How Do We Know

22

ALL IS MYSTERY

Mystery is but another name for ignorance; if we were omniscient all would be perfectly plain.

—TRYON EDWARDS

The wise Tryon Edwards (1809-94) presents a thought which, if grasped and adhered to, would be a boon to mankind.

First, what is the meaning of omniscient? It is: “Infinite knowledge; knowing all things.” Perhaps there is no greater thwarting of human evolution than the millions of know-it-alls who “think” of themselves as omniscient—as God—whereas they are about as far from such Enlightenment as humans can get. To them, very little, if anything, is mystery!

Second, what is mystery? It is: “Something unexplained, unknown, or kept secret; as the mystery of life.” It is, indeed, another name for the ignorance which is part of our finitude.

Everything in life is mystery—no exception whatsoever! Begin by asking a relevant question, “How can I have my way and at the same time do no injury or injustice to others?”

Perhaps the answer will come clear if I can find the answer to two other questions, (1) Who am I? and (2) Where am I going? or, better yet, What is my way? Another phrasing of these questions might be: (1) What is man’s nature? and (2) What is man’s destiny? These speculations are as ancient as man himself. Although they are beyond the capacity of any person to answer, some light may be shed as one wrestles with them.

Who am I? Here’s one part of the answer: I am one octillion atoms—1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000—a number difficult to grasp unless we use our imagination. Cover the surface of this earth—land and sea—with dried peas to a depth of four feet and their number would fall far, far short of an octillion. Go out into the universe and cover 250,000 other earth-sized planets with four feet of peas and that would be the number of atoms in my make-up.1 Mystery?

The atom? It is so small that 30 trillion atoms could be placed on the period at the end of this sentence without overlapping. Blow an atom up to 100 yards in diameter and what do you behold? Radiant energy in the form of electrons, neutrons and the like, in wave sequences flying about at the speed of light. In the center is the atomic nucleus which, after being thus expanded, is the size of a pinhead. This and this alone is “stuff” and no one knows what it is, except that it appears “solid.” All else is empty space. Mystery?

Were it possible to apply an atomic press to me and squeeze out all but the “stuff”—the nuclei—I would be a particle so small that it would not be discernible on a piece of white paper. In a word, I am physically but a mere speck—next to nothing! Mystery?

As for the other side of the coin, there is a sense in which I am even more than a mere, mechanistic speck—infinitely more. For instance, my octillion atoms are not the same atoms that comprised my make-up a few years ago. They continuously escape and a new octillion enters about every five years. To where do they escape and from whence come the new ones? To and from everywhere throughout the universe! As the famous scientist, Dr. Andrews, wrote: “There is a high probability that you have in your body right now a thousand atoms that were once in the body of Julius Caesar . . . and speaking very reverently, we can say that each of us has in his body a thousand atoms that were in the body of Christ . . . the individual atoms are scarcely more than the shadows of a far deeper reality that we find in this total atomic harmony within us, the spirit of our Creator within us.”

Wrote the Swiss theologian, John Lavater (1741-1801): “Each particle of matter is an immensity; each leaf a world; each insect an inexplicable compendium.”

Charles F. Kettering, famous engineer and inventor (1876—1958) said, “No one knows why grass is green.”

Here is a supporting stunner. Two acres of our lawn at FEE have over one billion blades of grass and this is an infinitesimal fraction of all the grass on earth—each blade “a world,” that is, a mystery!

After retiring, I often look through my bedroom window and observe headlights of autos some distance away. The source of these lights, countless millions of them in many countries? Electricity! Not a soul on earth knows what it is, only that it is and a few clues as to what it can do!

Every breath, all heartbeats, eyesight, the billions of cells in the human cortex, the ability to wonder, the evolution of humanity—blessings without end—are mysteries!

Wrote F. D. Huntington (1819-1904): “While reason is puzzling herself about the mystery, faith is turning it into daily bread and feeding on it thankfully in our heart of hearts.” Heart of hearts?: “in one’s innermost nature or deepest feelings; fundamentally.”

“Miracle is the darling child of faith.” And so is mystery for the right-minded. Mystery, if and when recognized—an awareness of how little we know—makes the case for liberty: for it is a mysterious fact that our tiny bits of expertise, freely flowing, become the goods and services by which we live and prosper.

Wrote the American clergyman, Robert Collyer (1823-1912): “Faith makes the discords of the present, the harmonies of the future.” Recognize that mystery is everywhere, and have faith in liberty for one and all!

• 1See Science Is a Sacred Cow by Anthony Standen (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1950), pp. 63-64.