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No answer is better than any old answer
Thursday, 27 September 2007
There are three little words that most people, particularly men, find it very difficult to utter. They are: "I don't know". For any question people can come up with, you'll see a bunch of answers being put forward, however little evidence there is to support them.
Think, for example, of the question about whether there's life after death. The evidence either way is pretty-much non-existent. Sure, there have been some people who've almost died and said they saw a tunnel of light and so on. But since they came back to life and didn't actually die, this isn't very convincing as proof of life after death.
The only logical answer about such a question is: "I don't know".
And yet most people will never say that. They'll invoke religious beliefs, talk about spiritualism, or say they think the end is the end. No answer is any better than the others, because none of them are based on evidence. We simply don't know if there's any life after death - full stop.
Another good example is that of intelligent life on other planets. You can make convincing arguments either way that such life exists or not. But one thing's for sure. Despite years of searching, we have not one shred of evidence that intelligent life exists on other planets.
Sure, the universe is a huge place, and there's plenty of scope for intelligent life to exist. But that doesn't mean that it's there.
Again, the only logical answer is to say: "I don't know".
Sometimes, it seems to be in our nature to accept any old answer instead of no answer. Having a controversy or mystery "solved" by giving it an explanation may be comforting. But this is the wrong way of approaching the world.
During human history, people have had all sorts of crazy beliefs. Our modern world is largely built because great people had the guts to admit they didn't know what was going on in some particular area. This was the first step towards them making efforts to find out.
Imagine where we'd be if we still thought diseases were caused by evil spirits. Or that Greek Gods were the ultimate deciders in matters of war and peace. Or that human sacrifice was the best way to guarantee a good crop.
These were all answers that people provided to serious questions at one time or another. They were convinced they knew the causes of natural phenomena. How wrong they were.
If you don't know the answer to a question. Have the courage to admit it. This is the first step to true knowledge.
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