"the main thing you need to learn is doubt. Don't believe anything you're told without good reason and argument. Doubt underpins science." Sir Harold W. Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996
he was speaking in scientific terms, but i think it is a good principle in general. any thoughts?
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8 comments:
i think that is a great statement, but it can be taken to far. we can't know everything for certain, and so to doubt always without a little faith in the unseen or unknown will give us a miserable life.
should you doubt that your wife/husband is faithful to you? sometimes there is good reason to doubt, as lives are shattered every day in this way. but more often than not, unhealthy doubt of individuals in our lives will lead us down rabbit trails that lead to nowhere, destroying relationships and portions of our lives in the process.
so i think doubt is valuable. but not always necessary. one place i think there needs to be more doubt, or at the very least more honesty about our doubts, is within the church. too often we are content with the picture perfect version of our lives and our faith. but the reality is so many doubt and don't let on. or they just don't doubt, which feels naive and as if you are missing an important piece to your faith.
not sure if that makes sense.
but re-reading it, i guess he states to doubt unless there is good reason and argument behind it, so maybe in that case, doubt is a good tool. but i would still say there are things we just won't know, and it could hurt us to live life constantly in doubt.
yeah i think youre right. there are some things we will never know. the part i liked was "dont believe anything youre told without good reason and argument". we sort of grow up learning that doubt is almost even a little bit wrong. to me, if you want to have a chance at learning anything you have to doubt/question.
worth talking about. In the last few years i have heard dozens of people get on their soap box to talk about the environment and how to save the world. Most of these people got their environmental education from what they heard on a tv commercial about a hybrid car. Just as many times i have been ticked off by how we as people (myself included) mindlessly follow things that we hear or see with out digging up the facts. Now I use the evironmental thing only as an example, i just as often get ticked off when people who have never shot a gun talk about gun control, or those who have never lost someone close to them tell you that the pain will go away. i am not saying that i know everything about everything... i am saying doubt is important, asking questions is the only way to learn.
If someone tells you Jeremy is the best bass player to walk the earth don't take them at their word, go watch jeremy play and decide for yourself.
If someone tells you nuclear energy is bad, ask why. I try to do these things. i don't always suceed but i am always excited when i learn new things. So I guess what i am saying is that doubt is a valuble tool in our human quest to understanding.
Am I missing the mark?
Colby
I agree colb. Well said. A lot of those points are good. Especially the nuclear energy these days in SK. And even "global warming" there are still a large number of scientists who don't think the case should be closed on all of that. I wasn't aware of that till recently. Seems like the media had me fooled a bit there too. It's not as cut and dry as al gore might have us believe.
al gore is my hero. global warming is proven, to the max. i saw it on a cereal box. nuclear energy will make all our extremities fall off. and jeremy is clearly second best at bass playing next to me. i could really slap da' bass. much love friends.
one reason why you should come back to winnipeg:
http://www.amindhillon.com./
I told you!
Hey Jeremy,
I think following something blindly, without doubt or question, can be dangerous. Especially when it comes to the "unseen," like spirituality and religion. I think if we were always told to question things to seek the ultimate truth, we would all be in a much different space.
In terms of science, the scientific method is based on not what you prove is right, but what can be disproved. This leaves room for uncertainty and error. And can take a long time to disprove enough observations to credit something as a theory or a law. However it seems like, for example, politicians can take this uncertainty and say, Well they can only prove with 95% certainty that anthropogenic climate change is happening! There's still that window of uncertainty there! - And then they've found a loophole out of needing to make social, political or educated change on the issue.
So in this case, although I think doubt is necessary in the gaining of knowledge, it can be used as a tool to hinder growth and change in life as well.
I guess there must be a balance somewhere.
Thanks for the quote - it was thought-provoking. I'm glad I stumbled upon your blog.
- Sherri
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