Who is the best?

When you say that someone is the best at something, you are automatically comparing them to others. You can't make valid comparisons unless you know what the capabilities of this person are versus the capabilities of the others. A ranking has to be established. If the knowledge to make such a ranking doesn't exist, then the best cannot be determined.

You might say that somewhere, the best person at something exists, and that this best person is not known to us as best or to anyone as best. This may be true, but it falls into the vast quantity of things we don't know and may never know. Not only is it unknown, but it's unlikely to affect us to any great degree. That being the case, it becomes largely or totally irrelevant to us.

We may speak, for instance, of the greatest artist known (and different people will pick different artists for this). We don't usually speak of the greatest artist unknown.

It may be sad to think that the greatest artist may not be known to be such, perhaps not even to himself. However, if a person's work is unknown or unrecognized, there would seem to be little we could logically do unless we were made aware of it.

Great works of art and literature, and even great inventions, may be lost to us because not enough people are aware of them or their significance. In fact, this may be more the rule than the exception, as we are probably aware of only a tiny fraction of what is out there.


God sees everything, and knows who is the best and who is not. We can't see everything, and make determinations on who is best based on what we do see. If we can't see it, we can't make those determinations.