What we Know

We touched briefly on the concept of what we know in class this week, though it was never couched in those terms. I am going to look at that idea, sliding into the most philosophical I will ever get.

In school, we are tought it is the big bang which is the scientific theory for the origins of the universe. In church, we are often tought something else. We then claim to know that one is true. Unfortunately, by the most rudimentary definition of 'to know' we can never really know (on this earth) which is true.

To know something requires proof, not just evidence. Evidence can be planted, altered, changed, and misinterpreted. Proof is simply that which is true and unchangable. Thus, the history of the world cannot be truly known, we can only make a resonable interpretation of it.

On a similar note, the existence of a God cannot be dispproved. This is one of the fundementals of knowledge. To say their is no God requires one to look into every corner of the universe from every angle, to search through all time, and to find nothing; thus, the only way to know there is no God is to be God oneself.

How does this pertain to myth? Well, myth is the past, and thus unknowable. It may, or may not have passed. We can conclusively say that there are no gods on Mount Olympus as the Greeks believed in them, but we cannot say they were not there, just as we cannot say there is no God in the universe.