Perception

People trust their senses too much and fight those who challenge their reality.

It would be a very common approach to say that this is wrong and shouldn’t be done, that people should be more accepting, and should be curious to learn about new things. However, I think that applies for most people. People do actually trust their senses too much. However, I disagree with the fact that people automatically criticize this and view it in a negative way. People cannot really be blamed for trusting their senses too much. Lets take the people in the cave as an example, to them, their senses are the entire world, this is what they know, they have absolutely no way to get different information, so it is more than natural to believe their senses, and only their senses.

Furthermore, it is also natural to repel new ideas as a first instinct. What we know is our comfort zone, it is what we are used to, this is where we feel safe and protected, simply because we know. Knowledge has the power to influence how we feel about things, and how we react the ideas. A very simple example, if a student had a choice to write an essay, either about their favorite book, or about a book that they know nothing about. It is natural for him to choose his favorite book, simply because he knows it. I do not think that it is arguable that people feel more comfortable in situations and environments in which they are familiar. This is the reason that it is our first instinct to resist ideas that “challenge our reality.”

A cliché example, but nonetheless a very good example is the example of religion. People often get sensitive talking about religion, which is natural. We do not want our beliefs to be challenged, this once again relates to the idea of belief vs. knowledge. To us, what we believe is what we know. The two are very much interlinked. To me, Islam is the ‘correct religion’ to someone else, it could be Christianity, and that’s perfectly fine. Neither of the two needs to prove that they are right.

For those of us who do not live in a cave, the important thing is not to try and accept everything that is different, and resist the temptation to shut it out. It is okay to feel like you do not want to accept something that challenges your views and beliefs at first, but the important thing is to be aware of this human nature. We should then go back and rethink about the concept, and be prepared to accept ornate least reason new ideas. Furthermore, it is great if you learn something new that changes your perspective, but at the same time, it is just as fine not to change your opinion, as long as you gave the new idea a chance, because, such as in the fable, there might be a bigger picture!