Two things have been on my mind lately. Two very separate things. I heard / read both of these from people I know.
Those two items are these:
1. All problems have solutions.
2. There is no such thing as nothing.
Both of these postulations have had me thinking fiercely ever since. As a result, I’ve done loads of reading on both items.
My conclusion?
The terms are too vague to make the questions answerable.
I’m not sure either one has an absolute.
Let’s look at the first one. All problems have solutions. Mathematically, that may be true, although I am no math geek. I’m not even sure that math problems all have answers. Yet, in science, many problems have arisen that have yet to be solved or understood. And certainly, in the field of medicine, there are many problems with no solution in sight. Take cancer or Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s. Unless, of course, death is considered a solution. Or, just live with your disease, miserably, until you die. And then, in that case, someone could argue there is a solution.
The parameters are too wide for this one, I think. Yet, the camps are divided on whether or not there is a solution to every problem, with each side digging in deep with their opinions.
The same goes for the second. Nothingness. I suppose there might be no such thing as nothing, in the fact that if we even consider the question, we become a part of the “thing” because we are observing it.
However, in the realms of spirituality, a state of nothingness is highly important. The Indian Vedas say that ‘nothingness’ is the ultimate source of knowledge – the final human frontier beyond which nothing else remains to be known.
And from there, it all gets very complicated.
So. I don’t know about either.
I have learned that I have no solution when it comes to figuring out the Universe. There is that. I also know that the more I learn about the Universe, the more I realize I know nothing at all.
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The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.
— Daniel J. Boorstin
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To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
— Socrates
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If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
— Yogi Berra
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The heavy thinking of not knowing.
