Saturday, December 24, 2011

The unseen and the unseeable

In the spirit of the season, the most reprinted editorial of all time, "Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus"

http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

The line which struck me the most, "Nobody can conceive or imagine all wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world." That sums up my attitude toward religion, I view theists and atheists as similar in a lot of ways. How can anyone be so sure of their views? Even with something as universally true as mathematics, there are more unanswered questions than there are answered questions. Beyond that there are unanswerable questions (e.g. axioms). I prefer to take the Buddhist approach, arguing about unanswerable questions is a trap and the basis for dogmas. Although not having an answer makes life's path a little less clear I can't think of another way I could live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_unanswerable_questions

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