Introduction- Counterfactualism

In order to be truly wise you must realize that you know nothing
-Socrates

Why am I doing a blog? good question. I don't actually expect anyone to read this, in fact, this first blog is just in case someone actually cares enough to read it. I'm actually typing this blog because when people actually ask me what philosophy do I follow, I can have something to go back to and read that will help me. Quite honestly, this blog is for no one except for myself, but I'm letting anyone read it, in case they are interested.

What the heck is The Abyss anyways? Another good question. Back when I was younger, me and my friend mike powers were discussing all sorts of questions dealing with the nature of God on a bus ride. Honestly, I can't even really remember the questions. They might have had something to do with the nature of Christ's Humanity and His Deity, but I really can't remember. However, what was established that day changed me forever. We concluded that some questions just can't be answered by man, and therefore they fall into an Abyss, that is a state which can never be answered nor explained. By the time I was a freshmen in college, Mike was doing his Master's work and lived right down the street. I would go to his house everyday and we would just sit and talk and formulate the Abyss. It eventually got to the point where we decided that there are facts (which I now call counterfactuals) which exist that simply are in direct contradiction to other facts that also exist. This is where Mike stopped. I continued however.

About 5 years later, I've developed The Abyss to a system of thought which literally has an explanation for anything. Yes, anything. Sound cocky? Maybe. But before you start casting stones at me, at least hear me out. I've used these principles to actually shape my philosophical thoughts, and have actually learned truth using my methods. The Abyss showed me that Libertarianism is the best form of government in a democratic society, or that the Calvinist model of salvation in Christianity is the best form of understanding the Salvation of Man, or that Socrates was the wisest of all philosophers.

What the heck does Libertarianism, Calvinism, and Socrates have anything to do with each other? Another good question, I could say that they all have counterfactuals in them, that through Liberty and pure anarchy we find the most order in a society, or that when humans have no free-will they truly are the most free, or that in order to be truly wise you must realize that you know nothing. All of these sentences logically don't make sense... or do they? But again, you'll just have to read my blogs in the coming weeks, realize that in order to find truth you must look at the seeming contradictions all around us, and only then when you can connect those will you realize that truth, and will know truth without ever having to doubt again.

Its through questions that any of us can ever approach or even understand truth. Ramana Maharshi always felt the path to Enlightenment starts off in asking the question "Who am I?". Niels Bohr asked, "How can an electron move from point A to point B, but never go in between the two points?" Questions open us up to what we previously didn't know, and they're the only way to get to the other side of the unknown.

So why don't we ask questions? Because asking questions opens the door to chaos, the unknown, the unpredictable, the Abyss. Are you really willing to receive an answer you may not like or agree with? What if the answer isn't something you want to hear? It is questions which changes our directions in life, which opens us up to a new realm of understanding.

For most of us, it takes a serious crisis for us to start asking questions about the unknown, a life threatening illness, the death of someone close, a failure of a marriage, losing your job, or just pure and utter loneliness. The questions that we ask during this time aren't intellectual exercises, but cries of the soul. "Why me? Why him? What have I done wrong? After this, is life truly worth living? How could God allow this to happen?"

If we could muster up the same kind of passion to ask ourselves questions about the great unknown now, when there is no immediate crisis, who knows what could happen? Could it possibly be a catalyst for gaining a greater understanding of the world around us? Our purpose even?

Remember when you were about five years old and you kept asking "why?" I bet your parents may have thought that you were doing this to drive them crazy, but all you wanted was to know the answer to your question! What happened to that five year old? Can you ever regain that passion for knowledge again? When you were that age you loved being in mystery. You loved wanting to figure things out. You loved the journey. Each day was filled with new discoveries, new questions.

So whats the difference between then and now? Good question. The fun and joy in life are in the journey. In our culture, we've been conditioned to look at "not knowing" as something unacceptable and bad, it's a sort of failure. In order to pass the test, we have to know the answers. But even when it comes to factual knowledge about concrete things, what science doesn't know far exceeds what it does. Many of the greatest scientists have looked into the mystery of the universe and of life on our planet, and have come back with more questions than answers. In the words of the author Terence McKenna, "As the bonfires of knowledge grow brighter, the more the darkness is revealed to our startled eyes."

We aren't alone in this pursuit of knowledge however, people have been asking questions for thousands of years. There have always been those who have gazed at the stars and wondered of the vast mystery of it all, or who looked at the way people around them were living and thought "Isn't there more to life than this?"

The ancient Greek philosophers were among the first to discuss questions of such a profound nature. Socrates and Plato asked "What is beauty? What is Goodness? What is Justice? What is the best way to govern a society? What is truth?"

People with scientific minds have always asked questions. How does it work? What's inside? Are things really the way they seem? Where does the universe come from? Is the Earth the center of the solar system? Are t here laws and patterns that underlie what happens in daily life? Whats the connection between my body and my mind? For the great scientists of history, these questions elicit a passion to understand that goes way beyond curiosity, they needed to know the answers!

When Albert Einstein was a boy, he asked himself "What happens if I'm riding my bicycle at the speed of light, and I switch on my bike light, will it come on?" He nearly drove himself crazy asking himself that question for ten years, but out of this pursuit came the theory of relativity. This is the great example of asking a question and hanging with it for years, but when he got his answer, he emerged with a completely different view of reality.

One of the great things about science is its assumption that what it thinks it knows today will probably be proven wrong tomorrow. The theories of yesterday have served as platforms to climb higher, as Sir Isaac Newton meant when he said "If I have been privileged to see farther than others, it's because I stood on the shoulders of giants."

Pondering questions is a wonderful way to exercise your mind. When was the last time you took your mind on a wild ride of mystery? Tried to get to the other side of Infinity? Asking questions has enormous practical value, it's the gateway to change.

If we always think we know the answers to life, how can we ever grow? A university professor visited Zen master Nan-in to inquire about Zen. But instead of listening to the master, the scholar kept going on and on about his own ideas. After listening for some time, Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The tea flowed over the sides of the cup, filled the saucer, spilled onto the man's pants and onto the floor. "Don't you see the cup is full?" the professor exploded. "You can't get any more in!" "Just so," replied Nan-in calmly. "And like this cup, you are full of your own ideas and opinions,. how can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" Emptying your cup means making room for questions. It means being open, reconditioning ourselves so that we can accept, for the time being, not knowing. Out of that, a greater awareness will dawn.

Interested? I hope so. Just keep checking back every Tuesday and I'll have the next step in my system of philosophy that I have devised called Counterfactualism. At the very least, I think you will be challenged. I look forward to your critiques.