Claim of Unknowables Fallacy

Whenever a logical fallacy is committed, the fallacy has its roots in Agrippa's trilemma. All human thought (without Divine revelation) is based on one of three unhappy possibilities. These three possibilities are infinite regression, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking. This is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Some have claimed that only logic and math can be known; however, that is not true. Without Divine revelation, neither logic nor math can be known. Science is limited only to pragmatic thinking because of the weakness of human reasoning, which is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Claim of unknowables, a form of axiomatic thinking, is one of these three unhappy possibilities.

The Claim of Unknowables Fallacy occurs when it is claimed that something or someone is universally unknowable. The reason that it is a fallacy to claim that no one can know something is that, unless God has revealed that no one knows the thing, it would require the person making the claim to know what everyone who has ever lived, or anyone who could possibly live, knows. This is way beyond mind-reading. What process would you use to find out what everyone knows or has known or could know? The exception, of course, is Divine revelation. We know, for instance, that no one other than the Father knows the day and the hour of the end.

Examples of the Claim of Unknowables Fallacy

Bill Nye arguing against Creation science: “The idea that there is a higher power that has driven the course of events in the Universe and our own existence is one that you cannot prove or disprove. And this gets into this expression, Agnostic. You can’t know.”

Bill has correctly defined the philosophy of Agnosticism as originally coined by T.H. Huxley. It is not a statement of lack of knowledge. It is a statement that claims infinite knowledge of a specific kind. It claims to know the inner spiritual experiences of every person who has ever lived. It claims to know that every person who has ever claimed to have a personal experience with Christ, to be led by Him, to be taught by Him, to be comforted by Him, to have sensed Him in many ways; it is a claim that every one of these people is lying, deceived in some way, or crazy. Bill Nye is claiming to know all about this. Wouldn’t you like to ask him to demonstrate the method by which he has such amazing familiarity?

Roxanne: “God reveals to me, through the Bible, that there was a great worldwide flood about 4,500 years ago, and geology shows evidence for this as well. God speaks through the physical evidence to confirm the Biblical account.”

Sandra: "You can’t know that God is speaking to you through Scripture and through the Creation.”

Roxanne: “What makes you think so?”

In reality, those who believe in no-God are actually taught to avoid disclosing their position. What Sandra would be more likely to do is to try to ask question after question of Roxanne, looking for something where Roxanne can’t answer. By using this tactic, Sandra is committing the failure to state, argument from ignorance, and shotgun fallacies.