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What Don't We Know

By Tom Evans

The ancient Greeks had 12 main Olympian gods and goddesses. There were hundreds,
if not thousands, of demigods. Virtually
every object had a god or goddess
associated with it.

Despite amazing mastery over the physical world, we don’t really know how we really got here.

What seems to happen is that the less people actually really know how we got here, the more vociferously they proclaim they do actually know the answer.

Take those of a religious persuasion for example. Out of the 7 billion people on the planet, around 5 and a half billion sort of believe there is a God who set the whole kit and caboodle in motion.

Out of those 5 and a half billion, there are followers of four main religions, and their many off-shoots, who claim to know that their God is the only true God, and that the others are mere pretenders.

There are some slightly more enlightened and ecumenical souls who have twigged there is a good chance their gods are one and the same. Some ‘know’ though with such conviction that their’s is the ‘true path’ that they will even kill others who disagree with their belief. This applies equally to all faiths up and down the Ages.

There are about one and a half billion people who don’t follow these faiths. Out of this number, there are around half a billion Buddhists who see ‘God in all.’

There are around one billion who don’t believe in a Creator at all. Many of these atheists just don’t give the idea of God a second thought. Many follow the ‘God’ of money, or Mammon.

Some lucky souls just get on with life, often living in a more holy and gracious manner than those who do ‘believe.’

Some diehard atheists believe all can be explained by a new God of Science. Such is their self-belief that this is claimed to be knowledge. They know the entire Universe was created in a Big Bang, 14 or so billion years ago and there is no need for a Creator.

Armed with this knowledge, scientists even create their own mini-Suns in the form of hydrogen bombs. They create mini-Big Bangs in particle colliders. They are their own New Gods. Science is the New Dogma.

If there are two things we really do know they are these.

Firstly, once we think we know everything, we stop learning. Secondly, we ‘know’ exponentially more now than we used to know, therefore there is undoubtedly exponentially more still to know. •

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This inspiring article is serialized from the ebook This We Know © 2012 Tom Evans. All rights reserved. More »

3/24/13