10 Unanswerable Questions that Neither Science nor Religion can Answer
A few years ago I was taking a tour of a dome-shaped house, and the architect explained to me that domes are an optical illusion. Whenever someone enters a room, their eyes inadvertently glance up at the corners of the room to give them the contextual dimensions of the space they’re in.
He went on to explain that since domes have no corners, that from the inside they appear larger than what they really are, and from the outside, they appear smaller than the space of another house with a comparable footprint.
This notion of context has followed me throughout my life, into virtually every topic I’ve come to wrestle with as a speaker and with guests on the Futurati Podcast. Once I can find the “corners of the room,” I can begin to make sense out of whatever subject I’m dealing with.
However, when we dive into the “why” topics of how time and space began, and even the size of the universe, I find myself struggling to even formulate good questions — even as a futurist speaker, one who dedicates my studies to futurism matters.
Perhaps this is nothing more than a form of therapy for me, but I’d like to take you along on a rare inner personal journey into how I think about the biggest of all big picture issues. And it all starts with one simple question. “Why are there exceptions to every rule?”
The Feud Between Science and Religion
Even before the time of Copernicus, scientists like Philolaus and Aristarchus of Samos had proposed something other than an earth-centered universe.
While evidence of this line of thinking had been building for centuries, with Nicolaus Copernicus publishing his landmark book “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” in 1543, it wasn’t until Galileo made his mark in 1615 that the rift between science and religion would reach death-sentencing proportions.
The Galileo verdict caused a rift between science and religion that continues even today.
However, there are some seemingly unanswerable questions that neither science nor religion can offer a reasonable answer to, and I’ll do my best to keep this balanced so I don’t come across favoring one side or the other.
With this in mind, I’ll start with a rather unusual question.
1. Why is there an exception to every rule?
Why is it that all of our rules, theories, maxims, and models all have an exception? This is precisely the way the world works, except when it doesn’t.
In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have any exceptions, or would we?
On the surface this seems like a rather trite question, and if you ask the average person on the street, most will simply smile, shrug, and move on. But in a world where scientists have spent countless billions to research and understand such topics as the relationship between matter, energy, particles, and waves, everything has to make sense, except it doesn’t.
Even with our basic understanding of math, 2+2 does not always equal 4. It depends on what type of measurement scale you are using. There are four types of measurement scales – nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Only in the last two categories does 2+2 = 4.
So why do exceptions matter? Exceptions matter because nothing comes with 100% predictability. Yes, we can count on such things as buildings existing from one day to the next, the earth traveling around the sun in the same orbit, gravity holding us down, and the speed of light remaining reasonably constant. In fact, most of the world around has been created around natural forces that can be predicted with high degrees of probability.
For this reason, there is no such thing as absolute certainty, except our certainty that nothing is certain… maybe.
2. Why do logic and reason fail to explain that which is true?
In many scientific circles, the only truths are those that can be explained with logic and reason. Religious people use a different metric, but they too have a way of calibrating their truths with logic and reason.
So why are logic and reason such miserable tools for explaining the world around us? It’s as if the world around us was perfect, and then someone divided by zero. Everything perfect has a touch of that one secret ingredient known as chaos.
Is order more perfect than chaos? Or is chaos just a higher form of order? How will we ever know if we can’t explain it with logic and reason?
3. Is the universe finite or infinite?
If we were able to travel to the outer edges of the universe, what would we find? Perhaps we would run smack dab into another universe, but how would we know? Would the other universe somehow come in a different color, operate with a different set of rules, or smell slightly like almonds? How would we know?
I’m imagining a large sign that says, “You have reached the end of Universe A! Welcome to Universe B where proximity is not an issue!”
How much is infinity plus one?
4. Why does anything exist?
Before there was something, there was nothing. And out of nothing, how did we get something? What existed before the big bang, before creation, and before God? Why is there structure to the universe, and how might intelligent life contribute to the formation of this structure?
Yes, it becomes very confusing when we throw in theories about other dimensions and non-linear time, but all of these theories fail to answer this most fundamental of all questions, “Why does anything exist?”
We know things exist, but why?
5. Why does time exist?
Time is the sound of a metronome ticking in our heads, the beat of our heart, the blinking lids on our eyes, the mental waves in our brains, and all the circadian cycles that govern our lives.
Much like fish that can’t understand water because they’re in it all the time, we have a very poor grasp of our most immersive of all substances – time.
Each of us thinks about time differently. To some it is a tool to be leveraged, to others a setting sun, a theory of physics, a philosophy to be debated, the hands of a clock, a lengthening of a shadow, or the grains of sand dropping in an hourglass.
And yet every truth we have about the existence of time comes with a counterbalancing exception to the rule.
I love Albert Einstein’s comment that “the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
What Einstein may have been alluding to is the existence of other dimensions outside of those governed by time. But whenever he made the comment, it always ended with a smile, the universal sign for “no further explanation will be forthcoming.”
6. Why do humans matter?
We are born as a baby, struggle our entire life with everything from finding food to eat, homes to live in, educating ourselves to gain more understanding, staying healthy, making friends and relationships, raising a family, earning a living, and then we die.
If we have more accomplishments in life, earn more money, have more friends, raise a bigger family, and somehow do everything better than anyone else, we will still eventually die. Right?
In a world teeming with 8.7 million different life forms, which could someday include animals uplifted to human intelligence and artificial superintelligences, how do humans fit in?
Every past civilization, with their manmade structures, machines, systems, and cultures, has eventually succumbed to Mother Nature. Plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi methodically remove every trace of what we leave behind.
Why are humans important?
Does the fact that we can ask questions like these, ponder the unponderable, think the unthinkable, and accomplish things that no other species can accomplish, somehow give us a higher purpose?
Are humans destined to become the guardians, caretakers, and eventually the masters of the universe? If so, then we have to ask…
7. Why are humans so fallible?
Humans are the bull in every china closet, the off-center bubble on every level, the mystery behind every hidden agenda, and the blunt instrument whenever a precision tool is called for.
We are both our greatest heroes and our most feared enemies. We are praised for our accomplishments and castigated for our failures.
Of all species on planet earth, humans are the least predictable, most destructive, require the longest nurturing period, and consume the most food. At the same time, we are also the most curious, most aware, most innovative, and the most likely to waste countless hours playing video games.
Yes, we may have better-developed brains than all the other animals, but that doesn’t explain why we are so unbelievable fallible?
8. Do human accomplishments have long-term meaning?
If you do a search of mankind’s greatest accomplishment you come up with lists that include the building of the great pyramids, landing on the moon, the invention of the telephone and light bulb, amazing artworks, and the composition of countless music scores. But are those things that human’s consider to be great accomplishments really significant in the bigger scheme of things?
Perhaps today’s human accomplishments are a stepping-stone to what comes next?
We live in a world driven by prerequisites. A machinist needs to understand a single-point lathe operation before he or she can advance to multi-axial milling. Engineers need to understand the concepts of mechanical stress and strain before they start bending a cantilever beam. Metallurgists need to understand thermodynamics before they attempt phase transformations in solids. Physicists need to understand quantum mechanics before they can understand a standard model for particle physics. Mathematicians need to understand nonlinear differential equations before they can understand strange attractors.
Are all our accomplishments just stepping-stones to something else that we don’t know or understand yet?
So what is it that we don’t currently know that will make tomorrow happen?
9. Why is the future unknowable?
While I’m well aware of the notion that a “known future” will strip us of our drive and motivation, understanding the consequences still doesn’t explain why the future isn’t knowable.
I like to think of the future as a force so massive that the entire universe is being pulled forward in time simultaneously. We have no choice in this matter. The future will happen whether or not we agree to participate.
Currently there are no known techniques for us to speed it up, slow it down, or even try to stop it. The pace with which the future is unfolding is constant, and at the same time, relentless.
Will the future always remain unknowable?
10. What is the purpose of death?
Shortly before his death, Steve Jobs said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share.”
But why death?
Couldn’t we just dissolve into a pile of ash, fly out of our skin, step into an invisible elevator preprogrammed to go to the highest of all floors, or just mentally fade to black.
People fear death. We spend millions on vitamins, health food, fitness programs, and doctors all to avoid the unavoidable. Or is it unavoidable?
Why are we so terrified of the unknown?
Final Thoughts
People who surround us today are part of the present and will also be part of the future. For people who are intellectually enlightened and “tuned in,” it’s easy to discount those who have a different perspective.
Yet the future is being created by all of us. If we believe we have a purpose, then so does every butterfly, pocket mouse, and beam of light.
We have all experienced things that we would consider extra-dimensional, such as thoughts that spring from “nowhere,” words that come from our “intuition,” and ideas that torture us relentlessly.
Regardless of your beliefs, start with the most basic of all questions – Why does anything exist?
It’s rather ironic that our first impulse is to use logic and reason to come up with answers, an approach that has historically only been able to answer questions about the tiniest of all fractions of the knowable universe.
If you were expecting me to have all the answers to life’s most unanswerable question, then this column will certainly disappoint you. It has been a lifetime journey for me just to formulate the questions.
That said, I would love to hear your thoughts. Am I asking the right questions? Do you have answers to these questions, even one of them? Here’s your chance to weigh in. Comment below with your thoughts as they relate to futurism and these seemingly unanswerable questions. If you’d like to expand your knowledge about my services as a futurist speaker, please visit here.
By Futurist Thomas Frey, author of ‘Epiphany Z – 8 Radical Visions Transforming Your Future’
nice article
Read it also Ten Questions Still Baffling Scientists.
Answer on 10:
Because we need some peace after 100 years being in hell
Everything is nothing and Nothing is everything.
My Nan Margo loved this artical so much that she ditched the Jeremy Kyle show and showed us her rotten, eggy teeth just because she loved it so much. My children wacked themselves on the head with a frying pan in confusion and my grandma’s wig flew off to Spain and my grandpa plucked his eyebrows while thinking about it.
100 years past and 100 years in the future are the same , no future evidence of this evident means it never occurred, this is based on the present which may or may not change
There is no antagonism between science and religion as most atheistic people believe. They believe in data but have not examined thoroughly the data of religion. All these questions can be correctly answered by the true religion of the Catholic Church.
As a possibilian (see https://possibilian.com and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LENqnjZGX0A, particularly 11:04 to 14:14), in answer to your questions, I am content to say “I don’t know.” But don’t take away the questions–they are great toys for a curious mind. By the same token, don’t answer them either.
As for me, I have difficulty thinking of the universe and everything else as some kind of “accident” without any purpose whatsoever. It’s just too great a “leap of faith” to take. So I assume a reason of some sort and will be delighted if I find out after I”m dead! I think that’s the best I can hope for.
Very good.
Very very good.
Another side to the coin:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm#search/jon+/FMfcgxwCgVcWNRmwfcNSjCfptWpgdnGh
This a possible side to the coin for us all here on Planet Earth:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm#search/jon+/FMfcgxwCgVcWNRmwfcNSjCfptWpgdnGh
What colour are these questions? Asking this demonstrates that I can pose a question that looks like it makes sense, and that can be treated as an interesting challenged for aesthetics, poetics, synaesthesia studies, and more, but strictly speaking doesn’t make sense. If we take questions to be ideas, and colour to be a property of the interaction between physical objects and light, then we are requesting that a proposition be made about the characteristics of an abstract and immaterial thing (idea) in terms that only apply to physical, material things. I think this is what philosophers call a category error, though my knowledge of the jargon is hazy.
At least some of the questions are of this form, IMHO. I suspect that asking the “why do things exist” question is of this form, for example. The existence of a reality (universe, multiverse, beyond the specific structure and population of space-time+whatever other dimensions) may not be characterizable in terms of qualities (maybe causal relations, ontologies, teleological purposiveness) that apply to the contents of a universe (its physical and immaterial phenomena).
This may be why efforts to answer such questions move into poetry and metaphor.
I believe the Hardest question is how does existence even exist, what created god, what created the creator of god. HOW IS SOMETHING MADE WHEN NOTHING MADE IT???? HOW DOES CREATION EXIST HOW DOES HOW DOES EXIST.????
The answers are in the Qur’an but most people don’t even know…
Most of these aren’t even unanswerable as I have answered most of them with a purely sufficeable response
The most fundamental question is “why is there something rather than nothing?” and the most beautiful description of this question is here:
http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/2019/05/why-is-there-something-rather-than.html
it is a must read.
Yes that is true. Muneeb is one of the most brilliant thinkers of this century. There are only a few free thinkers who can have such brilliant ideas and then can so brilliantly put them in the public domain. Muneeb Faiq has really done a great job by writing this amazing and seductive yet simple and most lucid piece on why/whether something/nothing exists !! Best piece I have seen in decades.
http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/2019/05/why-is-there-something-rather-than.html
http://www.philosophical-investigations.org/search?q=muneeb
(sorry for language mistakes)
We know that Earth is the only living spot in the world…
But the question is : “is it the first planet where there’s life…. Or it is the last ?!”
I wish I could live long enough to get an answer to all of these questions. I wish I can know whether to fear death or look forward to it.
You say, “Even with our basic understanding of math, 2+2 does not always equal 4. It depends on what type of measurement scale you are using. There are four types of measurement scales – nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Only in the last two categories does 2+2 = 4.”
This is confusing. Focus on the “+”, which we usually parse as “addition.” The operation depends on what kind of mathemtaical objects you’re adding. “Measurements” are a type oif mathematical object. The natural numbers are another. Vectors are another. And so on. Note that the rules of adding certain mathemetical objects are certain. That’s becasue mathemtaical objects are in fact defined by the type of operations that can be performed on them.
It’s not there aren’t problems. To take measurments: adding volumes of two or more dissimilar materials is not the same as adding volumes of a single material. Two litres of water added to two litres of water will sum to four litres of water. Two litres of water added to two litres of ethanol with sum to about 1.9 litres of vodka. Two litres of sulfuric acid added to two litres of sodium nitrate will, er, I don’t think you should do that! 🙂
I think you’re conflating axiomatic systems with contingent ones. All models of the real world are contingent: they work only for a limited subset of the real world. Exceptions reveal the boundaries of those subsets, and then someone will attempt to reframe the rules to include things outside the boundaries. That’s how our knowledge advances.
I think your title question is better asked as “Why are all our answers limited?”
The world is confused for one reason to keep us Distract and separated from our true destiny. No matter how hard we try to dissect the world we will never see what we want to see it will never be given unto us. We weren’t created to spend time in this world to dissect it the way we have been. There is a time limit that has been given to us humans so that we may fulfill our creator’s purpose. There is a saying that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. some say it’s towards the tribe of the Israel lights. But I say that biblical saying it’s for the first children of God and us. For the angels were created first but they failed that’s why God created us humans. And out of the second children week as they were created they will accomplish God‘s ultimate plan. There’s only one commandment that has been Labeled most important then the rests and the answer lies within that first commandment. But Remember one cannot give what he does not have to offer or to satisfy or even match it’s equal.
Most (if not all) of these are answerable.
1. All rules are based on conditions. Take away the condition and the rule no longer applies. Do not confuse rules with natural laws. Those have no exceptions
2. what? Logic is simply ‘If a then b’. But if you don’t know ‘A’, how can you expect a ‘B’ ? Logic hasn’t failed. We simply suffer from a lack of knowledge.
3. I’d say ‘infinite’ . This is simply because ‘finity’ (limited in number or scope) means that we (humans) can account for it. So far, we can not.
4. Because of everything. e.g. So that you can ask that question. The real answer here is, …Why not ?.
5. It’s the basis of all progress. Without time, there would be no motion (all motion is a function of time), hence no energy, or growth, or even experience.
6. Do we? to whom ? humans only matter to other humans
7. Coz we do not know everything. We refuse to admit that alot.
8. no… this is getting tiresome. I will stop.
I would be interested in attempting to answer these questions. Of course it would only be my opinion, but I do believe I have an answer to many of these questions. So more as a friendly thought experiement I would love to try to tackle some or all of these. If your interested at all send me an email at livelifeliberated426@gmail.com.
Yes I’d love to hear your answers
The most primal conscious thought of every living creature on earth is the survival instinct. Every living creature on earth that is faced with just rolling over and dying or using it’s absolute last mental or physical available resource to stay alive the latter is used. In the most dire and potentially life ending circumstances every living creature will use every last breath to get one more breath! Mankind in it’s delusional belief that it is superior is in the end just as fragile and unable to alter it’s ultimate death. No level of human intellect, logic or reason allows us to die with any more comfort or understanding than any other living creature on the planet. I believe that mankind’s cognitive ability to understand and realize that his life is finite is the biggest curse we bare. I have more to say but since my life is ultimately finite I choose to conserve my energy so that I may be able to fight for an extra breath in the end! Live until you die because life is for the living!
I have a valid answer of question 3.
The universe if finite.
Infinite is something that we use in maths for something that we don’t “want” to measure.
On physics is only valid to use infinite if we don’t “know” how to measure.
With better tools and better algorithms it would be possible to calculate how long are the universe, even if it is actually expanding, for a specific t, it would be possible to calculate its dimension.
Remember, when you find a very huge or little (near zero) number to calculate is because you are lazy or don’t have the right tools to do it.
God is simply the term given to the lightest and brightest state of being with its consciousness while death is the term given to the hardest and darkest state of being with no consciousness.
life is the term given to the product of God and death, through which the extent of their difference can be determined. all consciousness in life belongs to God while the physical structure of every living state of being is traced down to death and thus belongs to death.
the earth is a lighter state of being which came into existence as a result of the successful integration of the consciousness of God in life and evolving to its effect, from which mankind the culminated being from the product of God and the earth was made to continue the furtherance of the fulfilment of the ultimate purpose of life which is determining the extent of the difference between death and God
I don’t consider myself to be a philosopher or a futurist. Both are intriguing. I believe, I will find out most of the answers to the questions after I die. It hinges on how to die knowing the right question and the right answer to get to the next step correctly. I only have this life to find that correct question and answer. I know I have the question & answer. If I am wrong, probability says I will be in the same state as everyone else. If I am right, I will have found my answers.
For no. 1, if the rule did not exist then the exception would not exist as well. So I think the question would have been that why do we always have to have rules?
No. 3, the universe is infinite. This does not necessarily mean that we cannot come to its edge, but it may take too long or even forever.
For no. 5, time exists because its meant to exist. If time did not exist, then nothing would exist, because most things fall in place with time. I thing you would have stated the question as “How did time exist?”
Let me end with number 6.
Humans matter because they do matter. If not humans, then what else would matter? If physics,if mathematics, mention them do matter? Then they wouldn’t matter if humans had not existed. I believe humans are the ones who invented all those.
Let me begin with no.6. Yes humans matter because they do matter. First, who made everything that people think matter more than humans? Of coarse they are humans. So suppose humans didn’t exist, where would all this come from? The cars, the nice houses and others. Could they really matter when they don’t exist? This brings us to a conclusion that humans really do matter.
These are no so difficult to answer actually:
1. That one is actually very easy to answer. Because of circumstance. Changing circumstance changes the outcome
2. They do not. Logic and reason are actually very strong tools. It is why we can fly and go to the moon. It makes us understand cause and causality.
3. Probably finite but this just depends on the current knowledge and the accuracy of our measurements and tools.
4. A pointless question easily countered by why not. But it allows you to ask this question.
5. Depends on you definition of time. The only thing a clock measures is itself. Time is a human concept to explain motion, entropy, decay whatever you may call it.
6. We don’t. We excist by coincidence and in the grand scale we matter as much as one grain of sand on the beach.
7. Because we are biological constructs shaped by evolution and affected by our surroundings. Adaptability in itself requires the option of failure. It is how we learn.
8. No, see 6
9. Is it? Some predictive algorithms would not agree with you and the more data accumulated the more accurate the predictions. We just miss a lot of data.
10. There is no purpose to death. It is just the way of everything. The bigger question is, why entropy?
10 Unanswerable Questions
That truly appear like 150 inquiries in all.
Laced with the axiom: things are inherently uncertain.
I could see how AI would have field day with this.
-And they argue with Us—forgetting they were created—saying, “Who will give life to decayed bones?”
– “They will be revived by the One Who produced them the first time, for He has ˹perfect˺ knowledge of every created being
– ˹He is the One˺ Who gives you fire from green trees, and—behold!—you kindle ˹fire˺ from them.
1. It’s just an assumption
2. True is the opposite of false. Already explained.
3. The question is imprecise, that’s why there is no answer.
4. Because the unseen intelligent background force compressed the spiritual energy into matter.
5. Because it can be related to the sequence of events in space.
6. The question is not clear to me.
7. Because it depends on its Creator.
8. there is none
9. Because you live in the present.
10. death is not a part of life, but the absence of a part called obedience. With death, God pays for disobedience.
Need for belief in impossibles to allow comfort of infancy and childhood. Science can’t accept miracles but its rules of chem bio etc explain what is.
For number 6, humans matter because God created them to share life with Him in eternity. God defined Himself as Love in John 1:3. For Love to be love it has to have a being to love and be loved by that being. Therefore God created mankind and gave them free will, the right to choose between loving others and God, and loving themselves making themselves the center of their universe, or in other words, a mini-god. God could never force anyone to love Him. That would make them robotic sycophants, not a person expressing genuine love. Thus humans matter because God exists and He matters above all else.
Comment *i believe that someone out there has all the answers to the qeustions asked.but yet keeps them under lock n key for power for fame for survival. Illuminati,freemansons,religion(vatican/christianity).thats why they created all these theories because they dont want us to find our higher self.i belive earth is a school to master concioussnes bt all the tools and guides are hidden by the so called kings of earth.who are stuck on earth forever.to be honest animals know what they are doing not man.