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If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Of course it does. Just because you weren't there to hear it doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Believe it or not, not everything revolves around us. A sound doesn't need to be heard for it to exist; besides, if you really wanted to get into it, any little critters that were in the woods would hear the sound and act accordingly. Human beings aren't the only organisms capable of hearing things.

When people say that a tree falling in the woods doesn't make a sound, they mean that no one hears the sound, and therefore the tree's sound is inconsequential to anyone's life. This is true: if you aren't around to hear a sound, then it won't affect you; however, the sound still exists. You just have to be close enough to hear it. If someone doesn't see a baby being born, is that baby still born? The baby would be living proof of it.

Have you ever been to a waterfall? Have you heard the loud noises that it constantly makes? Does your being there have any effect on the waterfall whatsoever? Unless you're trying to block the waterfall, then you will have no effect on it at all, meaning that it would make a sound even if you weren't there. How do we know that it makes a sound when you're not there?

If you consider that the only variable in this experiment is whether or not you are there to hear the waterfall's sounds, then the experiment shows that you aren't actually changing the waterfall's actions by just standing there. Besides, if you left a video camera near the waterfall, then you could watch the film later and listen to the sound it makes. Nature still goes on when human beings aren't near it; in fact, nature runs more smoothly when humans leave it be. If our presence in a natural location doesn't do anything to it, then it will still thrive if we aren't there.

Consider this: If you scream in an isolated location with no one around you for miles, will anyone hear you? Probably not. But do you scream? You'll certainly think so, but unfortunately, no one could hear you scream. Look at the last part of that sentence: hear you scream. You screamed, all right, but no one heard it. Compare this to a tree: did it fall? If you screamed, then the tree fell; the only difference is that trees don't have ears, so they don't hear themselves scream, but you can hear yourself scream. The tree made a sound just like you did.

What is this a metaphor of? Well, the tree in the woods may very well be you screaming. However, if no one heard you scream, then there'd be no proof (except your word, of course) that you screamed, or had reason to scream. The point of this? Just because you didn't see or hear something doesn't mean it didn't happen. You have to realize that things go on without your knowledge. Only then can you understand that the world is much bigger than you thought.

Learn more about this author, David A. White.
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