of anything that is beyond our senses.)
I once went a whole month without looking at any mirrors (there were none available) and finally when I was able to look at myself – I was shocked to see how much I changed.
If we are to make a decision based solely on the perception of the material world, i.e. matter is the ultimate reality, it is important to scrutinize the way we know about this world too. All the sense organs send electric signals to the brain. Brain interprets the signals into meaningful bits, which we are able to distinguish and make out meaning of.
I don’t want to go into the details of this process. I just want to point out that what our brain tells us and what actually exist may significantly differ. For instance, colorblind people see things in different colors than most of us do. Some people hear noises that are not there (because of ear trouble). Some people hallucinate and see things that are not there. So it is the interpretation of brain that shapes our knowledge, not what actually exists out there. We do not see radio waves, we see fewer colors than a kind of wild bird (which uses four colors to see the world in place of our 3 colors), and we have 3 types of senses less than a shark. All these mean that our knowledge is limited within a boundary and susceptible to mistakes. If we sense something then we believe that it must exist. So in order to make someone see a car, all we need is to input some electric signals that will give the sensation of seeing a car. There is no need for an actual car to exist. Te same thing can be said for all we know about the world today. Think about the last time you dreamt, it all seemed so real, yet none of it really existed.
So, now we can say that all we know about the world might just be an illusion as our senses can be tricked. As recently this was proven as a blind man was able to see again in the form on black and white dots. They put a camera in front of his head and send signals via a chip directly to the brain. What if the camera was put somewhere else? The man would think that he was somewhere else!I am not the first person to speculate this, nor am I the last. Many have felt like this and they described this like the only thing they knew for sure is that “I exist”. But they were not sure what they what they looked like or if the others around them are real.
But now, I have talked about the brain, electric signals etc, which is my knowledge acquired via the five senses too. So there is actually no need for a real brain and chipset to make someone think of a car. As the brain may not exist in reality either! Which leaves only one thing intact, the point of all input, the ‘self’ or ‘soul’.
Yes, the only thing that I can be sure of is that I have soul. It stops to exist in the material world one day and starts feeling a different reality– death and life after death. There must be someone controlling this whole mechanism.
Allah says in the Quran, “And indeed We have created man, and We know whatever thoughts his inner self develops, and We are closer to him than (his) jugular vein.” [Qaf: 16]
I am not writing this to prove existence of Allah; that is a different discussion. My point is that life, as we know in this world, all the realities – none of these matters may count all.
Allah says, “Nothing is the life of this world but play and amusement.” [Al-An’am: 32]
“Short is the enjoyment of this world: the Hereafter is the best for those who do right: Never will ye be dealt with unjustly in the very least.” [An-Nisa’: 77]
(If someone tried to think about the qualities of Creator based on our perception of this world this would be erroneous, as we cannot visualize about the reality of anything that is beyond our senses.)