Is everything in life ultimately inconsequential? James Marshall

 

Life exists on many levels. Some are real, some are just an illusion, it depends on your perspective.

Take, for example, a stone. One the one level you can see, feel it, know its shape and its weight. It exists and it seems very solid and very real. But we all know that it's solid appearance is just an illusion. It is actually made of countless zillions of individual atoms, none of which are actually touching any other atom in the stone, they are merely tightly bonded with other nearby atoms. So it's solid appearance is really just an illusion. Further, those atoms are the smallest units of the substance that have the properties of the substance, but they are all actually made up of even smaller subatomic particles, none of which have the properties of the substance. So those atomic properties are just an illusion, from the perspective of a subatomic particle. But that subatomic particle is actually not a particle. It is just a tiny bundle of energy that exists on one level as a subatomic particle. Further, it is made up of even smaller units of very strange energy, having properties that don't always conform to the laws of normal physics that apply to it from the subatomic level and above. The subatomic particle is just an illusion from the perspective of the quantum world.

Take, as another example, taste. You can pick up an apple, take a bite and taste the apple. You identify the taste and it seems real. But your perception of the apple’s taste is just electrical signals from your tongue being interpreted by your brain. The electrical signals from your tongue were triggered by receptors on your tongue detecting certain chemical compounds in the apple, which your brain has learned are associated with the taste of an apple. Those chemical compounds are forms of matter, made up of subatomic particles, none of which actually have the property of flavor. On one level taste is real, but on another level it is just an illusion.

Sound? On one level at least, it is just an illusion. It is nothing more than vibrating particles of air, vibrating in waves of soundless energy that your ear drums detect and then your brain tells you is sound, but is all just taking place in your head.

Love? When we experience love, it certain feels very real and on one level it definitely is real, having very real impacts on our feelings, our decisions and our lives, but on another level it is just biochemical processes taking place within our brain. A trick of evolution that has evolved to help our species prosper. Thankfully, it still feels real and mostly feels good, whether it is actually a real thing or not.

There is almost nothing in life that cannot be seen as just an illusion on at least one level, real on another. Whether you see things as real or just an illusion is your personal choice - both answers are correct.


https://www.quora.com/Is-everything-in-life-ultimately-inconsequential

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