Tired of hearing the statement, “That may be true for you, but from my perspective, it’s not”?
Recently, I was shown a video that really helped me understand how some very intelligent people can insist that truth is a matter of perspective. The video is a simple explanation of Quantum Physics. You can find it here. (For this post to make any sense, you must watch the video. It will take a while do download on dialup.) If you’re not going to watch the video, don’t bother reading the rest of this post.
OK. Did you watch the video? Good.
I talked to Allen (my computer/physicist friend) about this, asking him three questions:
First, is this true? Does it really happen? He said yes.
Second, why does it happen? He said, “There’s a nobel prize waiting for the person who answers that question.”
Third, if I look at the slits, I see the electron go through one slit. If I look at the screen I see it go through both. Where does God look — what does God see? His answer to that was intriguing. He said, “Einstein never agreed with Quantum Physics… god [doesn’t] throw dice. [Stephen Hawking] said that not only does god throw dice, he throws them where he can’t see them.”
THAT helps me see why so many intelligent people can say, “Well — that may be truth for you; but it’s not truth for me.”
My daughter, Esther had the best comment of all. She remarked, “Wow — so the tree in the woods makes no noise when no one is listening!!!”
So what about it? Does perspective determine truth? I don’t think so. Could I say that Quantum Physics has too little relativity to the philosophical thought to bring any real force to the question of absolute truth? I guess that I’m with Einstein on this one. Or better yet — with Esther!!!
edit: 12/27/06 Well, I watched the whole video from which that cartoon was lifted. Turns out it’s pretty much a commercial for Ramtha, a classic example of a new-age cult. Interesting how the pagans use such things to their benefit in propagating their belief-system.
Thanks – mind expanding for old Dan!
“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20b).
So . . . maybe it is true, “Truth is in the eye of the beholder.”
AND . . . perhaps the real question is, “What are you looking at?”
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . .” Hebrews 12:2.
AND let us not forget that sometimes in faith people can say some of the stupidest things, like, “Of course the world is flat and the notion that the earth revolves around the sun is antithetical to ‘true faith’ in God and anyone who believes otherwise is a heretic.”
The presence of my ear is not part of the equation necessary for a fallen tree to make a sound.
My perspective has no relevence, God’s perspective is relevent.
God is Truth.
God’s Word is Truth.
Jesus is Truth.
My effort should be confined to find that Truth.
Thanks for the video… I now have something to ponder tonight…
I don’t think the act of observing changes anything… both ways you are observing facts but from different perspectives ie: two people can be looking at the same sky and only one see a rainbow because of the angle of observation. One observation was from a distance, the other from up close… I may need to see that video again…
Scott Reese
ScottReese@internetminister.org
http://bridgesites.org
In order for natural laws to work at all it seems they would have to function independently of my ability to observe them. Do we really think electrons just started this very interesting behavior at the point where man developed the technology with which to see what they were doing? And has the world also been growing increasingly noisy with the sound of crashing trees as the population increases? Hmmmm. Interesting thoughts, but somewhat egocentric, perhaps.
I would have to agree that it is a matter of perspective, only maybe not something so simple as whether one is standing close or far. Perhaps it’s more similar to the difference of whether one is inside or outside of a situation. For example, we are inside time and so see it from a very limiting perspective; we only experience a moment at a time, with the past always receding into the distance and the future approaching. God sees things quite differently from His perspective standing outside of time: all of time at once, more like an “Eternal Now, “to quote C.S. Lewis.
Suppose our ability to view the electrons doing their thing is more like that, to experience just for an instant, what the world “looks like” from the outside? Something like the sudden shift in perspective one gets when looking at those three dimensional paintings….you look “beyond” the design and suddenly there is something there that you could not see a moment before, though it was certainly there all along….or Neo’s ability to see the Matrix, or maybe something bigger and grander yet.