Why is space and darkness always the color black? Could the color black exist if there were nothing at all?

Question

BTW - I'm looking for scientific and/or philosophical reasons, not religious reasons (i.e. God made it that way, so don't question it).

I know that black is a color, because it comes in a pack of Crayolas.

brokestudent, I appreciate your answer, and I see where you are coming from. The thing about it is, that although nothing comes from nothing, you can't have an infinite something either, because there is also a rule that says something has to be created somehow, therefore that something had to by the same book not exist at some point. Although I will give you that whatever happened at "the beginning" is too complex for the human mind to understand. However, it is also I suppose impractical to understand since we can only understand what is inside our universe, and whatever created the first "something" may or may not have been a part of our observable universe.

If black is not a color, then why can I see it? I can believe those that say it is the absence of light, but not the absence of color. If I can percieve blackness through my eyes and into my brain, and if I can see black ink on paper then although I see it because of the lack of reflection of light, I still see it as a color.

According to wikipedia, you are correct whether you see it as a color or not. It is not a hue, but it still can be considered a color in practice. I think that black is a perception. Without perception, how could there be black?

Answer 1

Yes. Because black absorbs all colors, and it exists when there are no colors. Basically, black equals nothing.

Answer 2

Black is the absence of colour/light, in fact if there was nothing, it would be black. Space is technically a void. Although I do want to know more about the dark matter that can be found within space.
Colours need to be absorbed with the reflection of one or more. An example would be green... A green object reflects both yellow, and blue and absorbs all other colours. Going back to space being nothing... There is nothing for any colours to be absorbed, and reflected from the light travelling through space, so you "see" black. I quotation the word see because true black cannot be seen.
CyberNara
Wow what a bunch of negative people... Jezz! This is pathetic you people, and if you don't believe me do some research...
Thank you whoever that was for the single thumbs up... Someone actually knows the truth other then me.
To simplify things we consider the ability to percieve it and therefore recognize as seeing it, but in a completely dark room, you can't see the objects within it even if they have colour to them because there is no light, and going on that basis if no light is being reflected back to you for your eyes to pick up, then you can't see the black. I hope all this is understood now.

Answer 3

Actualy space isnt totaly black no one has ever seen pure darkness. Living on earth we are engulfed in the light from stars to the point where there isnt really any part in the sky that isnt linked with a star some may be so far away that the light coming from them is very dim to the point where we dont realize its there. None the less we are living in light. IF there was nothing at all then who would be around to see the blackness? But does that mean it doesnt exist?

Answer 4

We see light because our eyes are organs developed to respond to light. If there is no light our eyes have nothing to respond to and the darkness is just the absence of light.

Black ink, crayon or paint is made of a pigment which absorbs as much light as possible, leaving almost none to reflect from the surface back into our eyes.

Answer 5

Black is not a color. It is the absence of reflected light. It looks black because there is no light reflecting back to our eyes.

Likewise, black dye in paint and crayons does not reflect light back to our eyes.

Answer 6

There is no color , it is a perception of eyes guided by mind .You can 'see' multicolor if you got the eyes for it. It is your conditioning which leads you to belief that the darkness always carry black.It is something like twenty wrong can make one truth wrong . It takes one belief to stand out on its own

Answer 7

The "black" of space is the absence of a light source. In the midst of a solar eclipse, those things which have been revealed with a light source then become black.

Answer 8

the colour black is actually made up of every colour. Have you ever mixed all the primary colours together? Darkness is not actually black either. it is just an effect that happens when the sun disapears and no longer reflects off objects.

Answer 9

Color comes from the REFLECTION of light and the absorption of other colors.

The Color RED, for instance, would be a reflection of Red and the absorption off all the other colors.... same for any other color.

White is the reflection of all colors and black is the absorption of all colors of light.

Answer 10

Black is the absence of light.

That isn't to say there isn't light in space, because there is plenty of it (everywhere you look there is a star). However, since space is primarily vacuum, there isn't much to reflect light as it passes by us. We won't see light unless it happens to pass through a cloud of gas or dust.