What do we KNOW that we can't prove?

Question

I'm sure that Christians can answer "God", but then the question would become: Why do we have to prove everything we know except God? Please answer that one too, if your answer does indeed involve God.

I'm really looking for other answers aside from the spiritual aspect, but those answers are welcome indeed.

Also, please explain why or how we know it, and why it can't be proven, and why it doesn't need to be proven.

No 3 word answers here, please! Think this one through!

Don't be mad at this question, either. I am asking with full respect to everyone, so don't go calling me an idiot(like many people often do) just because they're threatened by the question.

I must disagree, just.a.girl, you make quite an assumption. The odds of life coming into existence at all is 1:10^200,000 so it's quite realistic that Earth contains the only life in the universe. I'm not saying that's the way it is, but it's not something we KNOW one way or the other. Just a theory. I want to know what we KNOW!

Answer 1

Any mathematician will immediately give 10 or more examples of things that are PROVED TO BE UNPROVABLE.
For a famous example see
"The continuum hypothesis"[1]
I was proved that it can be neither proved not disproved.

Also Mathematicians often assume a lot of thing without proof.
See the definition of an axioms.[2]
For famous axiomatizations that are used to define arithmetic, geometry, and set theory see, respectively:
Peano axioms[3]
Euclidean geometry [4]
ZFC[5]

They all contain a lot of statements that are accepted without proof.

Answer 2

We know we can't prove the falsity of a belief which will admit of no conceivable disproof. For example, religious faith is compatible with any conceivable evidence whatever, because faith is wilful belief and no evidence or reason has any status whatever against it - not for the faithful.

We know we can't prove the non-existence of X, whatever is meant by X (e.g. fairies, unicorns, angels, etc.) - unless X is logically impossible (e.g. a circular square).

We know we can't prove a contradiction. For example, we can't prove what will happen when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.

We know we can't prove a scientific law (e.g. metals always expand when heated), because in order to do so we would have to heat every piece of metal under all possible conditions - which would take forever.

We know we can't prove the sun will rise tomorrow, because the fact that it has risen every other day we know of does not make it absolutely certain that it will rise tomorrow.

These are just some of the sorts of thing we know we can't prove.

Answer 3

There are a great many things that I don't know the answers to. Someone may know the answers to some of them but I don't. Why are factual answers so necessary for everything? Isn't it enough to know that they are? Why did riding my scooter, with the wind in my face, set me free? I don't know. I don't care. It was enough just to be set free. Why am I still so madly in love with my wife, who died 27 years ago? Does it matter? I just do and I'm glad I do. Why do I feel the spirit of God move within my heart and whisper the knowledge of God in my ear? Does it matter? I feel very sorry for those who close themselves off to their inner feelings and emotions simply because they can't allow beauty, contentment, fulfillment and joy to just simply exist without question.

Answer 4

Sometime certian things that hold high importance for you, do occur without any kind of contribution from your side, would you call it a LUCK? Why?
Why would you not just call it a Co-Incidence? But Why?
Or Would you call it a set of circumstances and occurences in different people's lives and creating an atmosphere that you desired?
Can you prove any such incidence?

Let aside God, Aliens, or how many times in total your girl friend has had sex...

Answer 5

I think that the bermuda triangle, there are a lot of theories but nothing proven...we know is there because planes and ships just dissapear at that point...

The living in other planets, there surely are out there other living things, but how can YOU prove it? we know that beacuse it's obvious that the universe in incredibly amazingly huge, and there are many other solar systems where it's not impossible that other living things are there, in fact i even think it's ilogic to think that we are the only ones...

Answer 6

I originally thought of using the abstracts as an example, but I thought of something else. Color. We all know color exists because of the spectrum and how light looks at a certain temperature and all that, but how do we know that every human being perceives those rays the same exact way? What I may see as green, you see at blue, but we've been taught since we were young that when you perceive that particular temperature of light rays, it is called "Red".

Answer 7

I would say Love, we all know it's real but how do we prove that a feeling exists to each other. we can't feel what the other is feeling. we have our own feelings. so how can we ever prove to the other person what we are truly feeling, the love and support and the caring for another person you can't, emotions are so deep and strong one would only hope to know.

Answer 8

Electricity. We know how to use it, but we still don't know what it is. We know the world began (otherwise scientists wouldn't be devoting years to the question) but we can't prove it through science. We know the world is hung on nothing (that is in space, as oppposed to a stack of various animals on each other's backs), but we can't prove why it's there--only, in some areas, how it works.

We can know that we love one someone, but we can't always prove it to them.

Answer 9

anything you believe in since your birth is KNOWN to you and you dont need any proofs. for religious people, it could be god, for athiests, its could be the inexistance of god. belief that was inculced in you since your birth needs no proof. other than that, its hard to find something you dont have to prove because the older you get, the more you understand and the more you realize the need of proof

Answer 10

You need a proof to prove proofs, so we can not prove them with out them. In other words, no, we can not know if they are or not in and of themselves.