The Conversation - 4

"Why do you keep banging on about all the things we don't know?"

"Because we don't know so many things, yet so many people are so certain of so many things."

"Like they know there is a God?"

"Which they don't know."

"Or they know what an electron is?"

"Which they don't know."

"Or they know how life began?"

"Which they don't know."

"Or even where in the universe it began?"

"Which they don't know."

"Or actually anything about what the bulk of the matter and energy in the universe is?"

"Dark matter and dark energy... Which they don't know anything about, really."

"Or the nature of consciousness?"

"Which they don't know."

"Or whether or not we have freewill?"

"Which they don't know."

"But things fall downwards rather than up, don't they?"

"Ah yes, in the absence of intervention."

"And aircraft fly thanks to our knowledge of engineering?"

"Oh yes."

"And they know how to make computers work, don't they?"

"Indeed they do, which totally baffles me... but some people do."

" And anaesthetics are good, aren't they?"

"Oh yes."

"So it's all quite useful then, this science and engineering and medicine?"

"Indubitably."

"That's a good word."

"Thank you."

"But we don't really know what anything really is, deep down, or why it is there, or how life began, or what a conscious mind is, or whether there is a God, or Gods, or other manner of Interveners or if we are truly free?"

"We should be a bit more humble, eh?"

"But so many people feel they have to adopt a position. They have to have an opinion. They can't bear to just admit that they just don't know."

"And why do you think that is?"

"Because adopting a view, whether right or wrong, may have been a good survival and mental stability strategy throughout evolution, perhaps?"

"Do you think so?"

"I don't know."