Religion and Rainbows

"The Unknown, the unforetold, the unproven, that is what life is based on. Ignorance is the ground of thought. Unproof is the ground of action. If it were proven that there is no God, there would be no religion ... But also if it were proven that there is a God, there would be no religion ... The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."

Personally, I liked chapter 5 and its crazy, nutso cult and this quote at the end of the chapter really sums up what the author was trying to say about religion and life in general. by saying that "Ignorance is the ground of thought," it made little sense to me at first glance until I thought about the opposite, the knowledge of everything. What would be the point of thinking if we already knew how to make our world perfect and what we are supposed to do in life? By saying "Unproof is the ground of action," it builds upon the first idea since research is only undertaken to understand what was previously not understood.

The second part is the seemingly nonsensical section about religion but yet again upon thinking about it the statement also makes perfect sense. Most religions are generally built around a faith in the supernatural. If it were known that there is no supernatural, then faith in it would be impossible and nonsensical and so religion would cease to exist. Although hard to grasp at first, if it were proven that the supernatural existed, then the faith that religion is based on can barely be called faith. Rather it would now be fact and therefore religion would no longer exist because there would be no need for it. Basically, religion is not based upon knowledge in either direction but rather an acceptance that you don't know whether there is a force greater than yourself but believe that there may be one.

Lastly, the mention that uncertainty is what makes life possible correct in multiple senses. If we always knew exactly what to do, it almost takes away all of the choice from life and taht cand hardly be called living. In addition I'm also reminded of the impact of science and it's impact on life. The best examples I can think of this are rainbows. Originally, when I looked up at the sky and saw a rainbow, it was beautiful. Not only because they were bands of color seemingly floating in midair but also because I had absolutely no idea how they were there. However, after learning that they were merely made up of light that was refracted through droplets of water, well they weren't as pretty anymore. I almost feel as if accumulated knowledge completely demystifies the world around us. I suppose that is what it is meant to do but at the same time it takes much of the fun out of life and may ultimately make the future so bleak and boring that it may not even be worth living. However you'll still find me looking up at the clouds for animals, shapes and faces, even if they are merely just a mass of condensed water droplets.