Relative Something

Where did the world come up with the accepted visual image of Jesus Christ’s appearance? I bet you can picture him in your mind.

I have been thinking about optical illusions. How do we differentiate between reality and illusion of information coming to our brain through our eyes? I saw a fascinating graphic that illustrates a spinning ball dropping across an image, top to bottom. To the right of the falling ball there was a solid dot. If you focus on the spinning ball, it appears to fall in a straight line. If you focus on the solid dot, the spinning ball appears to fall in a dramatic curve. So which is true? Is it falling straight or curving? I expect most would say straight, because that is the appearance when looking directly at it. Going by that conclusion establishes significant doubt to the accuracy of peripheral vision for details of an event. It would be logical to allow room for doubt about the absolute accuracy of our perceptions of the world we see.

It makes sense to me to be a bit less confident about perceptions beyond just the visual, as well. There are medical myths that become so common that people take them as fact, even after modern science is able to reveal the inaccuracies of the myth. Do you think getting wet and chilled can cause a cold? Does reading in low light cause bad eyesight? Should we be drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day?

I think the best thing to be sure of is that there are mysteries that we don’t exactly understand.

The more I come to know,

the more aware I grow,

of how little about the world I know.