I Just Don't Know

Ron Rosenbaum has an essay in Slate titled "An Agnostic Manifesto." As an agnostic myself, I ought to like it, but I don't. First, it's not very well written, and those of us who don't believe in much tend to become connoisseurs of style as a partial substitute for faith. Second, Rosenbaum has no appreciation for how central religion is to the human experience, tossing around dismissive sentences like:

Let me make clear that I accept most of the New Atheist's criticism of religious bad behavior over the centuries, and of theology itself. I just don't accept turning science into a new religion until it can show it has all the answers, which it hasn't, and probably never will.

Religion has been fundamental, not just to "bad behavior over the centuries," but to almost all human behavior for millennia. I agree that a lot of theology is stupid (like arguments about what life is like in heaven), but other theologians have been trying to understand the human condition and discover what it means to be good. If Rosenbaum thinks St. Augustine or Buddha has nothing to say to unbelievers, he suffers from the same shallowness, cynicism and historical ignorance as the "new atheists" he criticizes. And third, what is this "all the answers" business? It suggests a dismissive attitude toward all deep, fundamental, hard to answer questions. Rosembaum spends a lot of time on one question, "Why is there anything?", but I think he would find that most people are agnostics about this one. Even the Pope, I believe, regards this as a Mystery. I share Rosenbaum's fondness for uncertainty, but not his glib dismissal of any sort of philosophical inquiry into fundamental things. I would wear the t-shirt he suggests for agnostics, saying "I Just Don't Know," but I think it would mean something different to me than it does to him.

Trying to somehow summarize my discomfort with Rosenbaum, I come up with an image. I see myself as a seeker for knowledge, a quester for understanding; Rosenbaum portrays himself as an armchair cynic, shouting "you can't know that!" about any unprovable statement. He sees "we don't know the answer to that" as a sort of ending, a curtailment of discussion. I see it as the beginning of exploration.