Why a Church?

The Church of Infinite Ignorance is, as the name hopefully suggests, a humble and not overly serious approach to addressing one of the most profound issues of our age: the need for a coherent worldview to fill the "God-shaped hole." The name draws inspiration from the philosophies of Karl Popper and David Deutsch, which I believe represent the best scientific philosophy available today. Deutsch's book The Beginning of Infinity gave me some ideas for a name for this website.  But 'The Church of the Beginning of Infinity', or of 'Infinite Knowledge' are far too clumsy and unoriginal.  So this lighthearted name hopefully reflects two things: first, my limited understanding of these philosophies, and second, the inherent risk of creating a "church" that may inadvertently lead to creating a tribe.

 

This raises a challenge: how do we form a community of people who, like me, believe this philosophy is the best available today and want to promote it, while remaining wary of the dangers of tribalism? Hopefully, a more sophisticated balance can be achieved in the future, but for now, this light approach seems appropriate.

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Popper argued that knowledge is infinite because it continually grows, and ultimate certainty is never achieved. Deutsch expands on this by emphasising that humans actively generate new knowledge.  By creating this website, I hope to deepen my own understanding while providing a platform for others who are interested in exploring and building a community around this worldview, while also  providing me with a bit of a showcase for my work, writing and artistic aspirations.

 

Deutsch himself described his philosophy as a "worldview", which seems the most fitting term—at least until a better one is discovered or invented.  In The Open Society, Popper writes that an "individualism united with altruism" forms the basis of Western civilization and is also the "central doctrine of Christianity ('Love your neighbor,' say the Scriptures, not 'Love your tribe')." As religion has waned over the last century, it seems that irrational tribalism has reemerged. Socialism, at times explicitly and at other times with aggressive denial, attempted to fill the God-shaped hole. Whether socialism could ever succeed is debatable, but today’s wokeism—fused with elitist, globalist capitalism—is so irrational that its appeal is explicable only be a tribalistic need for belonging and identity that overrides individual rational thought.  The Church of Infinite Ignorance aims to satisfy this need by promoting a community that champions Critical Rationalism and individualism.

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I first encountered David Deutsch’s work in 2023, which inspired me to read Popper. It became clear to me that Popper's philosophy of Critical Rationalism, along with Deutsch's contributions, offers a solution to the problem of tribalism and wokeism—a solution that has been hiding in plain sight. However, motivating the TikTok generation to engage with these works is an uphill task, especially when my own intellectual resources can only scratch the surface of understanding. Nevertheless, this is the task. Rational thought and civilization are receding, and this website is a small part of a broader effort to turn the tide.

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Finally, on the God-shaped hole, the infinity of knowledge, and the teleology of the universe: Popper agrees with the Christian philosopher John MacMurray that science is a product of Christianity. This may be so. From a Popperian perspective, attempting to disprove theories to strengthen them aligns with Christianity’s historical attempt to test faith by providing scientific explanations for what were seen as God's creations. The byproduct of this endeavour is science and progress. Yet it’s also reasonable to argue that the results remain inconclusive and that the universe may have a purpose. The finite amount of energy and matter in the universe could point to the potential of human knowledge creators to one day master it and everything within it.

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My starting point, a few years ago, was the idea of the universe’s finitude, which eventually led me to Deutsch’s work. While I find his idea of an infinite journey of knowledge generation sublime and somehow calming to contemplate, I haven’t entirely rejected the possibility of a tautological universe in which humans play a significant role. That starting point is explored further in my essay Physical Economics, which you can find here. Alternatively, you can have a look at some of my photos here — Or do both. There's no charge.