The Myth of Certainty
I am not going to go into a lot of detail here, but I have been in a dialog with someone about some issues in my life and one of the issues brought up was the above title for this post.
It appears that within certain pockets of the Evangelical Christian subculture that some believe that certaintly is a myth. I probably need to do some further digging and exploring the issue but to me this statement seems to be very counter cultural to the teachings of the Bible.
Perhaps the early Christians had less room for doubt because of the shorter span of time between them and the alleged events found in the Gospels. Perhaps today there would be more room for theological uncertainty in this age of religious pluralism.
If I were to look at this issue through my formerly believing eyes, I would have to say that in order to accept the idea of the myth of certainty, then either we have a very flawed presentation on the meaning and manner of certainty in the Bible, or those portions of the Bible are no longer valid for today. In either event, how could one know? How wide is the playing field for this uncertainty? What issues demand certainty and which ones are open to ambiguity? And who makes those decisions as to which are which?
It appears that within certain pockets of the Evangelical Christian subculture that some believe that certaintly is a myth. I probably need to do some further digging and exploring the issue but to me this statement seems to be very counter cultural to the teachings of the Bible.
Perhaps the early Christians had less room for doubt because of the shorter span of time between them and the alleged events found in the Gospels. Perhaps today there would be more room for theological uncertainty in this age of religious pluralism.
If I were to look at this issue through my formerly believing eyes, I would have to say that in order to accept the idea of the myth of certainty, then either we have a very flawed presentation on the meaning and manner of certainty in the Bible, or those portions of the Bible are no longer valid for today. In either event, how could one know? How wide is the playing field for this uncertainty? What issues demand certainty and which ones are open to ambiguity? And who makes those decisions as to which are which?
Labels: certainty, doubt, faith, myth, questions, theological tension
posted by The Raging Paradoxidation at
23:08
5 Comments:
iS IT CERTAIN THAT certainty is a myth?
To them, probably not. It all depends on how logistical they want to get.
It's kind of like saying that there are no absolutes, and meaning it absolutely.
I understand the irony.
what do you think your answer is to the question
Hi Jimmy,
I can only give you my short answer to that question. Ultimately it is a circular argument and I'm fairly certain that you're probably coming at the issue from a TAG/Presupp angle.
I am not endorsing the statement that certainty is a myth, I just put the issue on the table. It is almost a trick question to ask if it is certain that uncertainty is a myth. Again, it is like someone stating absolutely that absolutes do not exist.
Someone can be certain that the Bible says something but it doesn't mean that they can be certain about the exact intent behind the words on the page. In other words, I am certain that the Bible says A,B, and C, but I am not certain of the authorship of all of the books, whether all of the events actually happened, or whether the words in it correctly describe God
Theologically, I would not want to be a part of a system that believed that certainty was iffy. To me, it would defeat the purpose. It would probably just lead someone into my shoes. The distinguishing thing about strong religion is the certainty that leads to dogma. Every group has their own dogmas whether they be Christian or otherwise.
Many truths can be transcendant. I see certainty as a level of perception of any given truth...so even if the truths are transcendent then it is still possible to be uncertain about the truths due to the limitations of the mind...thereby allowing for the possibility of complete certainty to be a myth.
I don't know. I am not a trained philosopher. I just know that it seems rather unorthodox for a Christian to make claims that suggest that their own system's claims can have room for uncertainty; you either subscribe to it or you don't.
Either way, the post was not about what I think about the subject. It was moreso to just address the issue as seemingly odd.
"iS IT CERTAIN THAT certainty is a myth?"
This is one of those self referential statements that implies neither truth nor falsehood. As Douglas Hofstadter would put it, it's a "strange loop." Another such statement is:
"This statement is false."
Just because we're able to make such statements doesn't mean they have any practical meaning, beyond forcing us to examine the nature of logic and reasoning.
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