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Certainty or doubt?

Terese

Terese

Mangalam Pundarikakshah
Staff member
Premium Member
Doubt helps to create certainty. Without the other, it would not be complete.
 
cambridge79

cambridge79

Active Member
sandandfoam said:
Should one strive for certainty or doubt?
I'm inclined to favour doubt.
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best solution is to take something as certain till someone gives you reason to doubt it.
if you can win an argument over it, than it should raise your confidence on the subject.
if you have to ignore the guy or stop him from talking than you should start to think that something you believe is wrong.
that's why in not-free societies free speech si something that is ostracized ( in saudi arabia for example they keep jailing people if they speech against islam and there's a law there saying that i'm basically a terrorist for the simple fact that i'm an atheist )

if you think your wife is always cheating on you than you get mad.
if you think she's loyal to you even when the evidences say she isn't than you get cuckolded
if you think she's loyal to you and when somebody gives you evidences she's cheating you confront her, you're just staying in touch with reality.
 
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sandandfoam

sandandfoam

Veteran Member
cambridge79 said:
best solution is to take something as certain till someone gives reason to doubt it.
if you can win an argument over it, than it should raise your confidence on the subject.
if you have to ignore the guy or stop him from talking than you should start to think that something you believe is wrong.
that's why in not-free societies free speech si something that is ostracized
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I think we have reason to doubt everything. I think you have it the wrong way around :) I think we should doubt everything 'till we find reason to believe it. Furthermore, I believe that any 'knowledge' we think we have acquired should be regarded as provisional at best. Might help to stop our heads exploding if we ever stumble on a 'real' 'fact'.
 
cambridge79

cambridge79

Active Member
sandandfoam said:
I think we have reason to doubt everything. I think you have it the wrong way around :)
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I think you misunderstood me.
i didn't say that if a guy tells you a pink unicorn exist, you should immediately believe it till someone proves it wrong.
I said that once you've come to the conclusion that there's sufficient reason to believe in a pink unicorn, you should take it as a certainty, until the moment that someone elses comes and gives you a reason that you've never pondered to make you think you're wrong. As i said, can you be 100% sure that your wife isn't cheating on you when you're not there? no you can't. should you live like someone who is constantly thinking his wife may possibly be cheating on him every moment? no you'll get mad. once you have evidence that she's a person you can trust you assume she's not cheating on you. until the moment when something makes you think differently. The point is you can't live in constant doubt. It may be the more honest position but will ultimately drive you mad.

I think we should doubt everything 'till we find reason to believe it.
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Isn't that what i'm saying?
it's a simple circular process, it just depends where you want to see it starting:

1 you ponder about something till the doubts vanish
2 at that point you take it for granted
3 than someone comes and tells you something that makes you doubt about it
4 than you take into account the new evidences provided:
4a if they're good you remodel what you think
5b if they prove to be inconsistent you stick with what you were believing

you go back to point 2.
 
A

aoji

Member
How can one "strive" for certainty or doubt? Whatever you do will re-enforce one's predilection. Life is not logical. Life is existential.

Now, as to your implied question, whether one should be certain or doubtful as it pertains to Reality, by taking a religious or scientific stance - Reality trumps Science and Religion - it is what it is. Both Science and Religion can define Reality as certainty, either logical or existential, but Reality is beyond the mind, beyond logic, beyond yes and no, beyond the objective and subjective, beyond space and time, beyond all theories, beyond all philosophies - since Reality encompasses all opposites (Science or Religion) and complimentaries (Science and Religion).

Doubt and certainty is like coming upon two hysterically crying women. You slap one and you hug and soothe the other. If you slapped an hysterically crying woman yesterday and doing so bought her to her senses, is it logical to infer that slapping all hysterically crying women is the right thing to do every time? One can only infer that one slaps one and hugs the other after looking into their eyes... The knack is seeing beyond and behind the tears, and for that one has to call upon one's own experience. But if it is beyond one's experience then it will also be beyond one's logic.

Sees said:
... useful, meaningful knowledge and experience.
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One man's useful knowledge is another man's nonsense and folly. For example, if I find meaning in dreams and you do not; who is right? If you believe in Evolution and I believe in Creation, who is right? The truth is that it doesn't matter to Reality, since Reality may be beyond life and death.
 
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