Atdtda[4]: 98.18 It could have been a religion

[David Morris]

Re. that "could have," Pynchon commonly uses phrasing like this to
introduce possible doubt / uncertainty of the statements or
descriptions he supplies.

David Morris

On 3/6/07, Michel <mryc2903 at yahoo.fr> wrote:
> Probably the finer subtleties of English grammar escape me, but isn't there a paradox between the statement "It could have been a religion, for all he knew [...]" and what follows up till the end of the paragraph? It ends with (after a kind of 'vision'):
>
> "[...] the truth he now possessed in his personal interior, certain and unshakable." (99.14-15), which sounds more a metaphysical than a scientific statement.
>
> It is that "could" that puzzles me a bit.