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Nothing is certain
Saturday, 27 May 2006
Deep inside us all is a deep need to feel certainty about the world and our place in it. We like to think there are some things we can really rely on. Without certainty, life seems desperate and frightening.
In fact, it’s often when what we thought was true turns out to be wrong that we become most angry and depressed.
A man who finds his wife has been unfaithful, when previously he believed he had a wonderful marriage, finds the betrayal unbearable. Not only because he's lost something precious, but also because things were not as they seemed. A businessperson who thought they were indispensable to the company can be furious when they find themselves made redundant. A professor whose pet theory is shown false by new discoveries can feel as if she is threatened from all sides.
Having our certainties shattered can be a devastating blow.
But what really is certain in this life? The honest answer is – absolutely nothing.
Even science, often held up as the holy-grail of truth, is based on shakier foundations than many believe. Science is based on experiment. If water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius at sea-level today, then we assume it will also do so tomorrow.
But on what do we base this assumption that just because something that’s true today it will be true tomorrow also? We have nothing to support our scientific observations except our experience of the past, and there’s no guarantee that the past will look anything like the future.
Just because the physics that made your car start have worked up to now, is no reason to believe they will continue to work. Gravity itself, may well fail tomorrow and we’ll all go drifting off into space.
No matter how deeply into anything you look, you'll never find absolute certainty. We're adrift in an ocean of unknowingness, clutching at the few straws of truth we think we see drifting past.
Of course, the philosophy that nothing is perfectly knowable, so nothing is worthwhile is no way to live.
Just because Newton’s laws may cease to work tomorrow is no reason not to buy yourself a new car. Judging that most things in the future will work in the way they have in the past has suited us well up to this point, and we have little choice but assume in our everyday lives that it will continue to be so.
But you can use the principal of all being uncertain for practical purposes. In fact, understanding this principal is one of the big differences between wise people and fools.
Switch on Jerry Springer and you’ll hear lots of certainty from the audience members. They know what’s right and what’s wrong and that’s that. You can hear the same type of faith in their own perfect understanding coming from the mouths of many teenagers. They’re generally too young and stupid to realize just how vast the amount is that they simply don’t know.
Dumb people are convinced of things quickly, smart people are more happy in admitting the limits of their knowledge.
Instead of certainty, look for credibility. Assertions backed by hard-science are more credible than those made by witch-doctors. Or at least, have been by our past experience.
Articles printed in a well-respected magazine have more credibility than those in the National Enquirer, even though even the best journals have previously been caught printing fraudulent articles.
Make peace with the fact that there are a great many things you'll never know, and you'll never have real certainty about anything. Be very cautious before accepting anything as true and correct beyond any doubt, and be ready to question your assumptions.
Realizing that nothing is certain is a big first step towards joining the ranks of the wise.
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