Red Sky at Morning
Superstar
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2017
- Messages
- 13,933
I had a mental picture of a group of cave explorers who found themselves in a large cavern. They fell asleep after a long days crawling through tunnels and when they woke up, one of them realised he had accidentally broke the compass.
They knew that they had to head north, but with many smaller tunnels leading into the cavern, choosing one was a vexing question.
What many in the group quickly realised was that to take one, and it be the wrong one might be very dangerous. Perhaps later on in the tunnel, the CO2 levels would spike and you might suffocate or the ceiling give way!
Was there even a way out? Was it one that humans could take?
The group sat with no compass, no light from the outside showing the way, just a torch with a diminishing battery that would soon leave them all in the dark.
This seemed to me a very apt picture of agnosticism. It felt like a state people might find themselves in at some point in their journey, but not a place which a person could safely remain forever.
You have to admire an agnostic on the one hand for needing to make sure of which of the myriad tunnels to try, but lament the awful state of someone who sinks into it, concluding that there is no way out and all answers must be forever be suspect.
They knew that they had to head north, but with many smaller tunnels leading into the cavern, choosing one was a vexing question.
What many in the group quickly realised was that to take one, and it be the wrong one might be very dangerous. Perhaps later on in the tunnel, the CO2 levels would spike and you might suffocate or the ceiling give way!
Was there even a way out? Was it one that humans could take?
The group sat with no compass, no light from the outside showing the way, just a torch with a diminishing battery that would soon leave them all in the dark.
This seemed to me a very apt picture of agnosticism. It felt like a state people might find themselves in at some point in their journey, but not a place which a person could safely remain forever.
You have to admire an agnostic on the one hand for needing to make sure of which of the myriad tunnels to try, but lament the awful state of someone who sinks into it, concluding that there is no way out and all answers must be forever be suspect.