Objects Are Closer Than They Appear

Our brains are capable of amazing things.

Next time you're driving think about this:

On the passenger side of the vehicle there is a mirror, and on it is written a warning "Objects may be closer than they appear".

Now if I was making a safety manual for a product, I would hesitate a little before designing a product where this warning was something consumers would count on to avoid from driving two- tonne pieces of steel into each other. But strangely, it works. It works the vast majority of the time, and works often enough that the insurance industry trusts it.

It's astounding because it points to a phenomenal achievement of the human brain - the ability of our frontal lobe to impose a reality that contradicts what our eyes are telling us. We look in that mirror and see cars at a certain distance. But our brain (without having to read that instruction printed on the mirror every time) tells us not to trust what we see, but instead act on an unseen reality that is more true and reliable.

Does anyone else find this exciting? Does anyone else realize that to drive, is, to exercise faith.
Even the most hardened skeptic among us; those who hold firmly to "I'll believe it when I see it", step into the realm of faith when they look in a mirror and act in a manner that defies what their eyes perceive.

Humans are, by virtue of having a well-developed frontal lobe of their brain (among other things), highly capable of this sort of activity - this mode of living that chooses the reality it will act in congruence with. We are not slaves to our senses, thoughts, reactions, or, even our conditioning.

Sometimes we divide ourselves into categories such as "religious" or "non-religious",  or "spiritual" but "not-religious". But every time we choose to act in a manner that reflects a reality we believe in, especially when it defies our senses, we are in essence acting in faith.

As people we act in faith more often than we likely recognize. The question probably isn't, "are you religious?", but "what sort of things do you have faith in?".