A Tree Falls In The Forsest...

Falling Trees & Faith...

If a tree falls in the forest...we've all heard the philosophical question before. If no one, or in other words if no human, witnesses the falling tree falling, is any sound heard from the event? The question is simple enough but it denotes a much larger topic of discussion, mainly, it's all about faith. The only way we know sounds come from a falling tree is due to faith.

Faith is considered a curse word to academia, at least when it comes to verifiable knowledge. In science there is no faith, only facts. A scientist can prove that vibrations from released energy when a heavy object strikes the ground are emitted into the air and thus, sound is created. The fact that no human ear experiences these vibrations is irrelevant, say the scientists. They know there was sound because it can be recorded and photographed. But recorded and photographic evidence can be altered, adjusted, changed.  First-hand accounts are the only way anyone ever knows anything―knows it for sure. A person can read about the tests, study the physics behind the event (and even physics is based on someone else's first-hand account...), but unless they are there, they don't know for sure. Their conclusion that a falling tree makes sound even with no one to hear it it is based on faith.

I have faith in things I cannot experience first hand, faith in God, faith in love, faith in the goodness of man. I even have faith in evil. We're told one day faith will no longer be required for we will know with first-hand experiences the truth of all things. We'll all know, the scientists, the atheists, and the faithful.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to experience it, does it make a sound? If God visits a boy in a grove of trees and no one else is there to experience it, did it really happen? Faith...it's all about faith.