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It’s pretty scary to stop and think about how little we can be certain of.
Death and taxes are pretty much it, and if you’re rich enough you don’t even need to worry about taxes. I mean, a few years ago, the entire internet ground to a halt because we discovered we couldn’t even be certain about the colour of a dress.
Our senses, our feelings and our biases regularly deceive us, yet most of us still like to behave as if we have important questions figured out.
Complex moral issues, globe-spanning political problems, the question of what happens after we die, some people feel so certain about these impossible questions that they’re willing to oppress, dehumanise and even kill anyone who disagrees with them, and through this is enormously problematic and may even seem counterintuitive, there are good reasons why this is the case.
The dangers of doubt.
Back when our early ancestors were roaming the Earth, being certain was a matter of life and death. Which plants were safe to eat, whether an animal or environment was dangerous, how best to store food in preparation for the winter, there was no room to be unsure about the answers to these questions. Either you were right or you were dead.
But there were other issues too, which they couldn’t be certain about: whether the…
