rently. It is impossible, therefore, that matter be something existing in itself, objective, inert, and devoid of thought. According to Berkeley, when we say that a thing exists, we mean nothing more than that such a thing is merely perceived by us. Berkeley stated, To be is to be perceived. Berkeleys answer to the philosophical question, if there is no one in the forest when a tree falls, is there a sound, would be no because the forest cannot exist without a perceiver. Primary or secondary qualities, substances and impressions are nothing other than acts of perception, that is, mental facts; and their existence signifies their being perceived as mental acts. If I walk into a room containing a table, the table exists. However, when I leave the room, the table no longer exists. The Paradoxical problem arises when one asks, how is it then that when I return to the room, the table is still there? While denying the existence of a material world, Berkeley did not deny the existence of the world of spirits/minds. He believed that from the very presence of ideas and impressions, there had to existence finite spirits/minds, and because there had to be an origin of these ideas/impression, there had to exist a finite spirit/mind. Finite spirits/minds refers to humans and the Infinite Spirit/Mind refers to God. Now Berkeley was able answer the question posed above. He explained that God, who exists, produces the order, harmony, and constancy of perceived ideas/impressions. So, when you leave the room and return to see the very same table before you, it is because God has kept in His mind some type of mental note of how the table looked when you left it, and will reproduce it exactly when you go back into the room. In other words, God perceives objects that are not perceived by finite spirits/minds. God is the origin of all that is perceived and this is how God reveals Himself to us and speaks through us. The Infinite Spirit/Mind presupposes our i...
