Chapter 5

RE: Statement in Chapter 5, page 40 of SQ2. 

Dear Tom,

We covered some things with a little more meat last week. We will continue in that vein with today’s topic as we ask the question: How do we as humankind know what we know and how accurate is it? In chapter 5, I write the following: “How then can man claim that he knows that the universe started without God’s help? He cannot. He was not around when the universe started. His knowledge base is incomplete and based only upon deductive reasoning that is flawed. (See T 1, C #18) Man cannot see outside of the boundaries of time and space. He is not eternal. He was not there when the universe began.” 

It is a constant puzzle to me how today’s society can even think that we are close to correct with our scientific evidence when we were not physically there as observers when things began. Our science thinking is after the fact. It is not first hand observation. That fact alone raises many questions of logical soundness. What we cannot know by experience or observe by eyewitness account means that we constantly act as if we are omniscient, divine beings! 

When it comes to the total body of knowable knowledge, we are woefully deficient. We have no real concept of what happened almost fourteen billion years ago. All we can do is make logical guesses based upon evidence that we have discovered to the present. Did things happen back then that affected events but no longer have any physical evidence that they existed? It is this basic question and its answer that drives me nuts. We are finite beings, imprisoned inside this singularity, with incomplete knowledge and we make assumptions about things and call it fact.

How can we call it a fact, when we do not know all knowledge both in this physical realm and in the realm of the spiritual? All it takes is one piece of missing evidence and our conclusions are faulty. To whit, how long did mankind think that the earth was flat? When the missing evidence became known, his knowledge base had to be changed. Again, humans thought that the sun was the center of the universe and everything revolved around it. Now we know differently, and the list goes on. 

Without a complete knowledge base, our understanding is limited. Yet, our intellectual community continues to spew forth scientific conclusions as if they are in fact grounded in concrete and absolutely correct. It is this tendency toward pride and scornful swagger that will be the undoing of humanity. We are very limited in what we know and do, have done or will do; but our society continues to act as if we know all things. However, that is the area where we will be undone. 

The pressing question then becomes how do we educate our world of today? This becomes the dominant focal area of attention. The need is for focused, concentrated instruction to our society. It is my hope that SQ2: Interface with Creation at least makes an attempt to fulfill that mission. Only with God’s divine guidance can anything worthwhile be done. Continue to pray for me that I will fulfill that calling to the best that Our Lord has given me ability.  

Gratefully and gracefully yours, JR            Ltr5ch5.072211

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