 Voices For Freedom Read Columns
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
The Ultimate Unknown Everything that we do or say or feel is based on our assumptions about reality. Since no two people have the same experiences, thoughts, dreams or hopes, everyone has a different set of assumptions that rule their lives and their decisions. In every argument, controversy, inquiry, or conflict, the parties base their positions on their own assumptions about reality. Those assumptions are usually layer upon layer of cause and effect, each with their own built in assumptions, which may or may not be true. At the very root of each assumption, whether used to prove a scientific theory, debate a political proposition or argue the reality of God, down below all of the layers of presumed proof, there lies an ultimate unknown, the unprovable. There is a point where everyone has to say “I don’t know.” There were unknowable questions that even Albert Einstein had to face, and assumptions he had to make based on his own best guess. He, as all scientists do, had to take some things as a given. As scientific inquiry proceeds and the answers to the ultimate unknowns are discovered, new and deeper unknowns take their places. There will always be a point of the ultimate given, a point where we have to make assumptions, not based on proven facts, but on guesses about reality. That point forces the inquirer to assume, by faith, that something happened. Discussions about God versus science are arguments about which unknowable, unprovable assumption is more valid. The arguments are ultimately unwinnable because both sides, at some point, take a leap of faith. Every one of us lives our lives in a very logical manner. We all act from the very same logic, the hillbilly with no education, the brilliant academic and everyone in between. What differs are our assumptions about reality. By accepting one set of ultimate unknowables, we build our understanding of the world, which may be cohesive and logical. It probably is, however, very different from someone who accepts a different set. It is good to discuss issues to get a better understanding. That is how we all learn. We refine our assumptions and organize how they fit into our own system of thinking. There comes a time, however, to recognize the unknowable and the futility of trying to prove it. |
|
Daniel Mclaughlin
|
|