The Importance Of Certainty

In refutation to doubt, certainty is the confidence attributed to a particular knowledge. “…a state where no more doubts exists.” Certainty is primarily the acceptance of fact without doubt. It is different from knowledge, as “certainty is either the highest form of knowledge and belief or is the only epistemic property superior to knowledge and belief…”

There are various kinds of certainty. Psychological certainty abound when the subject is supremely convinced of a specific idea. This is the kind of certainty in circumstances, when one will say things like ‘Are you 100% sure?’ Moreover, a mother may be incapable of giving up the belief that her son did not commit a gruesome murder. Yet, compatible with that inextinguishable belief, she

Doubt and certainty, or vice versa is a continuous cycle. This is the process of evolution – no pinnacle is ever attained but each new development is just a snapshot, a point in time. It is a journey of perpetual transformation where the cosmos itself asks the questions and provides answers only to ask new questions. The cosmos is about possibilities. “Facts leave no room for possibilities,” as stated by Erin the movie, Exorcism of Emily Rose. When facts end, possibilities will begin. Lack of intellectual stability and certainty is not comfortable but that is the very nature of progress. Change is always painful in one way or another. Authority and stagnation always hide behind answers. But revolutions are made by rejecting authority and asking radically new questions. Eventually, successful revolutionaries become established authorities in their own right and get attached to their answers rather than the consequent questions. And new rebels must fill the lines and ask new questions in order to change the world. And so, all progress is based on the possibility and doubt that is an endless black hole never filled. That we do not get stuck with an answer but, on each occasion, continue to ask new and better