EddieAllenPoe
Specialist
- Mar 19, 2019
- 304
I spent my day today helping a man haul rocks from one point to another. It absolutely sucked balls. Ever have one of those days? I've spent several months in a row being unemployed. That has also not been fun. I actually hate doing physical labor but I supposed I'm grateful to be doing something that's productive. I've found that spending a whole day doing nothing can be equally terrible. Especially if you haven't done anything productive for months. I suppose my day wasn't actually so bad.
During the time I was shoveling rocks I was listening to a video produced by Saddleback Church. While listening to the video I had noticed that the Pastor of this church would frequently talk about certain topics as if they had an actual basis in reality. Things such as "sin" or an invisible being he called "satan". I'm not really concerned so much with whether these things actually exist in a literal sense. That's a different topic. I simply found it interesting that he was able to effortlessly use these ideas to talk about other topics that I do know are real. Things such as suffering, being "unfulfilled" in life, or being unhappy. After all, I can't see unhappiness with my eyes. But I do know unhappiness exists.
This lead me to think about other things. Being outside I couldn't help but notice the budding plant life. It's almost summertime where I am and I can see new plants popping up everywhere. Some of these plants are hidden in shaded areas and their growth is stunted. Other plants have easier access to sunlight and they seem to be growing rapidly. I could even see how some of the plants that started out in shaded areas grew outwardly in a crooked manner to reach the sunlight.
How do plants manage to react to sunlight without seeing it? They obviously don't have eyes like I do. I can see the sunlight with my own eyes. I know the reason they grow the way they do because I can literally see the reason. They're trying to reach the sunlight. If plants can't see the sun then does it mean they are actually blind? It would seem they are somehow perceiving the sunlight without using vision. Scientists have actually studied this phenomenon before. They call this ability of plants to find sunlight phototropism.
Seeing the plants react to the sunlight made me reflect on the nature of invisible things. Are there things that are invisible to me that actually do exist? Humans seem to be a little bit more complicated than plants. We have fantastic imaginations and we're able to construct elaborate stories about things which are not real. Not everything we talk about that is invisible is fake though. So how do we know what is real? Do invisible things exist?
This certainly isn't an exhaustive list but here are a few invisible things to consider:
7. Chakras. In some ancient Hindu mystic traditions (such as Kundalini) it speculated that we have invisible hidden energy centers in our soul. Some of these "chakras" align with physical locations on our body. The most interesting one I can think of as an example might be the "heart chakra". When two people fall in love they often describe having feelings that are based in their heart.
Based on what I know from science I have difficulty believing the heart organ is somehow literally responsible for these feelings. However, I wouldn't simply dismiss the "heart chakra" as being imaginary. Sometimes it is actually possible to ignore the reality of something by incorrectly interpreting data in a literal sense.
It's interesting to note that in Hebrew traditions they refer to the "heart" with the word "Lev". It would seem both Hindu and Jewish cultures have identified the existence of something that you cannot literally see that originates in the "heart". This "heart" they are referring to seems to exist in a poetic sense.
Attempts have been made to use science to understand how "love" happens. As an example, it was found that the chemical oxytocin is linked to the ability of two mammals to form a bond. Is this information always useful though? It seems obvious to me it isn't. Describing the world with chemicals doesn't seem to describe the same kind of reality. You wouldn't say: "Hey Mom, it's Mother's Day. I wanted to thank you for emitting oxytocin to solidify our bond." It doesn't really have the same ring to it. You would be better off talking "from the heart".
8. Hope. This is a good one. You can't see hope. Does it exist? It certainly does seem there are many people out in the world talking about hope. Where does a person find it?
9. Memes. The idea of a "meme" is described in detail in the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins argued that a meme was an intellectual idea that shared many properties similar to genetic material you might find in a biological cell. Though the evidence for a "meme" is sparse, I did find his arguments for it's existence persuasive.
10. Ghosts. I'm not personally convinced of this one. The stories people tell about ghosts seems fake to me. I've simply never seen a ghost. Could I be wrong about their existence?
11. Angels. This is about as evident to me as ghosts. I have had experiences of freakish "good luck" that prevented what should have been terrible accidents. It's made me wonder about the possibility of angels. I've never actually seen one though. Do you think they exist?
My list of invisible things could go on and on. I'm sure some of you can think of things I haven't.
Do you think it's possible there are invisible things that exist that aren't outwardly observable?
I'd be curious to hear about other invisible things you have considered before. I'd also love to hear your reasons for believing they exist and what evidences you might have for them.
During the time I was shoveling rocks I was listening to a video produced by Saddleback Church. While listening to the video I had noticed that the Pastor of this church would frequently talk about certain topics as if they had an actual basis in reality. Things such as "sin" or an invisible being he called "satan". I'm not really concerned so much with whether these things actually exist in a literal sense. That's a different topic. I simply found it interesting that he was able to effortlessly use these ideas to talk about other topics that I do know are real. Things such as suffering, being "unfulfilled" in life, or being unhappy. After all, I can't see unhappiness with my eyes. But I do know unhappiness exists.
This lead me to think about other things. Being outside I couldn't help but notice the budding plant life. It's almost summertime where I am and I can see new plants popping up everywhere. Some of these plants are hidden in shaded areas and their growth is stunted. Other plants have easier access to sunlight and they seem to be growing rapidly. I could even see how some of the plants that started out in shaded areas grew outwardly in a crooked manner to reach the sunlight.
How do plants manage to react to sunlight without seeing it? They obviously don't have eyes like I do. I can see the sunlight with my own eyes. I know the reason they grow the way they do because I can literally see the reason. They're trying to reach the sunlight. If plants can't see the sun then does it mean they are actually blind? It would seem they are somehow perceiving the sunlight without using vision. Scientists have actually studied this phenomenon before. They call this ability of plants to find sunlight phototropism.
Seeing the plants react to the sunlight made me reflect on the nature of invisible things. Are there things that are invisible to me that actually do exist? Humans seem to be a little bit more complicated than plants. We have fantastic imaginations and we're able to construct elaborate stories about things which are not real. Not everything we talk about that is invisible is fake though. So how do we know what is real? Do invisible things exist?
This certainly isn't an exhaustive list but here are a few invisible things to consider:
- Morality. A sense that some behaviors are "right" and some behaviors are "wrong".
- Beauty. A sense that some things are "beautiful" and some things are "ugly".
- Happiness. A sense that some people are "happy" and some people are "sad".
- Love. A sense that some people are "loving" and some people are "hateful".
- Justice. A sense that some things are "fair" and some things are "unjust".
- Numbers. A belief that reality can be quantified. Some numbers are literally difficult to prove exist. Numbers such as "zero", "infinity", or irrational numbers such as "Pi".
7. Chakras. In some ancient Hindu mystic traditions (such as Kundalini) it speculated that we have invisible hidden energy centers in our soul. Some of these "chakras" align with physical locations on our body. The most interesting one I can think of as an example might be the "heart chakra". When two people fall in love they often describe having feelings that are based in their heart.
Based on what I know from science I have difficulty believing the heart organ is somehow literally responsible for these feelings. However, I wouldn't simply dismiss the "heart chakra" as being imaginary. Sometimes it is actually possible to ignore the reality of something by incorrectly interpreting data in a literal sense.
It's interesting to note that in Hebrew traditions they refer to the "heart" with the word "Lev". It would seem both Hindu and Jewish cultures have identified the existence of something that you cannot literally see that originates in the "heart". This "heart" they are referring to seems to exist in a poetic sense.
Attempts have been made to use science to understand how "love" happens. As an example, it was found that the chemical oxytocin is linked to the ability of two mammals to form a bond. Is this information always useful though? It seems obvious to me it isn't. Describing the world with chemicals doesn't seem to describe the same kind of reality. You wouldn't say: "Hey Mom, it's Mother's Day. I wanted to thank you for emitting oxytocin to solidify our bond." It doesn't really have the same ring to it. You would be better off talking "from the heart".
8. Hope. This is a good one. You can't see hope. Does it exist? It certainly does seem there are many people out in the world talking about hope. Where does a person find it?
9. Memes. The idea of a "meme" is described in detail in the book "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins argued that a meme was an intellectual idea that shared many properties similar to genetic material you might find in a biological cell. Though the evidence for a "meme" is sparse, I did find his arguments for it's existence persuasive.
10. Ghosts. I'm not personally convinced of this one. The stories people tell about ghosts seems fake to me. I've simply never seen a ghost. Could I be wrong about their existence?
11. Angels. This is about as evident to me as ghosts. I have had experiences of freakish "good luck" that prevented what should have been terrible accidents. It's made me wonder about the possibility of angels. I've never actually seen one though. Do you think they exist?
My list of invisible things could go on and on. I'm sure some of you can think of things I haven't.
Do you think it's possible there are invisible things that exist that aren't outwardly observable?
I'd be curious to hear about other invisible things you have considered before. I'd also love to hear your reasons for believing they exist and what evidences you might have for them.
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