The Unbeliever The Unbeliever: Someone who actively disbelieves something that is widely accepted as Truth. As the great detective said, "If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however unlikely, is the truth." What he forgot to mention is that the task of eliminating the impossible is in itself impossible. Humanity has the capacity to understand both Truth and Falsehood on a conceptual level; however, humanity only has the capacity to detect Falsehood. We cannot detect Truth on our own due to our limited point of view within the scope of Creation. We can detect Falsehood through human observation, but the only Truth we can know is that which is revealed to us by God. Due to our limitations, many use what we know of Falsehood in a futile attempt to know Truth: They assume that that which has not yet been detected to be Falsehood is Truth. They are wrong. That which has not yet been detected to be Falsehood is not Truth. It is only possibility. Falsehood is that which is impossible, theories and hypotheses are that which is possible, and Truth is that which is. Mathematics is the human language which we created to help us describe Truth. One branch of Mathematics, Logic, defines rules governing the inter-relationships of truths, but it cannot tell us what those truths are. It does not specify what is true, but gives absolutely certainty about what cannot be true. Understand mathematics, specifically Logic, and you have a powerful tool for evaluating your beliefs. The whole point of Logic is that if you start from truths and reason logically, you always obtain truths. The catch is that if any of your reasoning is logically invalid, or assumptions incorrect, every subsequent "truth" derived becomes as good as random guessing. The certainty of the truths you start with affects the truth of everything you reason from them. The Unbeliever recognizes that even the basic truths assumed within Mathematics are not Truth. 1+1=2 is not Truth. It is only a widely accepted hypothesis. (The "fact" that there are 180 degrees in the sum of the angles of a triangle has been shown to be false, and yet many people still accept this as Truth.) This does not make Mathematics useless. The language of Mathematics is a valuable end in itself, despite being useless to detect Truth. It contains great depth, richness and beauty if it is studied and appreciated, it provides a framework for the evaluation of Falsehoods, and it is a great tool for balancing your checkbook. Besides, we already know that the answer is 42. Science is the futile human pursuit of Truth, evaluating hypotheses through the observation of Falsehoods. Because detecting Truth is impossible, the best Science can do is to create even more accurate models with more accurate predictions which refute a previous hypothesis. Science is about testing hypotheses by experiment and getting quantifiable results. A "true" hypothesis is one that has not been shown false, and is good at explaining observable (loosely) phenomena. "Laws of nature" are the most trusted form of hypotheses, but even they have been amended over time. Experimental data from multiple experiments is necessary to support a hypothesis; there must be agreement between all of this data. When a hypothesis has been put to the test and only supportive evidence found, confidence in it rises. If the accuracy of the agreement from diverse experiments is high, it rises more. But as long as more and better observations and experiments are possible, the refutation of any hypothesis is possible, and it can never be regarded as Truth. Believing a theory or hypothesis to be absolutely true is unscientific: it denies the possibility that future observation could prove it false. Unfortunately, modern society is very unscientific. Many scientific theories and hypotheses, e.g. the theory of Evolution, are accepted as Truth. The Unbeliever recognizes this, and refuses to believe. In the words of Walt Whitman: When I heard the learned astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Looked up in perfect silence at the stars. If Mathematics and Science cannot lead us to the Truth, how do we get there? We cannot get there on our own. Truth must be revealed to us. It is the gift of Faith. ...the one thing that The Unbeliever does not doubt. ©Copyright 1997-2003, Joseph B. McKinley All logos and product labels found on this website are © by and trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved.