Certain 4.25.2024

We wrap this month up with a discussion about certainty. What is it? Why do we need it? How do we get it, and once we’ve got it what is it for?

Certainty is one of those words that we need to clearly define by context, or we might be confused by the very fungibility that the term seems to dismiss. Example. My wife and I are driving through the country to a destination we both know. We each have a route in mind, slightly different from the others. Both eventually get to the same location. Each of us is certain that we are correct, yet without some other objective criteria our differing certainties are nothing more than opinion. Other external stimuli might clarify the issue. Perhaps on the route I choose of which I am certain, there is a bridge out. The “route” technically is still correct, yet today, my certainty will not help us to arrive at the destination. I am certain and wrong.

What if we add other delimiting criteria to the discussion. Perhaps we should qualify the question by saying “Each of these routes will certainly get us to the event, but my route is longer, and we want to get there as quickly as possible. We go her way. Still certain of the route, I have changed my mind because of additional input, our desired time of arrival.

This month we talked a bit about the Eclipse. There was a certain event for you! Mathematically certain, the path of totality was quantified, mapped, and qualified by the chance of cloud cover.  Everyone in that path was certain to see the event unless they were prevented by overcast skies. It still happened whether any one individual saw it or not.  Someone whose vision was obscured by clouds or even sleeping late may have missed it, but it was certain. When we use the word certain, we need to be clear on context and specific in intent. The nature of the term requires external qualification. In fact, from basic observation there are at least 4 ways we use the term:

 

•   To state a “fact.” (I’m certain.)

•   To state a belief. (I’m certain, I’m right,)

•   To question someone else’s belief. (I’m certain you have misunderstood or are misinformed.)

•   To state a counterfactual. (I am certain you are wrong.)

 

That’s an awful lot of weight for one word to bear! Let’s review the rest of this month’s essays and draw some conclusions. After the eclipse, we took a couple of weeks to discuss details (one might have used the word facts) and the necessity for balance in reasoning about both our world and our faith. With respect to our present topic, the details certainly matter when we consider whether my wife or I are correct in our certainty about our proposed route of travel. All things being equal each of us may be right. As the saying goes “the devil is in the details.” Details like that bridge being out, a newly oiled road to be avoided, an accident, or people pulled off the road to view an eclipse, these details determine the context in which certainty either rises or falls. What is a man to do in such an epistemological standoff with his beloved?

Balance. Balance and symmetry allow us to factor in all those contextual clues that permit us fallible humans to adjust what we might call our “certainty meters” to external reality. So, if my wife and I get into the car to go to the nearest town. We are each certain of the correct route. To make a responsible decision about which way to go we discuss possible details of each route that may determine the best way to make the trip. A symmetrical trip takes the least amount of time needed for the intended destination. One of us foolishly insisting that our way is the only way, might even result in one of us throwing up our hands and abandoning the trip altogether. The facts do not change. People do. Contexts do.

Conclusions. Faith is a certainty that takes into account the available details We need to be less certain about more things than we generally are. The person who believes things in the absence of confirming details or balanced reasoning is called gullible. We need to recognize that many of our certainties are actually contingent on context, and details. Asserting something with passion does not make it so. Our certainty then is not in the actual state of affairs but in our own belief. Certainty should be a balancing act of what we know, what we believe, and what is possible given the context in which we are living and making decisions. A Biblical example might help, consider this text:

“Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”        Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!””                                 (John 20:24-28 ESV)

In the first paragraph, Thomas expresses in his “doubt” two certainties. “Jesus is still dead. You did not see Him.” What happened to change his mind so much that he went from one set of certainties to a new set? 1. The context changed. He was there with the rest of the Apostles. 2. The facts changed. He, himself saw Jesus. Now, his certainty is of faithful devotion. Some might call Thomas a doubter. Perhaps rather we should think of him as the pioneer of faithful certainty driven by a full appreciation of the facts.

    Christian faith has always and will always exist in a hostile culture. Like Mrs. Beckman and I, human beings are on a journey (life) to a certain destination (death). There are different ways to make this journey, all arriving at the inevitable. Virtually all humans also believe that after that destination there is something to experience. Call it eternity, heaven, or nirvana. Someone is right about the journey, and someone is right about the aftermath. I am certain that making this journey with Jesus, the risen Lord is the right path. I invite you to jump in and travel along. If you choose not to, you may be certain, but will you be right?