Article by Josh Pearson
This question, first posed by George Berkeley in the 17th century, is still pondered over today and the answer you get depends on whom you ask, and what question you were really asking…
“If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”
When asking a physicist, the answer you might receive is yes, From a technical point of view, when the tree falls, it disturbs the air around it and causes vibrations, sound waves, which travel away from the tree into the surrounding area. Whether someone is there to hear the sound or not will not change the fact that the vibrations occurred.
Alternatively, the answer might be no, because unless there is someone present to hear the sound, then the vibrations will never enter the ear and are therefore never interpreted as “sound“.
Samuel Johnson famously refuted Berkeley’s immaterialist argument
When asking a philosopher, the question might take a more complicated turn…
George Berkeley argued that to be is to be perceived. By this he meant that nothing is real to us unless we experience it. Once we hear the tree falling, then it is real to us. If no-one was present to hear the tree fall, then it is impossible to prove that it made a sound, in fact it is impossible to prove that it fell. Only by observing the tree do we know that it exists and that it made a sound.
This led Berkeley to theorise that nothing is real unless it is seen; reality is simply our subjective perception of the world around us. This is the theory of immaterialism.
However, as a religious man, Berkeley concluded that because GOD is all seeing and all knowing, the tree did in fact make a sound, because GOD was present to hear it do so. Take that theory forward with an understanding that God is outside of time, what else is happening that we don’t perceive with our five senses?
So, what does the bible have to say about this topic?
“When the clouds are full of water, it rains. When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls. Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work. Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life. Just as you’ll never understand the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman, so you’ll never understand the mystery at work in all that God does.”
Whether we are an immaterialist, or we believe firmly in the existence of the physical world around us, one thing is sure; we can experience many amazing things in the world. When we look at nature, we see a complex order and structure which is so detailed that we cannot fully comprehend it. So, GOD invites us to step into the world and experience it. It is through interactions with other people that we find meaning in our lives.
“Oh, how sweet the light of day, and how wonderful to live in the sunshine! Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted. Take delight in each light-filled hour, remembering that there will also be many dark days and that most of what comes your way is smoke.”
Following the teachings of Jesus, there is a sense in which we are not alive now, that we are not truly and fully experiencing reality; this life is just temporary, preparing us for an eternal and wonderful life to come. As followers of Jesus, we don’t need to get caught up with the problems and worries of this life; we are not truly alive until we start to live the life that Jesus did. the things which are most precious and important to us shouldn’t be the things that we see around us, but the things that we see through our faith, the things that are possible through Christ.
“ For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.”
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Photo by Dustin Belt on Unsplash