A Little Perspective First

Before I talk about any particular topics, I want to address the issue of perspective. Nobody is able to see the entire world exactly as it is. There are so many things that limit us. The only way to experience what is around us is through our senses. Sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and if you want to include some sort of sixth sense or some sort of spiritual sense or instinctive sense, that's fine too. All information that we receive passes through them. But our senses only work in a small range away from our bodies. In addition they are imperfect and incomplete. Senses can deceive us. Our senses do not give a complete picture of what is even immediately around us. For example, our eyes only see what we call the visible spectrum. But there are so many other forms of electromagnetism that we cannot perceive such as X-rays, infrared, radio waves, etc. Imagine a world which is exactly the same as it is now except that nobody has eyes. No one can perceive color or even light and dark. Imagine how differently we would sense the world. Concepts such as the moon and stars would become unknown. How would people try to explain the tide? Now imagine that we have an extra sense. You'll need to think about it a little abstractly but imaging how much our understanding of reality would benefit.

Even if two people are looking at the same object, they will still have different experiences associated with it. Everything we sense, we then process. And nobody processes information in the same manner. We all have prejudices and presuppositions affected by our past experiences. Our experience is sort of like a filter through which we process the world.

Perspective: Good or Bad? I don't think anyone is arguing that we don't have different perspectives. But people in philosophy at least do argue whether or not they are beneficial. One person will argue that it would be ideal if we were all able to see with the "mind of God." That is to say we were able to see reality for what it really is. We would need to get rid of the filters that taint the truth. Another person will argue that while that sounds great, it's not possible. No one can get rid of perspective. Instead we should try to see the world though as many perspectives as possible. The idea here is that if truth is a mountain, and we are all standing around it, the only way to see the entire mountain is to combine the views of everyone. Everyone has part of the truth, but not the whole truth.

I tend to agree with the latter thought, but both views have some merit for me. In response to the first idea, I think it is beneficial to get rid of some of the filters that we have put up that block us from thinking about something correctly. However, it is not realistic to get rid of every filter, and not all of them are even bad to have. Therefore we should try to see the world from a multi-perspective view. I'm not saying that everything everyone believes is true but that there is some truth at least in their beliefs. If everyone sort of sees only a small part of the mountain of truth, they have to fill in the blanks with a lot of other things that don't necessarily constitute what is correct. I will argue that there is some truth in every religion and in every worldview. And that is the point of this blog. Bring together many perspectives, even ones that you do not agree with, and find truth. Strengthen your own picture of what reality is all about. And even if in the end you don't change your opinion on an issue, you will have a much better understanding of why you believe it.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.