Certainty is a feeling, not a fact

How certain are you that the Earth revolves around the sun?

Be honest: you haven’t done the requisite calculations. You haven’t left this planet to inspect the situation for yourself. You likely borrowed your certainty from the lips of another pants-wearing primate whom you have no reason to doubt.

Certainty is a feeling , not a fact. It’s a story. To be precise, it’s a love story with something you want to believe. Such stories are worth holding with a relaxed grip; it happens to be true—for now.

Now, the prescription here is not a suppository of endless Cartesian skepticism. Just a reminder that feeling in your chest is the exact same feeling felt by your dead wrong ancestors.

Human hardware has been the same for an eon. Your ancestors were certain that the sun revolved around the Earth, or that “there be dragons,” or that you should never, ever, wear brown shoes with a black belt.

You might think your ancestors fools, but you will suffer the same fate. Someday the object of your certainty may be revealed to be smoke. You will also wake one day into the impossible.

It is not enough to be open-minded. It’s what you know for sure that’s the cause of every human conflict. The truth is what you believe—for now.