Obstacles to Approximating Perceivable Reality
      The great disparity between people's perceptions of reality means that most must be very poor approximations of Perceivable Reality (and at odds with the related evidence). One cause of the unrealistic perceptions is the huge body of evidence on which Perceivable Reality depends. Achieving an approximate understanding of Perceivable Truth about only one of the key aspects of Ultimate Reality requires understanding the information in hundreds of books, journals, experimental records, and other information sources. People spend lifetimes trying to understand a single key aspect of Ultimate Reality such as the behavior of atoms or the behavior of people. Even the most competent students of nature cannot fully understand all the key Perceivable Truths of Perceivable Reality. There is too much information.

      A second cause of the great differences between people's perceptions of reality and Perceivable Reality is that most people do not have the time necessary to obtain even a rough approximation of key Perceivable Truths. People have other concerns such as the need to obtain food and other necessities. They have employment and family responsibilities that require their time. Also, as societies and people's lives become more complex, the demands on people's time tend to increase. Also, businesses in the travel, leisure, entertainment, recreation, food, and other industries have evolved increasingly effective ways to keep people occupied and thinking about activities that are profitable for the businesses, which leaves people less time and interest for trying to make sense of life.

      A solution to the widespread disparity between people's perceptions and Perceivable Reality is a liberal arts education designed to expose students to the history of human thought about key aspects of Ultimate Reality and familiarize them with the corresponding Perceivable Truths. Students could then have in mind evidence and ideas allowing them to synthesize realistic perceptions of reality. Unfortunately, students are often exposed to only currently popular alternative views that are taught as if they are Ultimate Truths. This, in effect, closes students' minds to the more complex, interesting, and accurate Perceivable Truths. It reduces student curiosity by creating a false sense of knowing, and thus contributes to ignorance.

      In science, the thinking of teachers and students, and the funding of research, tends to gravitate toward currently popular views or theories. Also, scientists who invest years or careers exploring and teaching a particular theory tend to be unreceptive to alternative views that expose the uncertainty of their theory. This has long inhibited the advancement of science. It is reasonable to expect greater advancements in science if teachers, students, and administrators had a good understanding of the alternative views and probabilities comprising key scientific Perceivable Truths. Improved understandings of important Perceivable Truths would occur if respected scientific organizations began determining and reporting approximate probabilities for the alternative views of matter, space, time, universe formation, and other important scientific topics. This would reduce scientific myopia and result in greater awareness of new areas for scientific investigation and discovery.