Summary:
• Whether this world is an illusion is one of the most controversial questions in the history of religion and philosophy, and different answers have shaped moral choices, sometimes violently. Many religions teach that this world is an illusion, a place to prepare souls for an afterlife, or both. These disagreements have caused conflicts between and within religions.
• We tend to assume the world is real because we can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste it, but these five senses are not sufficient to know with certainty if this world is an illusion. Everyday surprises small illusions, created whenever our minds predict the wrong outcome.
• For centuries, people believed the world is flat because it looks when you stand on its surface. Some people believed a new Sun was born each morning because they saw a sunrise. Others believed the Sun orbited Earth because the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Those illusions made sense to them because their information was limited.
• In the night sky, planets such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn sometimes appear to move backwards. Observers on Earth long imagined those planets were orbiting Earth while performing little loops, not realizing the real cause was Earth’s own orbit around the Sun. There were no loops, only the planets orbiting the Sun at different speeds.
• In medieval times, ingenious clocks were built to predict the planets’ locations in the sky; those clocks worked remarkably well, despite being based on two illusions—that the planets are orbiting Earth, and that they are performing little loops. The mathematical accuracy of those clocks demonstrated that sometimes even false beliefs can produce useful results.
• Our human senses, reasoning, and technology are all limited. Therefore, we may never know for certain what physical reality truly is. But this uncertainty is not a reason to feel despair; it is a reason to remain humble, curious, and eager to learn.
• Whether or not the world is an illusion does not determine what is morally right. Either way, treating others with love and respect—treating them as you would want to be treated—remains the best choice.
This is one of the most controversial questions in the history of religion and philosophy, and how people answer it can influence their moral decisions. Some people believe that whatever harm they suffer is unimportant because the world is only an illusion. Others believe that they can inflict harm deliberately, without regret, because the world is only an illusion. Some people believe that this world is real and that everyone, the entire world, should be cared for. Others believe that this world is real, but they also believe that anyone they despise should be killed, removed from existence.
Countless millions of people have suffered and died due to violent rivalries between these differing beliefs.
Various religions do teach that this world is an illusion. Some teach that souls use this world to prepare for an afterlife. Some religions combine the two ideas: that this world is an illusion and where you prepare for an afterlife. Some religions believe in one idea but not in the other. This controversy has resulted in disagreements between religions and in disagreements within religions.
We tend to assume that this world is not an illusion because we can perceive it with our physical senses: it can seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted. Those five senses are sufficient to help us live our lives in ordinary ways. But those five senses are not sufficient to know with certainty if this world is an illusion. Whatever the answer is, this world does contain many small illusions. (Illusions within an illusion?) You discover one of those illusions whenever you experience a surprise. You were surprised because your mind expected a different outcome. Your senses collected information which your mind combined with knowledge you already had and then made a judgment, predicting a particular outcome. Your mind created an illusion because you expected that outcome. Either your senses were deceived or your mind made a mistake.
There is a time when most people believed that the world is flat. If you stand on the surface of the world and look towards the horizon, the world looks flat. That is an illusion. The Sun rises in the east every morning, and it sets in the west every evening. But where was the Sun during the night? The Sun set in the west, so why does it not rise in the west the next morning? How did the Sun get from the west to the east during the night?
In human cultures that believe that the world is flat, some also believe that a new Sun is born every morning. Not the same Sun, a new Sun, every morning, and that every new Sun dies every evening when it sets in the west. That is an illusion, but it made sense based on what people saw. In other cultures, including in ancient times, some people did realize that the world, Earth, is a round planet and that, during the night, the Sun is shining on the other side of the planet, rising in the east every morning.
They reasoned that the Sun is orbiting the planet Earth. That is an illusion, but it made sense based on what they saw.
Those people also noticed that, during the night, most of the stars rose in the east and then set in the west while maintaining the same distances between each star. However, a very small number of stars violated the pattern. Those particular stars appeared at different locations in the sky and, during some nights, they appeared to have moved backwards.
We now know that those particular stars are not stars, they are the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. We see them at night when light from the Sun reflects against them. Before we knew that, however, astronomers and astrologists imagined that those planets must be orbiting Earth and also, sometimes, moving in narrow loops in the sky. Moving in loops instead of in one direction would explain how the planets sometimes move backwards. Since ancient times, careful records were kept of where in the sky the planets were observed. Based on those records, people could predict where the planets could be seen in the future. Some astronomers and astrologists actually counted the number of loops the planets appeared to be making.
Telescopes began to be used in the early seventeenth century; investigating the behavior of the planets became more scientific. The records got better. The records became so precise that some ingenious engineers invented special clocks that could predict, for any future date, where in the sky the planets could be seen. Those clocks were remarkably accurate, but they were based upon not one but two illusions: that the planets are orbiting Earth, and that they are moving in little loops instead of always in only one direction. In reality, the planets, including Earth, orbit the Sun, they orbit at different distances from the Sun, and they move at different speeds. From our visual perspective from Earth, that is the reason for the other planets supposedly moving backwards sometimes.
For thousands of years, human knowledge of how the Sun, Earth, and other planets move was based on illusions. People devised explanations based on what they could see, including by using telescopes and keeping records. What harm was done to our ancestors because they believed in those illusions? Probably very little harm because our ancestors remained on Earth; they were not flying in spaceships trying to navigate in outer space. What our ancestors knew about the world, or imagined about it, made enough sense to them that they could accomplish what they were trying to do: survive on Earth and perhaps thrive. And many of them did thrive.
Physical reality can be deceptive because our human senses, our reasoning abilities, and our knowledge, are all limited. We have invented technologies to help us, such as telescopes and computers, but our technologies are also limited. As humans, we may never know what physical reality truly is. But that is not a reason to feel despair. It is a reason to be humble, to be curious, and to seek, discover, and learn.
That reason to be humble is also a reason for us to love and respect each other, regardless of any differences between us. This world may or may not be an illusion, but either answer is not a firm basis for a moral decision. Love and respect others. Treat them as you would want to be treated. That choice should not be controversial.