Or maybe your “feeling” about the existence of God is more like:
- …your feeling that you’re standing on solid ground? The surface of the Earth is moving at over 1,037 MPH at the equator; about half that at the 45th parallel.
- …your feeling that the Sun moves across the sky? The Sun is the central point in our solar system, due to its much larger mass compared to the satellites and planets that orbit it. It’s apparent motion through the sky is caused by the rotation of the Earth – an illusion facilitated by your minuscule size compared to both the Earth and the Sun and the distance between them.
- …your feeling of happiness and satisfaction upon eating a full meal? That Big Mac, large fries, and large Coke contains 1420 calories – more than would be burned by over an hour of running for most people.
- …the feeling of beauty at the twinkling of the stars in the night sky? The light from distant suns is steady; the twinkling effect is caused by shifts in the upper atmosphere.
- …your feeling that there is something privileged and different about humanity compared to other animals? All creatures on Earth use DNA to encode the genetic information they need to grow, live, and breed; the differences between the genetic code of chimpanzees and humans are less than 4%.
Your feelings are probably the worst way to measure the real world available to you. They are more often a signpost to your own inner narcissism.
Good thing we have the toolbox of science to help us get over our self-centeredness, right?
I could go on. I probably will, later, as I think of more examples of how inaccurate feelings are. Want to leave your own suggestions for inaccurate feelings in the comments?
Feel free!