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In defence of doubt

Columnist Marc Legare writes about skepticism
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A Distant View

Marc Legare is a philosopher and motorcycle adventurist.

He has travelled extensively, worked and lived in Australia, US, and across Canada.

He has a varied working career including: Firefighter, Lawyer, Navy, Motorcycle Importer, plus others.

He chose to return to southern Saskatchewan because of his family's deep roots here.

Modern ideology tells us that doubt and scepticism are terrible things. They are anything but. Doubt is engrossing, stimulates imagination, and makes life more interesting. Skepticism makes your world bigger. Certainty, on the other hand, is limiting, destroys imagination, and is boring. Certainty is small. 

Observing the world and yourself from a reflective, honest, and sceptical viewpoint is of untold benefit; not to be confused with excessive, never-ending naysaying which is a different animal altogether. Knowing the difference and practicing the former is emancipating. It allows us to live productively and honorably while maintaining a healthy, questioning mindset. 

When was the last time you were questioning something and had a conversation with someone who was also in doubt about the issue?  Isn't having such a conversation under that scenario a joy? The dialogue is not only educational, but uplifting. Those conversations almost always lead to engrossing questions and thought provoking twists and turns.

Another positive factor when two doubters are joined in dialogue is that the conversation seldom becomes heated. After all, when you are not sure about something, how strong do you argue about it? Is it not the case that those who are absolutely certain are the ones who have a tendency to become hostile when challenged? 

Doesn't it seem that more and more of us are rigid and unyielding in our positions? Strange when you think about it. With the amount of new information swirling around along with a vast ocean of conflicting data and studies, you would think absolutism would be waning not waxing. 

Much glory is given to highly successful people who achieve success due to blind self-assuredness. Modern materialists revere such people and use them as poster children for their immutable belief that one-mindedness is a key to winning. Indeed, an absolute certainty-holding mindset often does create worldly success. However, it also creates fanatics, tyrants, war mongers, and psychopaths. We all have encountered a fanatic at some point and experienced how unreasonable and narrow they are. One universal hallmark of tyrants of all stripes is they completely lack doubt in their beliefs.

Interestingly, we only admire the success stories of single-minded persons. We ignore the millions of other absolutist people who stick rigidly to beliefs that are damaging to themselves and others. As a result, they often cause harm to others or self-destruct with alcoholism, drug use, or worse when their non-malleable beliefs collide with real world realities.

Healthy doubt and scepticism is far and away better than blind, non-disputable, absolutist thinking. Not only for the individual, but for us collectively. Being slow to accept the "new and improved" truth du jour is seldom a negative and often leads to avoiding both minor and major blunders. 

For those who get tired from the often isolating and difficult work of doubting so much about so much, give yourself a break. Keep in mind, questioning is the only way to become a more enlightened person. Adjusting your paradigms and ideologies when new information is evident is only possible by doubting your currently held beliefs in the first place. 

It may also help to remember some wise words spoken by Bertrand Russell; "The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.  

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