Page 100 - The Struggle Against the Religion of Irreligion

During dreams, your body usually remains still and motionless in

a dark and quiet room, and your eyes remain shut. There is neither

light nor sound nor any other stimuli from the exterior world reaching

your brain for it to perceive. Still, in your dreams, you perceive

experiences very much similar to real life. In your dreams you also

get up and go to work, or you go on vacation where you enjoy the

warmth of the sun.

Furthermore, in dreams you never feel doubts about the reality

of what you experience. Only after you wake up do you realize your

experiences were only dreams. You not only experience such feelings

as fear, anxiety, joy and sadness but also see different images, hear

sounds and feel matter. Yet there is no physical source producing

these sensations and perceptions; you lie motionless inside a dark and

quiet room.

Descartes, the renowned philosopher, offered the following

reasoning on this surprising truth about dreams:

In my dreams I see that I do various things, I go to many places;

when I wake up, however, I see that I have not done anything or gone

anywhere and that I lie peacefully in my bed. Who can guarantee to

me that I do not also dream at the present time, further, that my

whole life is not a dream?

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