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Are we certain of uncertainty?
Per Godel's incompleteness theorem, we can not prove proof. So, we are certain of uncertainty.
All that we know is contingent on some sort of faith, in the scientific method, religious faith, myth, or whatever, all of it resting on the logical platform of math, which Godel demonstrated lacked the informational content to prove itself.
How can we be sure that we are sure? How can we be sure that we are unsure?
I have sat on a chair on more than one occasion, only to have it collapse. I have faith that a chair will hold me. I am not certain of it.
I was not asking about mundane, daily events. I am not referring to "make your own reality" silliness. i am referring to mankind in general when I use the word "we". I am not referring to consensus. For quite some time, the atom was thought to be the smallest bit of physical reality (consensus). We are now certain that it is not.
What is the source of that type of certainty?
11 Answers
- ?Lv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
Let it be like this only... or else you would require some very daring proofs from your parents about yourself too... which might eventually make your life very miserable... !!
- Eclectic HereticLv 71 decade ago
Of course. As they say, "Change is the only constant". Uncertainty is part of life, in some areas. In others, there is some "certainty" in that if I go to sit in my chair, unless I'm drunk, I'm going to land in it, the chair is not going to suddenly disappear and leave my a** on the floor. If you eat well, you will end up in the bathroom sooner or later.
Things like that don't need to be made into some sort of esoteric discussion. You need to keep it in context.
Let's say this -you know that you are "sure" when you aim for the chair and it does not disappear. You know that you are "unsure" if someone asks you if your house will ever be struck by lightning. It is something you just don't know.
- 1 decade ago
By having a proper balance of faith and logic. One shouldn't be too one sided, and should keep an open mind. The Enlightenment age and Scientific Revolution emphasized logic over the top and now people are stuck on phenomena that can't be explained by pure logic, when really all that was needed was a hint of faith to supply it. There is almost no answer that can be 100% answered correctly through logic, and the same is true for faith.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
What I'm certain of is that you should cease and desist from engaging in pseudo-philosophical fiddle-faddling claptrap that accomplishes nothing nor contributes anything of value to the betterment of society.
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- Siver ChaChaLv 71 decade ago
Just because I don't know something.... doesn't make god the answer
Just as there were god for thunder and lightening... those gods explained what people didn't understand.
That's what function people assign the word GOD = wall filler in holes of knowledge
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Look, There's no precedent to make the claim that deities don't exist absolutely. Man made religions are ridiculous superstition.
- 1 decade ago
You are sure to be unsure,
Without believing the claim of God, by God for being the creator of all things, there is the absence of claimed ability that if indeed God is and did create the worlds by the Word of His power, than one may choose to believe that he truly upholds all things by the Word of His power.
My senses your senses, any ones senses, cannot contact anything outside the realm of the senses. The mind cannot contact and know without the five senses.
The mind is sense ruled, and cannot know the things of the Spirit. For this reason the word of wisdom spoken by Christ was that: "Except a man is born again he cannot see, the kingdom of God" The word of knowledge if you are scientific minded must also believe that mans ability to know God was forfeited by Adam, thus the reason of mans ignorance of God.
To denounce these two reasonable and revealed truths would just be a depiction of man's apparent spiritual death.
Therefore we can grasp why the word of God wisdom says to believe; God being Sovereign and truly God must present himself as sure, and need not to prove to the senses which it is evident are very fickle, and would not grasp the things of God. But God reveals them to the part of man that is spiritually capable, and God calls him the man of the heart, the innermost being the inward man.
1 Corinthians 2: 12-14 reveals that the spirit of the world does not know the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned, perceived understood.
verse 11 reveals that the spirit of the man which is in him knows the things of the man, even so the things of God knows no man but he Spirit of God.
I have been scientific all my life, and used it to find God to press into the book someone told me years ago was the Word of God.
I know it was the Spirit of God that spoke to me, soon after. I could not possibly know the things i know without being enlightened in my innermost being by the Spirit of God. My mind could not arrive to the knowledge God has revealed to me in and of its self, it simply doesn't have the capability
The part of man that knows all about the man himself is the innermost being . The intellect and senses do not know this inward man, but the inward man knows the intellect and senses
All i did was take Christ word of knowledge and wisdom, John 3: 3,5,8, Titus 3: 5 which was lost forfeited by Adam, Genesis 3: Romans 5: 12-19 I simply asked Jesus to make me born again and believed Him at His Word then He went further and revealed to me that He truly died for me in my place and i suddenly knew i could' no one can save themselves, and the pride that man is in tangled with and in is let's eat and drink and be marry, for tomarrow we die.
The senses cannot help our intellect to know God, but in Christ we are quickened in the Spirit a washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit
- KarlLv 71 decade ago
We believe there is an infinity in math, a number so large we can not comprehend it. But we can not accept God like this. Hmm?
Take care.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
I am certain of uncertainty.
It will be always present. We don't know everything and shouldn't claim to. Because we don't know everything, there will always be doubts and uncertainty concerning everything we know and everything we don't. Are you certain of everything around you? Of course not. Therefore, you are certain of uncertainty.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
We can be uncertain of certainty, but we can't be certain of uncertainty.