8.0.2.4.3 Truth in Uncertainty

Version 1.2 December 2016                          (Previous Version)

Some – including some scientists, avowed agnostics and atheists – are unable to rise above the uncertainty.  They will be paralysed by doubt, observers rather than actors, perennial sceptics or cynics.

We need to explain:

a.      Questions are not always better than answers.  Questioning is better than being so certain that you cause unnecessary harm in God’s name.  But we need some reasonable basis to decide how to live.  We must not be so overwhelmed by doubts and questions, that we never do any good.

b.     We need to work out what is a reasonable basis when action is required.  We can't live doing nothing.  We do have an impact on the world.  We can do it in a reasonable way – which means accepting some things are true - or we can be silly about it and deny the truth. 

c.      Since we can never be totally certain, any action does require some leap of faith.  We have to accept this reality.  We may believe some things only tentatively, or provisionally, until they are proved wrong.  Ultimately we can't prove things to be right.  So even the most ardent scientific sceptics must have faith in some basic things, and they should admit it.

It is a revelation to many people that sometimes we must decide, one way or the other, and this involves accepting, at least for the moment, some beliefs, which involves some degree of faith.