Agent Provocateur — Questions That Can’t be Answered
I wrote an article on Medium recently which attracted a new follower by the name of Agent Provocateur. I was so impressed by his profile statement that I thought I would share it: “I think therefore I ask. Because questions that can’t be answered are much more useful than answers that can’t be questioned”.
This immediately resonated with me, as it connects with a lot of things I write about, specifically the claims of some scientists that they have reached certain truths, which are claimed to be beyond dispute, and therefore have acquired a status similar to religious dogma — thus answers that can’t be questioned.
Such scientists believe that the scientific method will some day be able to unravel all of life’s mysteries, that reason will prevail. It is possible, however, that some things will always be beyond our grasp — there will be questions that just can’t be answered. I’ve been reading a book recently by Jeremy Narby called Intelligence in Nature¹. He believes that intelligence, or whatever comparable term you prefer, is everywhere in nature — birds, insects, plants, slime molds and so on. This is a conclusion that many scientists resist; after all, in some cases, no brain is involved.
There is an interesting passage early in the book, where Narby interviews Laine Roht, an Estonian herbal healer, who claimed to be in communication with plants: “She said that plants speak to her telling her when they are most potent and when to pick them; this sometimes happens at night, while she is resting; she receives instructions, gets up, and goes to the plants she has just been told about. The information she receives is always correct, she said… She did not elaborate on how she receives instructions from or about plants”. She said that she had been born with her gift, and therefore had no explanation.
Narby then asked her what she could tell him about nature’s intelligence. She replied: “It is difficult to penetrate nature. I have no words for it. There will never be such words. No one will ever know how plants and humans are made, or what will become of them. This will remain a secret” (p4).
Perhaps, indeed, a question which can’t be answered. My suspicion is that, to answer such questions, we would have to enter the realm of mystery, magic, and the supernatural, a suggestion which would presumably be anathema to modern scientists.
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I hope you have enjoyed this article. I have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, Christianity, politics, and astrology. All these articles are on Medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website www.spiritualityinpolitics.com (click here and here).
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Footnote:
- Penguin, 2006
