Certainty

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“Truth and lies, doubt and certainty. I haven't found them to be what I thought they were. I dislike certainty because it feels like truth, but it isn't. And I think I have had some inkling what it is for a whole people to become certain."

 

"And what's that like, then?"

 

"It's like pretending something, and then forgetting you were pretending. It's falling into a dream. If justice is based on certainty, but certainty is not truth, atrocities become possible.”

          Daniel Abraham

 

The opposite of faith isn’t doubt.  The opposite of faith is certainty.  Once we know everything we stop actively being engaged in questions.

          Nadia Bolz-Weber

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I am sure he is a nice guy

an Irish rancher type from behind the Sagebrush curtain

deeply embedded in the alkali dust, rimrock,

and endless juniper

of Eastern Oregon

 

and he is certain!

so very certain, I am sure, of God

certain that America is Great

or that someone he follows can make it Great Again

and certain that those who are more liberal

are the victims of “heavy propaganda”

 

I am not certain

not about much

I am certain that a certain politician lies

(some things can be proved)

 

But I am not certain that those I support

are always truthful

in fact, if I am certain of anything

it is that they sometimes twist the truth

 

Sometimes I am not certain that God is

or that I understand who God is, or what God is like.

I am not certain, exactly, of what God wants me to do

I am not certain that my beliefs are “right”

Not certain why some things happen

Or how Sacred is involved, or uninvolved

 

I am somewhat certain that God is loving, and kind

forgiving and generous

(thank you Jesus)

 

But I have my doubts about so much

Which is OK!

 

I would rather have doubt than certainty

because doubt is not the opposite of faith

certainty is

 

Certainty makes us blind

The truth may be right in front of us

but we can’t see it because we are certain of something different

 

Certainty twists reality

When see the world, and others, through the lens of certainty

we may well see

wrongly

and we may commit great injustices

 

Certainty stops us from questioning

We don’t question what we believe, what God wants, or doesn’t want

We don’t question whether we are right

 

Thus we get stuck, closed, and hard

And we stop learning, and we stop growing.

 

Which means certainty divides

Yes, a whole people can be united in certainty

but when that happens it gets ugly

there is cruelty

there are atrocities

 

Inquisitions happen, Reichs are created

people get hurt

countries die

 

I hope that I always have doubts about what I believe

That I doubt my version of the truth

my perception that am on the “right” side

am headed the right direction

that I am who I am supposed to be, doing the things I am supposed to do

 

Frederick Buechner once said that doubt is the ants-in-the-pants of faith

 

God, keep me uncertain

keep me questioning

keep me open

keep me humble

keep me accepting of others

 

for I might be wrong

of that I am certain