1.2.4.3 The Unknowable

Most religions, and many philosophers, assume the ultimate reality, called Brahma, God or the noumenon, is beyond the grasp of our normal senses, unknowable and incomprehensible.  Unfortunately they also feel the need to explain how beliefs and values come from this unknown Brahma, God or the noumenon.  But this is a terrible mistake. 

As discussed further in Chapters 1.3 (Theology) and 1.5 (Ethics) we cannot learn something specific, like particular moral rules or even general guidelines or values, from what is unknown.

We don't know anything about what is unknowable or incomprehensible.  Something that is incomprehensible doesn’t help us to understand reality.

We cannot conclude that Brahma, God or the noumenon are good or bad, automatons or conscious, caring or indifferent.  Far too many people make a huge, groundless leap to declare that some incomprehensible thing behind what we perceive directly provides meaning, purpose and value.

But conceptually, by Occam’s razor, it is simpler to not take seriously stuff, such as the noumenon, that we have no contact with. 

Inexpressible

Others suggest the fundamental nature of the universe is knowable but can't be expressed in words: “the Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Dao�.  Many followers of this approach believe that we can have a direct wordless experience of Brahma, God or the noumenon that is a real and meaningful experience.  We can perceive it, but perhaps not with our normal five senses.  And any attempt to capture this in words, like these pages, is unhelpful, misleading or irrelevant.

Even though we can experience it, they say we still don't know its fundamental nature so it remains unknowable.  These people are saying that we can experience strange things, but their fundamental nature is inexpressible. 

On the other hand, many of these supposedly intangible insights can be stated by other people:

·       In Vedantist Hinduism the summary is Thou art That (or You are That). 

·       In Buddhism the essence is that our selves are illusions.  Once we see that, suffering disappears.

So according to these people, our intellectual and ‘spiritual’ challenge is to work out what these summaries mean then experience this truth directly.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that we can have ‘spiritual’ experiences.  The question is how we interpret them.  The various traditional religions come to different answers, usually quite contradictory, and there are no grounds to believe one such interpretation over another.

But more fundamentally, we cannot conclude anything specific from that which is unknown.  We summarise this conclusion as follows: