How To Be An Agnostic
upper world; but language is feeble indeed to convey even a
glimmering of what is to be seen to those who have not seen
it for themselves, whilst to them it can be little more than
a peg upon which to hand their own recollections. These
glories, in which the mountain Spirit reveals himself to his
true worshippers, are only to be gained by the appropriate
service of climbing – at some risk, though a very trifl ing risk,
if he is approached with due form and ceremony – into the
further recesses of his shrines.As Anthony Kenny points out in his essay on Stephen in The
Unknown God, Stephen was at odds with John Ruskin here. Ruskin
was another mountain enthusiast but one who thought that the
appeal of mountains was like that of cathedrals: they were refl ec-
tions of superior human sensibilities, not themselves superior to
thought. In mountains, Ruskin was reminded of what humanity is
capable. Stephen disagreed. In his essay, An Agnostic’s Apology, his
fi nal complaint was against the arrogance of the theist and atheist
in the way they ride roughshod over ultimate mystery.
[Agnostics] will be content to admit openly, what you
whisper under your breath or hide in technical jargon, that
the ancient secret is secret still, that man knows nothing of
the Infi nite and Absolute; and that, knowing nothing, he had
better not be dogmatic about his ignorance.Mountains evoked in him the same humility: ‘Their voice is
mystic and has found discordant interpreters: but to me at least
it speaks in tones at once more tender and more awe-inspiring
than that of any mortal teacher.’ His is the agnostic attitude.
After all, only faith can move mountains.
N – is about Nothing
We’ve been asking this question, why is there something not
nothing? There are some physicists who resist the mysterious