What is Reality?
- Gabriela Ilijeska
- Sep 25, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
And how science, religion, and philosophy lead into the same mystery
Contemplating this question is the ultimate mind trip. It is a rabbit hole that seems to expand the moment you step inside. The more you seek a concrete definition, the more you dissolve into a sea of hypothetical terms, abstract symbols, and dense equations. It feels like the universe has a built-in defense mechanism to prevent you from getting too close.
The truth of our existence appears to be entirely dependent on the lens through which you choose to look. There is no single map, but only a collection of sketches made by different explorers, each claiming their version is the correct one.
Religious institutions will tell you that reality is a purposeful creation, a moral training ground or a temporary shadow of a higher realm. In this view, reality is an intentional gift (or a test) governed by sacred laws.
Science, on the other hand, will attempt to say that reality is a mathematical certainty. It describes a universe of cold mechanics, where atoms collide according to the rigid laws of thermodynamics. It suggests that if we could just solve a few more equations, the "great secret" would finally be revealed. Yet, even science eventually hits a wall, where the math breaks down and the objective world turns subjective.
The irony of the search is that the intellectual pursuit often pulls us further away from the thing itself. We get lost in the semantics of existence. We argue over whether we are biological accidents or bits of code in a cosmic simulation. We build massive colliders and write thousand-page philosophies, yet we often feel more disconnected from the “real” than ever.
Exhausted by the noise of the equations, I simply asked my inner child what she thought of this grand, confusing mystery. She didn't offer a theory or a formula. She just smiled, and told me to remember the awe.
She reminded me of the electricity in the air before a summer storm, the way time used to disappear while watching a trail of ants, and the dizzying, beautiful vertigo of spinning in circles until the grass and sky became one. In that moment, it dawned on me that reality might be the frequency of childlike wonder, that can only be felt when the analytical mind finally goes quiet.
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