We need to know things. That seems like an obvious statement or like something stupid to say, depending on what your understanding of "knowing" is. But it's true: we need to know things or else we simply seize to function, as individuals and as societies. What follows is just a stream of thoughts, not researched at all, so pardon my rambling of for a bit...
Image by johnhain - source: pixabay
Here's the obvious reason why the introduction to this post is stupid; we don't know things. Not really. For example, I can say that I know that the Earth revolves around the Sun. We all know that, don't we? In reality though, this knowledge is only a strong belief. A very strong belief, bordering on certainty. All the evidence we've collectively managed to gather around the assumption that the Earth indeed revolves around the Sun points to the truth of that assumption. But it's still, in a very minimal way, an assumption, a very, very, very strong belief. We could even go one step further and say that we don't see the world in its "true" form; we only see a model, a representation of the world that's conducive to our survival. We may never be able to understand the true nature of reality...
When we follow this train of thought to its conclusion, the only things we truly know are our personal experiences. When I accidentally cut my finger while peeling potatoes, I know it hurts. That's not an assumption or a strong belief; I know it's truth by the sensation of pain and the visceral reaction of my body and soul, shouting and cursing my own clumsiness as well as the blood stain on the freshly peeled potato. When I'm sad, I know I'm sad. When I'm in love, I know I'm in love and nobody can hope to convince me otherwise, not even the object of my passionate affection. The only things we can truly know, are within us and come from within us. All the rest are assumptions and beliefs, some stronger than others.
So where does that leave us? Do we now arrive in the sphere of nihilism where there's no truth to be found except our own personal truths? Can we now hold on to our own "alternative facts"? Of course not. Like I said in the introduction; we need to know things, and not just that cutting a finger produces blood, stains and pain. We need to know that the Earth takes one year to revolve around the Sun, and 24 hours to revolve around its own axis. You see, all of the above is true only when we use one particular definition of knowledge. There's a better, less limiting and less confusing way to define knowledge, and science can help us with that. Although the word "science" is derived from the Latin verb for "know," "scire," or actually its conjugation "scio" which means "I know", it actually doesn't deal with absolute knowledge or absolute truths. Science only deals with approximation of truth, and it's the best method we have to come as close to truth as is humanly possible. This is why the strongest and most widely accepted scientific "truths" are only theories, like the theory of evolution and Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity; they'll forever remain theories because new evidence may pop up that forces us to change them or abandon them completely.
We need to know things, and what we call "knowledge" are our strongest and most widely accepted and shared beliefs. Even if we're just brains connected to a giant virtual reality machine, we need to know that things react in predictable ways to the forces we enact upon them. We'd never been able to survive otherwise. And in society we need to know that we react in predictable ways, more or less, to the forces we enact upon each other. We survive only because of the universal truths, not because of our personal truths. And since we've established that all these truths, universal and personal, are nothing but strong believes, all that's left to us is the distinction between rational beliefs and irrational beliefs. Since we're only human, all of us can, and probably will hold both of them, and it's deceivingly easy to fall victim to irrational beliefs, beliefs for which there's no evidence at all. How easy? Just watch the below linked video by psychotherapist Mark Tyrrell; it's good to occasionally be reminded of how we can't help ourselves to seek meaning behind every occurrence in life, and how quickly we sometimes draw conclusions without any evidence to back them up...
How to Dispute Irrational Beliefs (Without Arguing)
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