The Unknowable

“As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.”  (Albert Schweitzer, 1875—1965)

Once, humans looked at lightening with awe and without understanding.  Maybe they thought that lightening was sent down from the heavens by the gods.  Now, we understand lightening as a natural phenomenon.  Much of what once had no explanation, is now easily explained.  As a result, there are many who believe that nothing is beyond the limits of our understanding.  They believe that some things are yet to be explained, but someday we will be able to do so.

I believe otherwise.  There are limits to what we can ever know.  A dog can only know what a dog’s brain allows a dog to know.  No amount of teaching will open a dog’s mind to the world of math, or music, or literature.  (But then again, no amount of sniffing will allow me to know the dog’s world of scents.) Similarly, a human can only know what a human’s brain allows a human to know.  Maybe, the universe is far more complex and mysterious than I am wired to fully understand. Maybe there is an unknowable realm that exists beyond the human brain’s capacity to ever understand.

I am fascinated by the truism that whenever one question is answered, ten more questions take its place. During my professional career, few discoveries led to any definitive answers to complex problems.  Most discoveries lead to the realization that many problems are far more complex than we ever really imagined, and the solutions to those problems remain frustratingly elusive.

Bear with me, and try to visualize an x,y-axis with a horizontal line drawn near the top.  On the graph, picture a curve slowly climbing towards that horizontal line, approaching it asymptotically, getting closer and closer but never crossing, never even touching, the horizontal line.

The ascending curve represents the extension of human knowledge over time. Under the curve is the sum of human knowledge.  Above the curve is the unknown.  Above the horizontal line is the realm of the unknowable.

No matter how far we progress in our knowledge, I believe that there is much that will always remain, for us, unknowable.  Will we ever be able to explain how mind and sentience emerge out of inorganic matter?  Defying description and all rules of cause-and-effect, will we ever be able to explain what is free-will (and I do believe there is such a thing)? Is it possible, even likely, that there exists a mind, or minds, greater than the human mind, in that realm of the unknowable?

The realm of the unknowable is the realm of maybes.  Maybe, within that realm, is a source of creative energy.  Maybe, within that realm, is a source of moral valence, right and wrong.  Maybe, from the realm of the unknowable emerge strands that temporarily connect that realm to ours, leading to what we call mystic experiences, precognition, revelations, or God-moments. 

I am agnostic.  I don’t know.  I live with maybes.