The Science {and Spirituality} Behind Light

I wrote a blog post a few months back elaborating on the things that I have learned about truth. I came to the realization that, to quote from that blog post, “it is left to each of us to define what truth means at an individual and personal level.” To many, this seems an abstract and conflicting idea. Maybe it is. Part of my personality allows me to be “able to live by glaring contradictions that nonetheless make perfect sense – at least from a purely rational perspective” (this quote was obtained from 16personalities.com, my personal favorite expression of my INTJ personality type).

Allow me to explain what I mean.

On Thursday, February 26^th, 2015, the internet blew up over a controversy concerning this dress.

Is the dress white and gold, or blue and black? The world could not agree. How could one object be so clearly, glaringly contradicting? Celebrities even joined the argument: Taylor Swift sees blue and black, while Anna Kendrick sees white and gold.

So what does it mean? In order to understand what’s happening here, let’s have a quick physics lesson. When we see the color of something, we are not actually seeing what color the thing is – we are actually seeing the only color the thing isn't. For example, if I am looking at a blanket that is red, the blanket is not actually red. In fact, the blanket is all of the colors except for red. The blanket absorbs all of the light wavelengths except for the red ones, which it reflects away from itself. This is why we perceive the color of that blanket as red.

Now, as far as cut-and-dry science is concerned, this is a pretty simple process. But when we involve the brain, things can sometimes grow a little complicated. See, here’s the thing: we actually “see” with our brain, not with our eyes. Usually this works well; but this dress is a perfect example of the exception. “Essentially, your brain normally figures out what color you’re looking at and subtracts any color that might be interfering with whatever wavelengths are illuminating the world, reflecting off whatever you’re looking at… but this image seemed to have hit that sweet spot where it doesn’t work out quite as well. What’s happening here is your visual system is looking at this thing, and you’re trying to discount the chromatic bais of the daylight axis... So people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which they end up with blue and black” (http://hellogiggles.com/dressgate/2#read).

If you are a visual learner, here is another good explanation of what is happening as our brain tries to make sense of the colors in this image: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/links/what-color-dress-video-solved-it-science?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fbsmosh

So why do I bring this up? It is fascinating science, for sure. But it also provides an interesting analogy. What happens when I take Taylor Swift and Anna Kendrick and put them both in a room with the picture of this dress? I ask them to tell me what color the dress it. Taylor is going to tell me all day that the dress is blue and black. And Anna is going to tell me that it is clearly white and gold. Taylor and Anna get into an argument about it, neither of them relenting, because they are both sure the dress is the color they are telling me it is – they can see it, after all, with their own two eyes. Right in front of them. It’s there. Visible to everyone. And it’s obviously blue/white/black/gold. So Taylor gets frustrated and says to Anna, “you see white and gold, then prove it”. Anna then retaliates with “you prove that the dress is black and blue”. And neither of them will be able to do it. But to each of them, ultimately, they are telling me the truth. And they cannot prove their perception of the dress to the other. The way they perceive the dress is different from the other, but it is still very much truth to them. Clear as day. And they each have a difficult time comprehending the others’ perception because it is so glaringly obvious to them what color they see.

It’s all about perspective.

To quote from my earlier blog post again, “the irreligious believe that science provides evidence to support the idea that God does not exist. And theists believe that their understanding of religion provides evidence that God does exist. When in reality…neither of them can be proved or disproved, which makes them both equally true.” The religion question is easier to comprehend if we compare it to the dress. To some, the dress is white and gold. Their perception of the dress is more than enough proof for them to accept it as truth. When, in turn, the same happens with those who see the dress as blue and black. Both sides have defined truths relative to themselves, and they are both right. 

Relatively.

Now, in the real (physical) world, the dress really is only one color pattern. It is not a perceived truth. It is an absolute truth. So while it can be perceived more than one way by the general population, and accepted as relative truth by corresponding demographics, there is an absolute truth out there. I have been told that the dress really is blue and black. Now, I have not seen the dress for myself, but I have enough faith in the sources that I have heard it from to accept as reality that absolute truth.

The same thing happens with religion. There is an absolute truth out there. And someone knows about it. Have I had a confirmation of my own to be able to say that I know what is absolute truth in the theism debate? No. I am living in a relative truth. But it is a relative truth based on the testimonies of individuals who have had the absolute truth revealed to them.

Do you see how that works? We can perceive the dress as whatever relative truth we perceive it as, and it is very much real. Very much a truth. But there is an absolute truth available, and someone has seen the dress personally and can attest to its color scheme. Likewise, we can perceive deity as whatever relative truth we perceive it as, but there is an absolute truth available and someone has seen God personally who can attest to His flesh-and-bone existence. And I have put my faith in those testimonies. Just like I have put my faith in the testimonies of those who profess the dress to be a black and blue color scheme, even though I have never seen the dress myself, in person.

Now, since we are talking about color and our perception of the phenomenon in the surrounding world, I wanted to bring up the two extremes really quickly because I think there is a lot of beautiful symbolism in black and white. Black and white are special cases as far as our observance of color in the physical world are concerned.

Black absorbs all of the light waves, reflecting no light waves back for our eyes to pick up and our brain to perceive. This is why everything becomes the color black in the absence of light. But white is the opposite. White reflects all of the colors back out, holding on to nothing. 

Think about that: holding on to nothing.

No wonder white is the color of purity.

It makes sense that white provides such a powerfully symbolic representation in religion. It is fitting, isn't it, that in the absence of Light (Jesus Christ) everything becomes dark (ominous)? It is fitting, isn't it, that we all wear white in the temple of the Lord? Jesus Christ has provided a way for us to pure again. But we have to be willing to let go of our sins. We have to be able to let go of our imperfections, weaknesses, and past mistakes, and hold on to nothing so we can be cleansed by the purifying atonement of Jesus Christ. So we can become pure.

Just like the color white.

And that, my friends, is the beautiful science {and spirituality} behind light.