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The universe IS completely unknown, and forever will be. It is like a sandbox. As Alan Watts put it with his mischievous sense of humor: "Science is the art o

The universe IS completely unknown, and forever will be. It is like a sandbox. As Alan Watts put it with his mischievous sense of humor: "Science is the art of prediction" Talking about religion, Christianity used to refer to this, then it lost its way. See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing

paganel 8y ago
> Talking about religion, Christianity used to refer to this, then it lost its way. This is still true, to an extent, in the Christian Orthodox world, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite is still reguarded as one of the main “intellectual stars” (so to speak) of the Christian Orthodox thought. As for the “lost way” that you mention, I think that that change started in the West once the Reformartion took off and people wanted to “be sure” that they’ll get to live the eternal life. Here in Eastern Europe people do not think in absolute terms about life after death, as in nobody actually believes you can “earn” your way into Heaven, it all resides in God’s Will which is not possible for us to know. There’s also that New Testament parable of a guy asking Jesus at some point with whom of his wives will he be married in Heaven (the guy had been previously married to a different woman) and Jesus basically answered that that is a stupid question as nobody knows anything about Heaven.
- kldavis4 8y ago
  Actually, he was addressing the unbelief in a resurrection by the sect of the Sadducees, as well as the simplistic idea underlying their question that life after death will be a direct translation of life before. The Sadducees were basically trying to make a clever intellectual trap.
  - paganel 8y ago
    That, too, but I think that the point that there’s futile for us to want to know the “details” of the after-life is also a valid one in reguards of this parable.
- combatentropy 8y ago
  Just a nitpick, but the example the man gives is of a hypothetical woman who over time had seven husbands --- just one at a time of course, but one husband would die and then she would get married again. The question was, which one will be her eternal husband? > Jesus basically answered that that is a stupid question as nobody knows anything about Heaven. Jesus said it was an ignorant question, yes, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." But he didn't say nobody knows. He said that she won't be married: "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven" (Matthew 22:29).
  - paganel 8y ago
    Thanks for the correction, I had last read that almost 20 years ago :)

paganel 8y ago

> Talking about religion, Christianity used to refer to this, then it lost its way. This is still true, to an extent, in the Christian Orthodox world, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite is still reguarded as one of the main “intellectual stars” (so to speak) of the Christian Orthodox thought. As for the “lost way” that you mention, I think that that change started in the West once the Reformartion took off and people wanted to “be sure” that they’ll get to live the eternal life. Here in Eastern Europe people do not think in absolute terms about life after death, as in nobody actually believes you can “earn” your way into Heaven, it all resides in God’s Will which is not possible for us to know. There’s also that New Testament parable of a guy asking Jesus at some point with whom of his wives will he be married in Heaven (the guy had been previously married to a different woman) and Jesus basically answered that that is a stupid question as nobody knows anything about Heaven.

kldavis4 8y ago
Actually, he was addressing the unbelief in a resurrection by the sect of the Sadducees, as well as the simplistic idea underlying their question that life after death will be a direct translation of life before. The Sadducees were basically trying to make a clever intellectual trap.
- paganel 8y ago
  That, too, but I think that the point that there’s futile for us to want to know the “details” of the after-life is also a valid one in reguards of this parable.
combatentropy 8y ago
Just a nitpick, but the example the man gives is of a hypothetical woman who over time had seven husbands --- just one at a time of course, but one husband would die and then she would get married again. The question was, which one will be her eternal husband? > Jesus basically answered that that is a stupid question as nobody knows anything about Heaven. Jesus said it was an ignorant question, yes, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." But he didn't say nobody knows. He said that she won't be married: "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven" (Matthew 22:29).
- paganel 8y ago
  Thanks for the correction, I had last read that almost 20 years ago :)