The Perils of Certainty
Have you ever posed in front of a fun house mirror and laughed at your reflection? The mirror distorts your image and makes you appear taller or shorter than you are or maybe thinner or fatter. Whatever you see in the carnival mirror is a warped resemblance of reality. Due to the concave and convex curves in the glass, the figure that you see is a contorted impression of yourself. The mirror’s appeal is that we know we are not seeing things the way they really are.
During this contentious political season, when relationships with family and friends are often frayed over political differences, it might be helpful if we could see our partisan politics with a touch of the same lightheartedness as we do when we look at our reflection in a fun house mirror. The truth is, our political beliefs are based on the curved mirrors of our prejudices, ideologies, religious convictions, life experiences and sundry other influences. Too often, though, we think we see through a clear window at the way things really are, while anyone who disagrees with us must have a distorted image of reality.
Human limitations, however, prevent any of us from having 20/20 vision when it comes to seeing clearly the political landscape. In other words, whatever views we hold can never be nailed down with absolute and unambiguous certainty. Whether we like it or not, a certain amount of ambiguity is part of the human experience. If we are to avoid unpleasant and divisive arguments with others over controversial issues, one of the first steps is to consider any political insight we have as provisional. Whenever we insist that we have absolute certainty regarding a political issue or candidate, then our only conversational partners will be those who agree with us.
Of course we all strive for certainty whenever we are faced with an important decision. Life is challenging and complicated enough without having to second guess ourselves on every matter. Just getting up every morning and going to work, raising a family, paying bills, managing a million and one other things is exhausting and stressful. Without some degree of confidence in our thought process, nothing would ever get done. But confidence entails probability, not absolute freedom from doubt.
The rub comes when we confuse confidence with certainty. For whatever reason, when we discuss politics or religion or some sensitive social issue, probability is not enough. We crave certainty. Psychologists call this desire for certainty “cognitive closure.” We want the final word on the matter, to settle the dispute unequivocally, and eliminate any and all threads of ambiguity.
Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. Deep down we realize that life is complicated and there are a variety of ways to look at issues. But our time is limited and that tempts us to elevate straightforward explanations, without complexity and ambiguity, above more thoughtful considerations. Every consequential decision drains energy from us, and frequently the more facts we gather about a complicated subject, the more difficult and more uncertain our response. Just the amount of information we receive each day from our electronic devices is overwhelming, far more than what our parents or grandparents experienced. Consequently, we may become enamored with a particular political personality who pushes simplistic solutions to the country’s thorny problems, and releases us from the burden of having to think through the issues ourselves.
But settling for dogmatic, cut and dry answers to our nation’s multifaceted and complex issues, believing that one person or one party or one ideology has a lock on absolute truth, leaves us vulnerable to cult-like figures. Their messages may be superficially attractive but scratch the thin coat of veneer off and one immediately sees the misleading hype of power hungry dictators or despots. Democracy functions best through discussion, debate, and compromise, and that makes politics a messy and often frustrating enterprise.
It’s troubling when I hear politicians say that anyone who doesn’t agree with them hates America. It doesn’t strengthen our democracy when a candidate personally belittles an opponent. It’s disturbing when someone calls someone else an idiot for simply disagreeing over a controversial political or social issue. Do our political views erase our ability to see the humanity in those with whom we disagree?
The Bible clearly states that we are all a mixture of good and evil. We understand all too well what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “The good I want to do, I don’t do, but the evil I don’t want to do, I do” (Rom. 7). Who among us could not have written that confession? Everyone has feet of clay. No one has perfectly clear vision when it comes to politics or, for that matter, even religion. Whenever we demonize another human being just because he/she holds different opinions, we set ourselves up as judges, an attitude Jesus strongly condemns.
I’ve learned that in every argument or disagreement there are three sides: my side, your side, and the truth. The absolute truth will always elude us, regardless of how strong our supportive facts. There is always another angle to consider, another perspective, another insight to every debate.
Even if we were able to discover the absolute truth about some issue, it may not serve us well. After all, would it drive us to become better human beings or, instead, thwart our curiosity to ask questions, explore, learn, grow, and develop? Erich Fromm writes, “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers” (Man for Himself). Illana Redstone adds, “When we hold our beliefs in a way that leaves no room for doubt, this leads to an unwillingness—whether conscious or not—to question what we think we know about the world and one another” (The Certainty Trap).
The questions, the doubts, and the ambiguities are the intellectual pillars that have empowered human beings through the ages to overcome superstition, bigotry, and xenophobia. While we may crave certainty and the elimination of ambiguity in our lives, it is the uncertainty that spurs curiosity, an essential human attribute for continued maturity. Certainty leads to complacency, the drying up of ideas, intellectual rigidity, and the minimizing of adventure and achievement. Certainty also blinds us to the magnificent beauty of God’s incredibly diverse creation. Uncertainty beckons us to explore the wonders of our world, motivates us to continue striving to fulfill our human potential, and helps us to realize that no one sees reality through a clear window but only through the complex curves of our human nature.
