Page 62 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

The photons that fall onto the retinal layer are converted in-
to electrical currents by the perception cells there. These currents
are then transmitted by the nerves to the visual center in the brain.
The visual center then forms an image by interpreting these elec-
trical currents. This property of light is expressed thus in physics
textbooks:

The word light was used in a physical or objective sense in reference
to electromagnetic waves or photons. The same word is also used in
a psychological sense in reference to the sensation that arises when
electromagnetic waves and photons strike the retina of the eye. Let
us express both the objective and subjective concepts of the word
light: Light is a form of energy that manifests itself with the visual ef-
fects born from the stimulation of the retina in the human eye. 35

The bright and vibrant world that we imagine exists outside
us does actually have a material existence—but its perception is in
fact a kind of phantom produced within us, the original of which
we can never see. The seascape you see on a sunny day actually
consists entirely of darkness. There is no reflection on the water,
sea-blue color, clarity of air or eye-catching white clouds at all.
What enables us to perceive this image, so bright and vivid for us,
is merely the electrical signals transmitted to our brain. Apart from
effecting a perception in our brains, light exists on the outside sole-
ly as a form of energy. For that reason, light—which we may think
of as the reason for our perception of matter, is actually nothing but
an illusion.
Considering this fact, we arrive at a very striking conclusion:
Your eyes actually have no property such as “sight” at all. The eye
is merely a subordinate unit that converts photons into electrical
signals. It has no ability to perceive. It is not the eye that watch-
es the bright world that we imagine surrounds us. The sensa-
tion of light or color does not form in the eye itself—as we’ll
explain in detail in the sections regarding vision.

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