Page 84 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

Throughout our lives, we imagine that we see the world
that lies outside us with our eyes. But the scientific description
of the visual functions performed by the brain shows that it is not
the eye that sees. The eye and its millions of retinal nerve cells
serve to transmit the message to the brain in order for vision to take
place. The retina perceives the photons falling onto it and forwards
them to the brain by converting them into electrical signals. In oth-
er words, what we are seeing is light waves from the outside falling
onto retinal cells consisting of fat, protein and water and the elec-
trical signals they transmit. In the brain, there are no children run-
ning in the garden, no sunny sky, no ships cleaving through the
waves. The only thing that exists is electrical signals.
Is there some site inside the brain where all these perceptions
arise, where images take life, where sounds are heard and where
smells form? If we examine the brain very closely, we find neurons
interacting with one another and the various chemical and electri-
cal transfers among them. Yet inside the brain, we cannot find col-
ors, shapes, texts or anything belonging to the world outside. There
are no waving green leaves, crowds shopping, houses, cars or fur-
niture inside the brain.

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