PERCEPTION AND BELIEF

Perception is a sensation of the mind that normally comes from fundamentally either of the two sources. These are from the external physical world or inner self. Irrespective of the source, emotion is an aspect that is invariably attached to perception.  This is attached on one hand to the outcome of an event or observation that is stimulated by one of the above-stated sources. And on the other hand, it is attached to a sense organ from where the stimulus originates. Hence, a sense organ is attached to the mind which generates the perception. This human mental faculty of perception is a very subjective parameter as such, but it acts as a major factor that governs the mood or mental state of that person. The external manifestation of the perception could be either a sensation of pleasure and happiness or that of pain and sorrow. For a similar event, different persons would have a different degree of perception based on the person’s assessment and the relation of that event as to how and to what extent it affects him. The person reacts to that external or internal event that directly affects him physically or mentally.

Human perception of the external world does not directly affect him physically. He observes nature to study it for himself for finding his relationship with nature. But human perception based on his observation of the physical world is erroneous. Simple daily life experience will prove this fact. Everybody knows that science has objectively proved that earth is round (bulged at the equator and slightly flattened at the poles ), but in daily life observation, we human beings always perceive it as flat surface since physically what we see with our naked eyes, it is flat. The matter does not end here. The erroneous human perception of the external world has been irrevocably proved by the advent of modern science from the beginning of the 20^th century. The pathbreaking of all the scientific discoveries have been  Einstein’s Relativity Theory and the Quantum Theory put forth in the pioneering works by Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger in particular. In these discoveries, there has been a paradigm-shifting concept by moving from Newtonian classical mechanistic physical world view to quantum mechanical view. This has revolutionized modern science and evolved a new subject called quantum mechanics.  Also what we perceive of the external world is at most a tiny sliver of the reality of nature. We know the visible spectrum is only a small band of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Well, returning to the subject of human perception we now shift our focus to another aspect of mental faculty that is associated with perception and that is belief. Perception is the precursor to belief. As stated above perception first develops from some external or internal source and this culminates into belief. But "Belief should be based on reason and supported by argument " this was said by one of the greatest philosophers of the 20^th century Bertrand Russell. And the above stated pathbreaking shift to modern physics that has taken place has happened, is rigorously verified in the way Russell has stated. In every sphere of human activity belief is an aspect that plays a major role that precedes a decision that the person takes. Belief, whether it is positive or negative, comes from the perception that a person develops with a particular end-objective in mind. However, in the present context, we would refer only positive beliefs because it is only such beliefs that trigger a healthy emotion which is necessary for a happy and healthy life. Outside the domain of science, belief moulds the values of a person that he maintains. And these help him to hold on to his moorings or the mental foundation i.e. the psyche, in the event of an adverse external circumstance. It is in such a situation that the strength in his belief helps him to sustain physically and mentally. And for such a person this meaningful belief which he beholds reflects the strength of his character. But there is also another side of belief which is not based on reason and supported by argument as advocated by Bertrand Russell and that is religion. This aspect of human activity is based on faith that a person develops following the convention and tradition of his community. And lastly, there is also another facet of belief which a rational person develops about his self which is based on self-assessment of his capabilities and limitations. Thus we see that there is no major aspect of human activity or assessment whether it is science or religion or tradition or human potential, where a human being doesn’t take recourse to belief.