Two views on mystery
Philosophy, the contemplation of the unknown, is a shrinking dominion. We [scientists and philosophers alike] have the common goal of turning as much philosophy as possible into science. (E.O. Wilson, Consilience, 1999)
Science but increases the mystery of the unknown and enlarges the boundaries of the spiritual vision. (Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Holy Earth, 1915)
Eighty-four years apart, but worlds apart in the attitudes they express toward mystery.
Does acquiring new knowledge shrink the realm of the unknown, or increase it?
As we learn more about the world, does the territory of science increase, or do other ways of knowing increase as well?
Which view makes the most sense to you?
7 Comments
Lisa notes
The more details I learn about how anything works (our bodies, a flower, the rain cycle), the more amazed I am at our Creator. The more we know, the more we realize we don’t know. But He knows it all!
Barbara H.
I’m like Lisa — each discovery increases our awe at God’s wisdom and handiwork. But it also opens more questions, more areas of mystery. Makes me think of Romans 11:33: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Janet
I have to admit that the first quotation sounds awfully arrogant to me. It makes no acknowledgment of the fact that science sometimes arrives at wrong answers, which complicate things a lot if they become the basis of future theories and conclusions.
GretchenJoanna
James LeFanu wrote a whole book on this subject, *Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves* in which he demonstrates that all the brain scans, archeological finds, and other amazing advances and knowledge of modern science only raise more unanswerable questions, and reveal what he calls the “cardinal mysteries” of humans, as well as the rest of the natural world. Nearly every page of this book by a man who knows his subject makes my spirit soar with thankfulness and praise to God, though in it LeFanu makes no mention of his own religious beliefs.
Janet
Thanks for the recommendation, GretchenJoanna!
Bobbi
I understand the first one…that they’d like to make it into Science…but I wonder if they find the second to be true…that it just gets more complex and they can’t…with certain things. Hmmm…food for thought.
Alice@Supratentorial
I love the second quote.
I think many scientists would agree with the idea that the more we learn, the more we realize what we don’t know. Science can make some things less mysterious but usually it just opens new doors and asks new questions.