Page 42 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

tively existing matter, either. According to him, “the appearance
of an objectively existing world independent of observation is an
illusion.” 25
What quantum mechanics has scientifically proven is that the
objective world exists in a concentrated wave form. According to
physicists, the main problem that misleads people is that the world
observed through our perceptions is high in convincing detail,
sharpness and clarity. Yet the outside world never actually reaches
us. We can never see the external reality, the original of the mater-
ial world existing “out there.”
Our daily lives present an image highly inconsistent with the
external realities. Therefore, the question arises of which one—
whether the physical reality or what appears to us so sharp and
clear—should be regarded as valid.
Thomas J. McFarlane states that the answer can be found by
drawing a comparison.
According to him, we can imagine modern-day scientists go-
ing back 3000 years in the past and meeting with people who imag-
ine the Earth is flat. The scientists politely tell them that they are in
error on the subject, and that the Earth is actually spherical.
These people then ask the scientists, “how could you have
come by such an insane idea?” The scientists will be unable to pro-
vide a single piece of evidence to prove their thesis, under the con-
ditions and state of knowledge of that time. They, on the other
hand, are quite capable of explaining that the Earth is flat, on the
basis of all their experiments and the evidence they’ve gathered.
They use the concept of plane geometry to measure out land and
chart road maps, and find nothing in this that conflicts with their
daily experience. In the same way, when they look at a wide
open expanse or the sea, they say that they can see no curvature
and so claim that there is no evidence showing that the Earth

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