The proposed existence of unknowable things, however, isn’t an argument for the religious explanation. Claiming something is unknowable but then also supposing it might be this specific thing is contradictory. Draw the line at saying “we can’t know” not “you can’t prove it doesn’t exist”.
Also, that slippery scope where the same stance of “you can’t prove it doesn’t exist” applying to things like unicorns, space teapots, superheroes, midichlorians…
Yes, the only conclusion you can logically draw is that it’s impossible to know if they do or don’t exist. Instead of seeing the world as a set of ideas that either resolve to true or false, I see it as a set of ideas that resolve to true, false, or unknown.
Which also “resolves” a bunch of language paradoxes that depend on the only options being “true” or “false”. Like “this statement is false”. It also works on the halting problem, though still doesn’t make it trivial to solve (it just defeats the paradox proof if you allow a third option for paradoxes instead of insisting it only returns true or false).
The proposed existence of unknowable things, however, isn’t an argument for the religious explanation. Claiming something is unknowable but then also supposing it might be this specific thing is contradictory. Draw the line at saying “we can’t know” not “you can’t prove it doesn’t exist”.
Also, that slippery scope where the same stance of “you can’t prove it doesn’t exist” applying to things like unicorns, space teapots, superheroes, midichlorians…
Yes, the only conclusion you can logically draw is that it’s impossible to know if they do or don’t exist. Instead of seeing the world as a set of ideas that either resolve to true or false, I see it as a set of ideas that resolve to true, false, or unknown.
Which also “resolves” a bunch of language paradoxes that depend on the only options being “true” or “false”. Like “this statement is false”. It also works on the halting problem, though still doesn’t make it trivial to solve (it just defeats the paradox proof if you allow a third option for paradoxes instead of insisting it only returns true or false).