Page 169 of The Present (With Religion) at truthcontest --- How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Process of elimination: Sometimes it is easier to know what something is not than to know what something is. To find out the nature of something you cannot understand, you can use the process of elimination. Marie Curie used this process to discover radium. She just took some earth she knew radium was in, and removed everything else she knew was there. The only thing left was radium. You can do the same thing with life. Just remove everything that you know is untrue, and what is left has to contain the truth. If you believe in myths, start with them. The truth is in many of them, and you can often find it by the process of elimination. Extrapolation: Another method of learning the truth about something that cannot be known any other way is by using extrapolation. Example: we do not know for certain that the sun will rise in the morning. All we can know is what has happened in the past, and that nature will keep doing what it has done in the past unless something happens to change it. We can then project or extrapolate what will happen in the future, or at least know what has the best chance of happening in the future. Using this method, we can be almost certain the sun will rise in the morning. The earth will keep turning, and the sun will keep burning a while longer. The known universe: The known universe is about thirteen and a half billion light years out, and at the level of subatomic particles in. This is what we can see and understand using current instruments and/or math. It is Newton’s universe; he explains it perfectly. Einstein’s work was on the edges, the edge of the universe, and the edge of what our minds can understand and know for certain. One of the goals of this book is to say all we can know and check about the big picture of life. When something involves infinity or immortality, I say as little as possible. It is a waste of time, of life, to think about something that is unknowable. The way to know the unknowable is to know all you can know about what can be known. The edge is not a place to dwell too long, or go to very often. I just touch on it from time to time, just to know where it is, to know the boundaries of the mind. All we need to know: We do not need to know anything other than the known universe, and we never will, because we can only exist in the known universe. Life lives only in the known universe, and it would not be possible anywhere else. Since we can only be conscious of life in the known universe, there is no point in trying to go any farther and trying to know more. It would be impossible, and it would be a waste of time and resources. All we need is a complete understanding of the known universe to get to heaven. When you know the truth and the life, you know everything you need to know and can know. --- Comment here: reddit/r/truthcontest/comments/2kqvj7/facebook_read_alongs/
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000