On Being Sure About Things We Don't Know

One of the startling qualities of humankind is the quality that sometimes permits us to be so sure about things we don’t know – to be so utterly positive in our opinions, and yet so wrong. History has given us many examples of dogmatic declarations which succeeding generations have found to be in error. Things which only yesterday were dogmatically declared in the classroom are often replaced by other theories, which are often just as dogmatically declared – some of which will later be discarded. Constantly being challenged, discredited, and abandoned are theories and suppositions, postulates and hypotheses that heretofore have been said to be the last word on the subject. Theories are often steppingstones to truth, but must be looked upon with reservation until further light comes to credit or discredit them conclusively. Wisdom comes when we learn to know how much we don’t know, and when we learn to remember how much that was once accepted as the “last” word is today discarded, and when we realize that many present theories will also be discarded. And so, in all our searchings and soundings of the truths of life, of the world we live in, and of the universe beyond, we could save ourselves much embarrassment and many mistakes if we would remember that when two men disagree in any field of thought or learning, either one of them is wrong or both of them are wrong. And when we don’t know which, wisdom would suggest that we reserve judgment and wait for more light, for further findings. With all the endless ages there are to unfold before us, it would seem better to wait for confirmed facts rather than to seize too quickly upon fleeting fallacies.