"Nobody Knows Everything about Anything!" the Cosmic Dance of Dialogue

I. Nobody Knows Everything about Anything! * In dawning Age of Global Dialogue we humans are increasingly aware that we cannot know everything about anything. This is true for physical sciences: No one would claim that she or he knows everything about biology, physics, or chemistry. Likewise, no one would claim that we know everything about human sciences, sociology, or anthropology, or--good heavens, economics-and each of these disciplines is endlessly complicated. To repeat--as a mantra: Nobody knows everything about anything! However, when it comes to most comprehensive, most complicated, discipline of all--theology or religion--billions of us still claim that we know all there is to know and whoever thinks differently is simply mistaken. But, if it is true that we always can only know partially in any limited study of reality, as in physical or human sciences, surely it is all more true of religion, which is an explanation of ultimate meaning of life, and how to live accordingly, based on some notion and experience of Transcendent. (1) We must then be even more modest in our claims of knowing better in this most comprehensive field of knowledge, religion, the ultimate meaning of life. Because of work of great thinkers like late Hans-Georg Gadamer and late Paul Ricoeur, we now also realize that no knowledge can ever be completely objective, for we knower are an integral part of process of knowing. In brief, all knowledge is interpreted knowledge. Even in its simplest form, whether I claim that Bible is God's truth, or Qur'an, or Gita, or, indeed, interpretation of pope, or John Knox, it is I who affirm that it is so. But, if neither I nor anyone else can know everything about anything, including most of all most complicated claims to truth, religion, how do I proceed to search for an ever fuller grasp of reality, of truth? The clear answer is dialogue. In dialogue I talk with you primarily so that I can learn what I cannot perceive from my place in world, with my personal lenses of knowing. Through your eyes I see what I cannot see from my side of globe, and vice versa. Hence, dialogue is not just a way to gain more information. Dialogue is a whole new way of thinking. We are painfully leaving behind Age of Monologue and are, with squinting eyes, entering into Age of Global Dialogue. II. The Universe Is a Cosmic Dance of Dialogue Dialogue--the mutually beneficial interaction of differing components--is at very heart of Universe, of which we humans are highest expression: from basic interaction of matter and energy (in Einstein's unforgettable formula, E=[MC.sup.2]; energy equals mass times square of speed of light) to creative interaction of protons and electrons in every atom to vital symbiosis of body and spirit in every human, through creative dialogue between woman and man to dynamic relationship between individual and society. Thus, very essence of our humanity is dialogical, and a fulfilled human life is highest expression of Cosmic Dance of Dialogue. In early millennia of history of humanity, as we spread outward from our starting point in central Africa, forces of divergence were dominant. However, because we live on a globe, in our frenetic divergence we eventually began to encounter each other more and more frequently. Now forces of stunning convergence are becoming increasingly dominant. In past, during Age of Divergence, we could live in isolation from each other; we could ignore each other. Now, in Age of Convergence, we are forced to live in one world. We increasingly live in a global village. We cannot ignore other, different. Too often in past we have tried to make over other into a likeness of ourselves, often by violence, but this is very opposite of dialogue. …