There is some stuff we do not know and that is OK

Day 951 of 1000

I remember with joy the days when Kelly and Christian were little and I could give them a satisfying answer to all their questions.  Those days are now long gone.  They both have deeper knowledge in their respective fields than I could ever hope to attain in my limited remaining time on this earth.  I make heavy use of both math and statistics in my work, but that use is confined to algorithms that apply to my little corner of image analysis, manufacturing, and feature based classification.  Their knowledge is not only deeper, but broader and it makes use of the most modern math and statistical tools (Maple, SAS, R, etc.).

So I frequently have to say, “I am really sorry, but I just do not know the answer.”

It frustrated all of us for awhile when the kids first had to hear that answer.  The kids had to look someplace for an answer and I had to admit I did not know, nor did I have the time or sometimes even the intelligence and resources to figure it out.  There is just too much stuff to know and some stuff is just unknowable, at least for now.  I got to thinking about it all when I read this article about creation.  Of course I believe in creation by God; I am a Christian.  Some people actually get offended because one does not take the correct position as either an old earth or young earth creationist claiming an understanding of scripture and/or science that must be accepted to be right with God.  That smells somewhat like gnosticism to me.

The reality is that I lean toward one and not the other, but I know that I do not really know.  I am pretty well convinced that the whole neo-darwinist creation story (evolution by gradual natural selection, universal common descent, etc.) did not happen, but it has nothing to do with whether that is compatible with my Christian beliefs.  Even in that, I am comfortable with the fact that I do not know nor do I have much chance of finding it out in this lifetime.  The thing is, neither does anyone else.

Betty Blonde #95 – 11/26/2008

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