Page 114 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

For example, we imagine a plane flying in the sky to be
many kilometers away. But it is actually right alongside us, in
our brains.
When we look at a plane we imagine, as a result of the noise
it produces and the frequency and wavelengths of the light waves
it reflects to reach our eyes, that the plane is many kilometers away.
Yet if the brain perceived frequency and dimension as one single
unit, the situation would be very different. In that event, we would
have no doubt that the plane we imagined to be thousands of kilo-
meters away was actually at a different distance and we would be
convinced of this reality.
Human beings see many details within the sense of depth that
confronts them. They see a book they are holding fairly close by,
the television beyond and the window further away still, and the
Sun even further away. Their hands, legs and bodies are all con-

We imagine that a plane is several
kilometers away in the sky from us.
The fact is, though, it is actually right
inside our brains. There is no distance
between the plane and us.

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