SEEING IS BELIEVING

 

“I’ll not believe unless I see” is an argument often put forth by some people. “We cannot see everything, to believe,” some others say. “God cannot be seen, so I do not believe in God,” some say this way. Hence idols are made to represent God so that people can see and believe in God. Seeing and believing are very good concepts, but it has a lot of limitations. Even if we see a murder, and we know who committed the crime, the court will not accept it unless we provide certain proof and evidence. Making someone believe certain things are difficult; however, convincing with logical evidence will work.

Earlier if a match is played in England, we can hear the audio commentary on the radio. Whatever the commentator says we will imagine and believe. Today live matches are seen on TV and we believe whatever we see. Therefore, as we advance in technology we try to accept the concept of seeing as believing.

Close circuit video cameras are fixed in hotels, important traffic junctions, roads, railway stations, airports, supermarkets, malls, banks etc., The movement of people is closely monitored through CC TVs in important places.

Most of the things in Nature are seen by us and thus we believe. Some of the things which we never see are blindly believed. The superstitious beliefs cannot be seen but heard from mouth to mouth. People have faith in them, so they believe. Anything abnormal is very difficult to believe unless we see it. So evidence is expected for believing.

Scientist while trying to find the truth, makes a hypothesis which is only a belief, and design experiments to prove the hypothesis. When the proof is repeatable, sometimes visible is accepted as a theory. Everyone believes the theory. Visual evidence can be easily believed. A plant if it wilts because of want of water we can see and believe that the plant cannot survive without water. If someone says the plant has wilted and died, then we make many queries to find out the truth because we have not seen the wilted plant. Sometimes we will be misguided by visual evidence. Counterfeit currencies are examples. Similarly, photographs or voices can be manipulated and make one believe. Therefore, control even in visual evidence has become necessary. How far the visual evidence is truthful?

Day by day ‘seeing is believing’ also getting more criticism from different quarters. No thief or criminal accepts their mistake unless it is proven. Although we know someone is a known thief or criminal, we cannot punish him or her straight away. It has to be proved with all kinds of evidence and arguments for and against.  The judiciary plays an important role with the help of the police, intelligence service, Interpol etc.,

Sometimes proof may be wrong and the innocent person is punished.

Maybe a very small per cent falls under such cases. A blind person cannot see, but still, he believes the things which he has not seen. He may touch, smell, hear or feel to believe certain things. For him, ‘seeing is believing is not acceptable. Therefore, when we apply this concept, it has to take with a pinch of salt. Seeing is a great opportunity offered to live beings to lead happy life. All the time, we see things around us including friends, relatives, people and all other things. Whether we believe it or not, sight is the great boon we have. Let us make use of it even for believing. - NARA