Agnostic Guide Chapter 2 - Belief and Knowledge

Leaps of Faith

Many theists take a modern view of the mysteries of the universe and see a connection backwards to the mythologies of our ancestors. It takes an amazing leap of faith to believe these old mythologies are true. It also takes another amazing leap of imagination to equate the complexities of the universe to a single intellect and power without a cause for its own existence.

Faith is simply a belief in something regardless of the facts. You could have complete faith you’re the smartest person on this planet. An assertion of faith obviously doesn’t make anything true by itself.

Think: “Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking: This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” - Douglas Adams

There’s a fine-tuned universe argument for theism prompting that joke about a puddle from one of my favorite authors. Do you think the same way as that puddle and not see the possibility of our existence adapted to our environment instead of the other way around? I find our adaptation to the universe to be much more believable than a complex universe created exactly this way for our fragile and imperfect existence. Clothes are an example of how we’re not ideally suited for our environment. Our need for clothes has nothing to do with apples, talking snakes, or an inherent sense of fashion. I need pants when I get cold and not because of original sin from a distant ancestor.

The fine-tuned argument isn’t much different than the intelligent design argument as it tries to find a reason for creation where one may not exist. I agree with the simple argument of imperfection as a plausible counter for the fine-tuned argument. If this one universe were designed and fine-tuned for human life then wouldn’t this be the best possible universe and planet for our existence? I don’t see any signs of perfection in the design of our universe or our fragile bodies. We live in a messy and hostile environment far from the definition of fine-tuned.

I believe with what I know that there’s a possibility of multiverses or a cyclical model oscillating between a Big Bang and a Big Crunch. An infinite number of universes with an infinite amount of time could allow for us to develop without intelligent cause. The idea of multiverses also brings up another interesting idea to ponder. What if all of the universes are accidents of a natural existence except for this one? This idea is highly unlikely but it can’t be disproven either. Agnosticism isn’t a complete rejection of the possibility of a creator we don’t know. It simply accepts the limits of our knowledge in this area.

If infinite multiverses or infinite oscillations of this universe are the true nature of existence then we have to admit infinite conditions might allow for the existence of a god with a finite amount of intellect and power. Such a god may be capable of creating our little universe, even if all other universes naturally exist without a creator. This has to be considered a possibility if we contemplate the power of infinity.

There isn’t any evidence to suggest a finite god created a finite universe out of infinity, but it’s the sort of thing an agnostic might consider. The ability to dream up a hypothesis like this doesn’t mean it makes sense to believe in a specific god with limited powers created this one universe. There just isn’t any meaningful evidence for it, but there also isn’t specific evidence against it assuming such a god no longer messes around with what it created.

My own faith in seeking the truth simply tells me I don’t really know the answers to these hypothetical questions. It makes some sense to remain open to any possibilities for a caused universe by gods who don’t serve as egotistical masters over humanity. Being open-minded doesn’t mean we should fill our minds with endless possibilities, treat them all as equally likely, and then mold our lives to hypothetical concepts.

The intelligent creator and fine-tuned universe arguments definitely don’t point to the very specific Christian deity of my ancestors or the gods of your ancestors. These arguments don’t suggest any other deity would exist with human traits and limited thought processes. Many people take a huge leap of faith to claim logic dictates the possibility of any creator existing actually equates to their specific deity. The leap of faith becomes a massive leap of imagination to say we not only know such a deity exists but we also know very specific things about the deity and its relationship to us.

Think: Would modern scientists take all of the complexities of our universe and come up with the hypothesis this one universe had a beginning and it must have been caused by a single intellect?

Instead of starting from the past and connecting it to modern views, can you do the reverse? Mentally start with a clean slate in the present to examine the past using what we know now. Pretend for a moment we didn’t inherit the baggage of specific mythologies from our imaginative ancestors. Would any scientist develop a hypothesis for a specific intellect causing the universe to exist? What would be the hypothesis concerning that intellect based on the evidence around us? Where is or was that intellect and what was the cause for it to exist? How could we prove true any possible communication with that intellect? People talking to the gods today are rightfully looked at as lunatics instead of prophets because such communication is determined to be unproven and false. I don’t believe an unbiased scientist would imagine the possibility of an intelligent creator without already having faith in such a thing.

Theist Belief

Theist is the term for people who believe in religions. Theists believe in some type of creator as the first cause for the universe. Theists have anywhere from an exact view of a creator to a vague notion of a creator's existence. I can look at the majesty, power, and wonder of our entire universe and see the need to ask why. Theists say they have a very simple answer to this and the answer is a god or gods. They believe in a god as an all-powerful intellect existing without cause, yet amazingly it possesses the attributes of thought and power sufficient to create this mysterious mess of a universe.

Which one of these two things is more likely to exist without intelligent cause and design?

1. A god with amazing intellect and power capable of creating this universe with our own individual awareness and thoughts existing for the purpose of loving and worshipping that god.
2. An environment and existence without intelligent cause and design which is vast enough to develop and evolve our physical bodies with awareness and thought and it was all done through natural processes over billions of years in one small speck of this grand laboratory called the universe.

If you think our bodies and minds must have a god to create us then what does that say about a god which is much more complicated than us? Our ancestors imagined since they could create simple things, then it might mean a greater intellect created more complicated things like us. Some of them took ancestor worship and evolved that into deity worship. They extrapolated what they knew in an attempt to bridge the gaps for what they couldn’t possibly know. It may seem plausible to some of us that they got it right and talked to the creator, but at one time it also seemed plausible a god rode across the sky in a fiery chariot to light the day just for us.

Think: Should you put more trust in our primitive ancestors for knowledge about the universe compared to the better educated scientists trying to discover our first origin now?

Modern scientists will be the ancestors passing down the truths they discovered to everyone coming after us. The truths they discover conflicting with today’s religions should replace current religious claims just as today’s religions replaced Egyptian, Norse, Greek, and Roman gods of our less primitive ancestors.

Mythological gods were human forms possessing more power than us mere mortals. The ones hanging around in Olympus are a good example. The Abrahamic god is a more powerful singular version of these gods all wrapped up into one with so much power it’s claimed to be beyond questioning. I can’t believe in that kind of god for so many reasons. The most compelling reason is our inability to know or understand something with unlimited power. I don’t believe we can define or know that kind of creator if there is one.

I view these simplified attempts to provide answers to the great mysteries as an insult to the true majesty of our universe and the mystery of our existence. I can’t honestly believe our ancestors got any of it right and their writings are worthy of our continued belief and reverence.

Justified True Belief

Knowledge is defined as a justified or reliably formed true belief. Some people go to various extremes to say we have no real knowledge at all. A troublemaker philosopher might insist I can’t prove I’m not just a brain in a vat. My brain could be suspended in a vat of life-sustaining fluid lacking a connection to the physical world. I could be connected to a computer providing me all of the electrical impulses of the physical senses.

Some mental exercises take skepticism and knowledge to the extreme by suggesting we shouldn’t trust our own senses concerning the physical universe. Sight, sound, taste, smell, and even touch could just be a simulation in a manufactured reality. I find those thought experiments interesting but it isn’t practical to completely distrust our senses. A mind blowing idea like my brain in a vat is hard to argue with and keeps me from wanting to take up philosophy as a profession.

Applying an extreme view of us lacking justified true beliefs about the physical world simply isn’t useful to our existence. I trust in my senses and my ability to understand the experiences of the physical world and what it provides me. I do remain wary of being tricked about what physically exists but I can’t completely distrust my senses.

Since our senses and our existence is entirely physical, it should be reasonable to require some physical evidence for evaluation when we try to understand anything which might be metaphysical or outside our physical realm. Religions make very specific claims about this physical existence we should be able to observe and measure. However, religious beliefs and faith are self-referential in providing a physical proof for their descriptions of a creator and our interactions with it.

Think: All religions ultimately claim they are the evidence for all other religions being false.

Examine the physical evidence, logic, and personal intuitions concerning each religious belief. They all rest on a faith in their belief as the reason to reject all other beliefs. In doing so, each religious belief serves as evidence to disprove every other religious belief. For every person believing their faith is correct, there is at least one other person believing their conflicting faith with just as much conviction and written proof.

The best way anyone can critically examine their faith and determine if they have a justified true belief for their religion is to critically examine other religions. Keep track of every method and critique you use to discredit every other faith and apply them to what you believe.

This methodology also applies to antitheism. Any belief there isn’t a definite uncaused intelligent first cause for our existence also can’t be proven as knowledge. Even though it can’t be proven, any attempt to define a justified true belief for a metaphysical being outside our universe can’t be adequately defined for the scientific method.

This is why I believe agnosticism and the acknowledgement of the limits of our knowledge is the only justified true belief we have concerning the metaphysical. If a metaphysical exists then it may be forever out of our reach to prove or disprove from our physical existence.

Freedom from Belief

Belief isn’t knowledge, yet there are people claiming to know how the universe came to be and what controls it. Gods exist in the realm of the metaphysical if they exist at all. Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of “first principles” and “being” or ontology. The metaphysical is anything which may exist outside of our physical existence.

Think: If we are physical and our supposed creator exists in the metaphysical, then how can we have any understandable knowledge of that creator?

We can only believe a metaphysical exists to impact the physical realm since by definition it is beyond having physical evidence. Belief isn’t knowledge and only knowledge is grounded in a verifiable truth. Religions tell us we must have faith in them, but why place our faith in something beyond us? Why trust in the words of people who can’t provide us knowledge or truth about these things? If they could, then we would have an indisputable truth and wouldn’t need to take on the beliefs of others using blind faith. This requires even more faith in the people telling us stories than the faith required to believe in the magic they describe.

Agnosticism frees us from the requirement of blind faith because it acknowledges we don’t know, and in terms of the metaphysical, we’re more likely incapable of knowing. Our first cause isn’t in our realm of existence or understanding. It doesn’t ultimately concern us or our lives since we can’t reasonably be expected to know how the universe really came to be. The Big Bang could be a really good guess for the beginnings of the universe in contrast to other guesses about magical deities, but the root cause is something which may forever be beyond us.

I just know the true metaphysical realm is a complete unknown to us if there really is such a thing outside our known universe. There might not be anything we can boil down to “first principles” or the essence of our “being” beyond just a collection of random molecules. These molecules work together in such a way they can ponder their own being and talk to other random molecules about the weather. It’s pretty cool, but there may not be a root cause or a simple reason why any of us exist. Maybe the only reason is what we decide to define for ourselves as humans.

Trust in Knowledge

If I don’t put my trust in gods and beliefs, then where do I put my trust? My knowledge tells me gods only exist in belief and faith without real evidence for them as the reason for our existence. Ancient holy texts written by our primitive ancestors require critical and impartial examinations since they are as likely to be true as King Arthur or any other old book.

My own critical examinations of holy writings have determined them to be unbelievable. I can’t believe such things without verifiable knowledge which means I can’t be a theist. I profess my agnosticism because I put my trust in knowledge instead of a blind faith in mythologies describing the unknowable.

I’m without theism and am by definition an atheist as well as an agnostic. Not believing isn’t everything that’s important to me. Verifiable knowledge about the origin of our existence is more important to me than belief. This is why I primarily describe myself with the agnostic label since it describes our lack of knowledge instead of our lack of belief.

I would like to know why all of this exists, but the answer may be existence was caused by natural unintelligent processes. Another theory concerning our first cause includes multiple big bangs which may mean matter itself is infinitely old and existence is infinitely large. It isn’t necessary to imagine an intelligent cause to explain this one small blip of life with limited intellect in that limitless view of existence. An eternal uncaused intellect capable of creating our life makes less sense than infinite big bangs allowing for us to grow out of chaos.

Think: How could a singular intellect without a cause exist outside of the universe and serve as the cause for such a universe?

If I have belief, faith, and feelings concerning all of this, it is telling me in my core the religions of mankind are false. I have stood on the shores of Oahu in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and felt the vastness and power of the ocean around me. I have walked through Carlsbad Caverns and felt the weight of the earth over my head and under my feet. I have stood on top of Pike’s Peak and looked out on the land at the farthest and highest I have ever seen it. Each of these experiences made me feel so very small. I have looked up at the clear unspoiled night sky with the vast multitude of stars and galaxies and felt so very small and insignificant in the face of the amazing power of the entire universe existing outside of my own simple little mind.

I have considered the amount of knowledge humanity has collected over our short existence and have imagined how insignificant it must be compared to the potential knowledge of true omniscience. I have left my mind and heart open to the truth concerning the true nature of existence. I continually feel the amazing powers of the unknown, but I don’t feel a specific intellect controlling our reality. I don’t feel even the faint echo of a being greater than the universe.

Why does the universe exist? I can tell you what I think makes the most sense concerning the evolution of our physical existence. I could say the universe may have always existed. We can still look at it all in wonder and ask why, but I can honestly say we don’t really know. I believe none of us know. Anyone claiming to know a god is either deluding themselves or faking it for some human motivation. Their religious motivation can be determined if you really look at the person’s fears and personal motives.

We can see the true nature of religion by examining the believers and what they’re doing instead of blindly accepting their views as truth. Religions are based in many fears including the exploitation of death as our greatest fear. Religion is also based in the desire to control others or have them conform to societal norms with everyone living and acting the same way as the believer.

Think: When it comes to the universe, isn’t the universe itself amazing enough?

I don’t believe in gods, which is the fundamental definition of atheism. My agnosticism tells me that the metaphysical is unknown or unknowable. I see no reason to take a leap of faith to believe there was a creator for this universe. Even if infinite space and time could unnecessarily spawn an intelligent creator for our universe instead of just spawn our universe, then I still don’t see the need to take the great leaps of imagination needed to say we know anything about such a creator.

The gods have all been created in our own image and not the other way around. If there really is a creator and it’s still alive today, I’m sure it’d appreciate my honesty concerning its existence. I should hope a creator prefers my agnostic views over any believer’s claims of specific knowledge about the creator’s thoughts, motives, and desires. It definitely takes arrogance to claim we have verifiable knowledge there is a god and we know exactly what that god thinks about us.