‘we see and understand things not as they are but as we are’. This statement is true since humans perceive things differently to each other, each slightly different than the one before. This logic can be applied to anything that is open to perception, from something as simple as interpreting song lyrics to something as big as believing in god.
Lets have a subject A, Subject A is a teenager with a grudge against the world. As subject A is listening to the radio the words ‘have you ever been hated or discriminated against?’ come up and subject A thinks that the songwriter is a genius. Now lets have a subject B, subject B is a successful businessman and upon hearing the same lyrics as subject A he thinks that the song writer is pathetic and angry. These two completely different ideas came about by the same stimulant but due to the way that the subjects were themselves they thought differently of the song writer.
Two different subjects attend a religious speech and the speech giver is giving proof of god. Subject A is religious and Subject B is atheist. When the speech giver says that the world is too perfect to have just spontaneously come into existence Subject A agrees without arguing while Subject B is reluctant and even angered by a claim that is to him completely outrageous. Remove the religious speech giver and put in an atheist speech giver saying that the world is not perfect and can easily have come into existence of its own accord. To this subject A is angered and subject B agrees.
‘as we are’ also includes what we know so far which has a deep impact on what we will perceive something to be, for example: people who have not done their homework on electric and hybrid cars believe that they are better to the environment then a normal car when In fact they harm the environment more then fueling an Hummer H2 for a few years. This harm comes about due to the way the batteries are made and disposed of. The person who knows this would buy a classic American muscle car over a Toyota prius any day seeing as the prius would then have no advantages to it over the American muscle. Even though in truth the person driving the American muscle car he may still be seen as a higher contributor to the global warming issue then a person driving a Prius
A man arguing with his grandson about mortgage laws says that George bush has made it so that a citizen cant claim his mortgage interest as a deductable. The grandson firmly does not give up and come back to the grandfather sometime later with proof that the deductable can be made. The man admitted to being misinformed yet got into the same argument again a few months later. This example show how perception can be shaped in a way that is so profound even we can no longer control it even with evidence of being wrong. Our minds eventually convince us of being right again despite the facts.
All these examples have had to do with perception through seeing or hearing. An example of different views on something moral would be the following. A dog is lying on the ground in the middle of the street. Two people see it. Person one convinces person two to move it. As they are moving it the dog dies. Person two thinks that they killed it so moving it was a bad thing. Person one thinks that they were trying to help the dog so it is a good thing. This example shows clearly our lack of understanding and definition of what good and bad truly is giving the human mind room for different views.
done the draft which is due tomorow, seems broken up though any advice
