What Color are Tigers, Actually?

In my philosophy class last spring, we dipped our toes into religion. It was short, sweet, and full of contrasting ideas. What I ended up writing about was Divine Command Theory through an odd lens: tigers.

Let me say that for me, someone who excels in written thought over spoken communication, in reading retention rather than active listening, absorbing my teacher’s lectures from the comfort of my toilet has molded online school into a great experience.

In Italian, comparing tigers to god would create some fancy swear word. Here’s what I said.

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Part of understanding something as complex as what god/the universe is requires an ambiguity which people who solely believe in their one version god possibly close themselves off to. From personal experience, listening to people talk about dimensional perspective, and watching documentaries such as Life in Color, I’ve looked into the fact that the world is more than we perceive it as.

For example, due to tigers limited perceivable color range, they see themselves as green, not orange, and in their hunting believe themselves to be camouflaged with the brush—luckily for them, most of their prey sees them as green, too. On top of this, many other animals perceive tigers as a different color entirely, such as those who see ultraviolet, infrared, or simply more blue than we pick up. If all animals could talk to each other, we’d be too busy arguing about what color things are to even consider creation myths and beliefs. If tigers don’t know they’re orange, what could we not know about ourselves and the world? What is all this? What are you, really?

Let’s extend Divine Command Theory to more than religion. In the case of the tiger, we would leave our perception (our belief/faith) out of the equation. Just because we see the tiger as orange doesn’t make it orange. What evidence do we have other than our perception that proves tigers are definitively orange? What evidence do tigers have to prove they’re definitively green? Since we see things differently, the tiger’s color is subjective.

Is it all or nothing? The tiger has all colors or no color at all. What I like to remember is that thinking of things in terms of a zero sum game is often not necessary. One thing can be multiple things, many parts of multiple things, or many parts of one thing, and that’s okay. Just because some people/creatures have different beliefs/perceptions doesn’t make others any more wrong or right. Nobody has to lose, and that’s a beautiful thing we should all appreciate.

For me, I’d rather be fascinated by alternate modes of perception than frightened by them, and inclusive rather than exclusive of opposing beliefs, as I’d hope others could be of mine.

Thank you,

Noah 🙂

For an update on my travels, check out my thoughts on Rome!