If Only The Workings Of The Universe Were Obvious

By Krantz

If the workings universe were obvious there would be no religion, or talk of free will. There would be no need to debunk ghosts and psychics and all the other paranormal imaginings. There would also be no Skeptics Canada.

But the workings of the universe are not obvious. In fact the universe is very often quite misleading. Hence the need for science and, as part of science, the need for a healthy dose of skepticism.

Ironically, my being a skeptic means I am somewhat sceptical of the above paragraphs. I know that I am subject to the same mental foibles and predilections suffered by all mankind. Is anything that anyone thinks or writes accurate?

Even though science provides no evidence of an omnipotent being running things, maybe something is out there somewhere and science is misleading me?

Even though science tells me that the brain in my head is made up of the same sort of stuff as the rest of the universe, I feel like I have free will. Maybe there is some sort of special essence that somehow grants me autonomous action?

Maybe the idea behind Occam’s razor is wrong? And maybe whoever asserts something does not have to support his or her assertion?

Unless we know absolutely everything about everything, we cannot know absolutely everything about anything. Does that mean nothing is truly known? Maybe it does.

The only logical way to deal with this conundrum is to either demand absolute proof and so refuse to believe anything, or to accept fallibility and go with ideas that are “supported to such an extent it would be perverse to withhold provisional consent” as Stephen Jay Gould so succinctly put it.

I find pondering existential questions pleasurable and that is why I do it. I also find scientific explanations intellectually satisfying and that is why I read scientific material. Hopefully by pondering life’s mysteries, and by reading scientific explanations, I will gain a reasonable view of the way things are.