Almost every day, we read in the media some new evidence that we may not be alone in the universe. Looking for extraterrestrial life, once a province of science fiction, has become an established and respected field of astronomical research. The universe is portrayed as an incredibly large space with billions of stars, and the statistical probability of intelligent life is generated on numerous planets in the Goldilocks region around the Sun. People who have been ordered by the Christian Church to be the center of creation are now seen more as random divergence that is of no particular importance in the grand plan of the universe.
Maybe we should go back to Berkeley Bishop, the 18th-century philosopher asked, does the quadrilateral tree exist when no one sees it? This outstanding priest answered his own question by proclaiming that God is always looking at the tree. But if we put God aside, the question remains unanswered. Not only the tree in the quadrilateral, but the tree in the whole universe is an image in the human mind, and we can assign other realities to it. For example, in a sense, can dinosaurs exist before people begin to dig bones and conceive their properties?
For more than a century before Berkeley, René Descartes asked himself a more fundamental question. If what he sees and hears is an illusion created by an evil demon, what can he be sure of? Of course, he came to his immortal 'cogito ergo sum', realizing that he was only sure that he was thinking. Now, by thinking about language, it is determined that there are multiple minds, but the fact remains that all reality is contained in human thought. Books and computer files are just auxiliary memoirs and are useful for returning knowledge to a contemplative mode.
The Pope of the Renaissance should not be worried; there is no scientific discovery that can remove a person from the inherent center of his nature. It is even believed that the belief that creation occurred in 4004 BC has a certain degree of validity, because this is roughly the means by which people begin to study the world around them and seek to protect knowledge for future generations. This is an era in which the picture of the universe began to form in the human mind. This portrait has been expanded and decorated, but it is still our only reality.
However, our universe expands, and whatever it finds, it will become part of our psychological picture. No matter how hard we work, we can only observe through a telescope in one direction. Trying to travel from the other end must always end with fantasy.
Orignal From: Universe: We are looking through the wrong side of the telescope?
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