If A Tree Falls In The Forest

It is an age old question.
It is one that has been asked numerous times.
It is deemed a philosophical question.
It is a question that is said to tease our intellects.

If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s nobody around to hear, does it make a sound?

I actually googled that question.
It has its own Wikipedia page.
It is a question that regards observation and perception.
However, it is a question about so much more.

I was pondering this question before Christmas.
A friend and I were going to visit the gorgeous Christmas displays at a well-known garden.
As she and I walked around looking at the amazing displays, I told her about my pondering.
She admitted that she had never thought about the question quite like that before.

We walked around the gardens and marveled at the beauty God created.
This same beauty acted as a canvas on which the artist applied his or her art.
Displays of lights that actually made your jaw drop.
Christmas trees so intricately decorated, you did not know where to look.

What made you think about that question? My friend asked.
I really don’t know; its just that there is a far better explanation that I usually hear, I said.
I told her that I was thinking about the humanistic bent of the question.
The answer most likely given is that if no person is there, the tree does not make a sound.

That answer bothers me, I admitted.
Why? She asked.
Because sound happens whether a person is there to hear it or not, I said.
The question puts humans in the center of everything, suggesting without us, nothing happens.

Many would disagree with me.
My own husband disagreed with me.
Using his engineer brain and training, he explained the science behind the waves of sound.
It is all about perceiving the sound, he tried to explain to me.

I still thought the question was about so much more.

For centuries philosophers have been teasing our intellects with such questions. Of course, the answer depends on how we choose to interpret the use of the word ‘sound’. If by sound we mean compressions and rarefactions in the air which result from the physical disturbances caused by the falling tree and which propagate through the air with audio frequencies, then we might not hesitate to answer in the affirmative.

Here the word ‘sound’ is used to describe a physical phenomenon – the wave disturbance. But sound is also a human experience, the result of physical signals delivered by human sense organs which are synthesized in the mind as a form of perception…Philosophers have long argued that sound, colour, taste, smell, and touch are all secondary qualities which exist only in our minds. We have no basis for our common-sense assumption that these secondary qualities reflect or represent reality as it really is. So, if we interpret the word ‘sound’ to mean a human experience rather than a physical phenomenon, then when there is nobody around there is a sense in which the falling tree makes no sound at all.
(https://blog.oup.com/2011/02/quantum/)

I gave my husband the explanation that I pondered concerning the age old question.
When I finished, he had no words to say.
Hmm, was his only reply.
Perhaps the explanation as a result of my pondering will produce more, Hmm, responses.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

The eternal God, Creator of the universe, always was, always is, and always will be.
Before He set Creation in motion, the earth was formless and empty.
Human beings, made in His image, were not created until the sixth day.
There were no humans to perceive all that God was creating.

And yet God spoke.
His voice, not perceived by any human ears, spoke into the void.
And there was light.
And there were no human beings present to perceive it.

The only one on the throne is God.
The only center of the universe is God.
If we make everything contingent upon us, we are misguided.
If we make everything contingent upon us, we are terribly wrong.

There is marvelous science behind everything we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.
People have studied and theorized so that we can understand.
Above science, above any human explanation is God.
God spoke with only Himself around and everything came to be.

If a tree falls in a forest and there’s nobody around to hear, does it make a sound?

According to the Genesis account of creation, human perception has nothing to do with it.
God spoke into the void.
God was heard.
Everything came into existence before any human being was ever created.

 

2 responses to “If A Tree Falls In The Forest”

1. I agree fully with your analysis of the question. It isn’t about me other than God chose to love me and bring me into being. If two people are present, one is deaf; the other hears… and then the tree falls is there sound? Of course… One of the people present just didn’t hear the sound. If there are two people present, one is an atheist the other a believer… does God exist? Of course… One of the people chose not to believe in God. God always existed, exists now, and will always exist in the future; and it doesn’t matter if humans believe it or not. That is why the popular bumper sticker is wrong: “God said it; I believe it; That settles it.” The middle clause is in error.

   Reply

   • Amen, Al.Thank you for your thorough analysis. You added another dimension to my pondering.
     Gina

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