Forbidden Knowledge

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I don't believe we're meant to know the answers to most questions that religions attempt to answer. I do not expect those unknowns to be revealed at any point.

Religions don't attempt to answer anything. Science does.

Religions just make stupid shit up.

 

[Bampire]

Religions don't attempt to answer anything. Science does.

Religions just make stupid shit up.

I'm agnostic, so I'm not going to defend any religious doctrine or philosophy. However, I do think many attempt (emphasis on "attempt") to address existential questions. I view those as unknowable, which is why I answered the way I did.

 

[Hypoxia]

I don't believe we're meant to know the answers to most questions that religions attempt to answer. I do not expect those unknowns to be revealed at any point.

That is something of what I aimed for -- but more in the realm of What Should Remain Secret? Is there dreadful divine knowledge that would blast human minds? Should we know the sources of evil (however we define evil) within ourselves? Should we learn how to vaporize planets and stars? What are the limits of what we should seek?

And who decides 'should'?

 

[ms_ann_thrope]

What you don't know won't hurt you...

 

[Colonel Hogan]

That is something of what I aimed for -- but more in the realm of What Should Remain Secret? Is there dreadful divine knowledge that would blast human minds? Should we know the sources of evil (however we define evil) within ourselves? Should we learn how to vaporize planets and stars? What are the limits of what we should seek?

And who decides 'should'?

IF God does exist, AND he has CHOSEN to be inexplicably coy, then I don't suppose we will ever know why.

Meanwhile, I can think of a literal TON of stuff I'll never know. Like who won the 2053 World Series? Who was the first person to land on Mars? When was the first permanent moon base established? What year was the last type of cancer cured?

 

[BoyNextDoor]

Too late. You already know it:

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the Garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9, Oxford Annotated, Revised Standard Version)

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, “you may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

BibleBlather = poppycock = made up bullshit.

 

[Hypoxia]

BibleBlather = poppycock = made up bullshit.

Quite, but it informs many cultures. That Genesis trope is usually cited to suppress inquiry and demonize women. It's about power.

But wait, there's more! If you follow the myth, every entity Adam & Eve could ever have encountered were creations of {YHWH} and all their interactions with the divine would have been through messengers, literally 'angels' -- {YHWH} is too awesome for direct human contact. So far as Adam & Eve could know, the 'serpent' (linguistically a lizard) was just another divine messenger, an official angel announcing just another divine rule change. In this view, {YHWH} is a trickster god and Eden was only a cruel setup. Thus, believers are suckers, QED.

 

[trysail]

My review of Liberal Fascism the other day provoked a very long comments thread and lots of strong views. I was therefore interested to see this article by Joel Kotkin - a Democrat, albeit a conservative one.

-Andrew W. Montford​

Today climate change has become the killer app for expanding state control, for example, helping Jerry Brown find his inner Duce. But the authoritarian urge is hardly limited to climate-related issues. It can be seen on college campuses, where uniformity of belief is increasingly mandated. In Europe, the other democratic bastion, the continental bureaucracy now controls ever more of daily life on the continent. You don’t want thousands of Syrian refugees in your town, but the EU knows better. You will take them and like it, or be labeled a racist.
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[Oh_That_Guy]

Don't know as anything is forbidden. The idea of not being allowed to know something has to do with God. If you don't believe in God then nothing is forbidden. If you do then it is.
Otherwise we have the ability to learn just about everything. It may take us thousands of years but eventually we'll figure most of it out. Maybe not aliens or the meaning of life but everything else.
We might learn it after we die, we might not. Can't count on that.