Introduction
We live in a world overflowing with information, opinions, and self-proclaimed authorities. Yet the most overlooked truth may be the most important: we don’t know much at all.
Despite centuries of exploration, science, and spiritual seeking, humanity today still has access to only a sliver of the reality we inhabit. Cosmologists and physicists estimate that more than 95% of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy – unseen, unknown, and barely understood. That leaves us with less than 5% of reality that can be observed, measured, or meaningfully explained1.
Now pause for a moment.
Let that land.
If we humans can only access a fraction of what exists, then even our most refined beliefs – scientific, religious, political – are incomplete at best, and delusional at worst. And if that’s true, it forces us to confront something deeply uncomfortable: that no one, no matter how learned or devout, can claim to fully know the mind or will of God, the laws of the universe, or the destiny of the human race.
The Problem with Prophets and Gurus
Throughout history, humans have turned to prophets, scriptures, and gurus for clarity in the face of mystery. From Paramahansa Yogananda2 to Stephen Hawking3, Guru Gobind Singh4 to Richard Dawkins5, the voices may differ, but the pattern is the same: charismatic humans claiming access to a higher truth.
And to be clear: many of these individuals have offered the world great gifts. Yogananda brought Eastern spirituality to the West and taught meditation as a path to inner peace. Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe while grappling courageously with physical limitations. Guru Gobind Singh stood for justice and spiritual renewal in the face of tyranny. Dawkins has defended science and reason in a world often prone to superstition. In his book The God Delusion (2006), Dawkins proposed a ‘spectrum of theistic probability’ to help individuals situate their belief or disbelief in God.
But here is the unignorable fact: every such message is delivered by a human being. Fallible. Biased. Culturally shaped. Often male. Always limited.
Whether the message is divine revelation, scientific certainty, or philosophical clarity, it is filtered through human lens. And while many of these individuals have offered profound insights, none are exempt from the very human condition they seek to explain.
This is not an attack on greatness. It is a reminder of proportion: that even our greatest minds and hearts operate within the known 5%, speaking into a universe still 95% mysterious6.
When Survival Trumps Responsibility
With over 8.2 billion people alive today7, it would be easy to assume that global responsibility is evenly shared. But that assumption is false.
As of 2025, more than 3.4 billion people live on less than $6.85 USD per day8. Roughly 650 million live in extreme poverty, and more than 1 billion endure the compounded trauma of war and political instability. For these people, existential questions about truth, morality, and global stewardship are luxuries. Their daily focus is survival.
To hold them morally responsible for the fate of the planet, or the distortion of spiritual authority, is unjust and philosophically incoherent. You cannot expect someone to reflect on divine manipulation or ecological ethics when they are searching for clean water or shelter from bombs.
Who Bears the Weight, who’s Accountable?
The burden falls squarely on the rest of us: the middle class and wealthy, relative to world populations, who have time, space, and cognitive freedom to think about these issues.
We are the ones who must confront the lies we've inherited, the silence we've maintained, the systems we've allowed to persist and ecosystems we’ve left to die.
If you live above the poverty line, with access to education, internet, and relative peace, then you are accountable.
If you have the capacity to discern truth from manipulation, or to question the authority of those who speak in God’s name, then you are responsible.
If you are free to act but choose comfort over courage, then you are complicit.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The planet faces multiple cascading crises: climate collapse, mass displacement, digital disinformation, and a dangerous resurgence of authoritarian ideologies.
In the face of this, many retreat to fatalism or fundamentalism, looking for saviours rather than stepping into sovereignty. But no prophet is coming. No AI, no government, no God-in-human-form is going to fix the mess we’ve made.
If anything, history shows that those who claim divine or absolute authority often make things worse. So what are we left with? Ourselves. Each other. Our willingness to live with the courage to “not know” – and act anyway.
Belief Is Not the Problem
To be clear, this is not a rejection of God, nor a denial of spiritual reality. Believing in God is no less rational than choosing not to. In fact, belief can offer space for wonder, reverence, and humility in the face of a universe too vast to measure.
The problem is not belief. The problem is certainty that masquerades as divine authority.
When someone claims to know the will of God while dismissing dissent, silencing doubt, or seeking control, they cross the line from spirituality to manipulation. Likewise, when we abdicate personal responsibility and simply take on whatever we are told as ‘the truth’ instead of using our experience and knowledge as the arbiter, and recognising the dissonance that occurs when we are not in truth, we invite the powerful to indulge in manipulation for their own purposes.
A belief in God can inspire awe. It can cultivate service. It can open the heart to mystery. That belief is valid. So too is the decision to question, to doubt, or to reject belief altogether.
What matters is the integrity with which each path is walked.
The Courage to Be
This is not a call to rebellion or heroism. It is a call to presence.
To be the kind of person who doesn’t outsource their moral compass. To become someone who seeks alignment over certainty, contribution over perfection, and truth over tribe.
We cannot claim to know the entirety of the cosmos, or the mind of God, or even the full depths of our own psyche. But we can become the kind of humans who respond to that “not-knowing” with humility and responsibility.
In a world where most things are unknown, the things we do know must matter more:
That love is better than hate.
That truth matters.
That power without accountability is always dangerous.
That our children and grandchildren will live in the consequences of our choices.
So what now?
You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to know everything. But you do need to be honest, awake, and willing.
Willing to say:
"I don’t know everything, but I know enough to act."
"I won’t wait for someone else to do the right thing."
"I will become the best human I can be – not for me, but for those who come after."
Because in the end, the only thing more dangerous than not knowing is pretending we do. And the only path forward is not through certainty, but through courage. The courage to be.
Footnotes
NASA Science – What is Dark Energy? https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946): https://yogananda.org/autobiography-of-a-yogi
Hawking, S, A Brief History of Time (1988), Bantam Books
Biography of Guru Gobind Singh – SikhNet: https://www.sikhnet.com/pages/guru-gobind-singh
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55030.The_God_Delusion
NASA Science – What is Dark Energy? https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy
United Nations World Population Prospects 2024 – https://population.un.org/wpp/
World Bank – Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2024: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity