We live in a society that seems to value certainty. As a group, we trust someone who stands up and declares, “I know something without a doubt.” Do we ever stop and ask ourselves, “What is certainty?” It’s a very important question that is never asked.

So, let’s ask it. What is Certainty? I don’t want to address individual issues, I want to talk about the state of being absolutely certain. It means that we think we know everything there is to know about a subject, to have absolute knowledge such that it’s not even worth the time to listen to other information.

It’s very comforting to feel this way. It removes the unknown, that feeling that there is something out there waiting to surprise us. This is a feeling that is built into us genetically, and we don’t like it. Being certain helps us cope with our primal fears. It’s that same fear we have of the dark. It’s about not knowing what is about to jump out at us. The world is a much more complex place than it was, and as the internet and cable news and the flattening earth expand our range of vision, it also drives home to us the idea that we are small and that there is more out there then we can hope to understand. We react to this by sticking to a small set of beliefs about which we are absolutely certain. This is one of the causes of the resurgence of religious fundamentalism we see.

But is being certain a good thing? What effect does it have on our thinking? Personally, I think that as soon as we are certain about something, it removes our ability to think critically, and prevents us from remaining open to new information.

Is it better to win an argument or lose one?

I would say it’s better to lose one. If you win, you get the great reward of being right. If you lose, you get the better reward of learning something and therefore growing. The person who wins the argument feels better, but the person who loses IS better; one has grown, one just got to be right.

So, what is the proper way to think? I can’t tell you for certain (*wink*) but my feeling is that it’s important to maintain a level of uncertainty in everything. Sure, we think that some things are very likely, almost to the point of certainty, but it’s important to always maintain a little doubt about everything. Let’s look at how science is supposed to work. Scientists make observations, and then develop theories that fit the observations. Are they certain about the theories? They fit all observable evidence, and seem to work. Still, any good scientist will tell you that most theories are only placeholders that seem to work until something better comes along. It may be new observations that don’t fit the model, or it may be new mathematical techniques that allow us to process information more efficiently, or any other new factor. Science is the process of always refining our thinking to get closer to the truth. We will probably never get all the way there, but it’s the process that’s important.