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Is that the Moon we see, so white and gloriously radiating that 'lunatic', Sonata-inspiring brilliance?
Or do we "merely" see the visible part of the electro-magnetic spectrum emitted by the Sun,
reflected by what, since July 21, 1969, we know to be the dusty grey surface of a truly awesome, lifeless place?
Remarkable too, that those recently bereaved often see that same cold light as tangible evidence of 'God's indifference to our plight'.
Similarly, is it the rose that is red, or merely that part of the spectrum of visible light that is reflected to our eyes?
Is it not the rose of all roses we remember that we recognise in that light, insensibly matching the present experience with recorded memory?
Too pedantic? Or received wisdom? Look at how often we call "extraordinary" what we know to be commonplace.
Consider the computational powers of a little sparrow's brain, able to fly at speed straight at and through a chain-link wire fence, without touching it.
But is not all our "objective knowledge" nothing more, nor less, than subjective belief?
And has it not served us rather well? Sufficient unto the time of our calling, if you will.
After all, were not our recently departed ancestors persuaded by the same evidence available to us that the surface of this Earth is "obviously", perfectly flat?
In the final analysis, as we have no way of verifying the flood of evidence that all of our sensory receptors are said to mediate to the brain,
it seems to me that all of what we know, including what we confidently call "everything that is out there", can be said to be in here. And nowhere else.
Russell Stannard (The End of Discovery, 2010), formerly of CERN, the Large Hadron Collider at Geneva, has suggested that perhaps it would take a device as large as the Milky Way to entice that shy little Higgs Bosun, ostensibly the last piece in the quantum jigsaw of everything, to come out of hiding.
Ought this not give us pause enough, lest we declare ours the generation finally to have arrived at the threshold of "The Truth"?