“If you’re afraid or unwilling to question your own assumptions and worldview, maybe you’ve been floating on the bubble of belief rather than grounding on the foundation of fact.”
The degree of certainty you have about an idea is directly linked to the degree of serenity you experience when asserting that idea.
If it’s raining outside, and you say to your friend, “it’s raining outside,” you won’t feel worried about the factualness of your statement. If your friend starts questioning you, you won’t be concerned that you’ve made an error in analysis. No part of you will linger in fear, no voice in you will rattle with unsettlement. Because you are certain, you’ll stay calm, or laugh, and you’ll be totally unphased with any doubt you receive.
Then the next day it is sunny outside, and you say to your friend, “sunscreen causes cancer.”
Now, if you have grounded yourself on the foundation of fact, done your research, and examined this statement thoroughly (defined each word in said statement, cross-examined opposing data, etc) and come to this conclusion, you will retain those calm feelings, even if your friend questions you. If you are at all uncertain though, you’ll have parts of you feeling vulnerable, insecure, and guarded.
If you notice these undesirable feelings, you have a choice. You can become defensive, and stubbornly protect your statement, perhaps using manipulation or ad hominem attacks to hold onto your belief.
Or, you can say, “I could be wrong.”
“Feelings are very great indicators of the thinking we have done, and the thinking we have failed to do.”
It doesn’t mean you are wrong. But it means you have further analysis to pursue.
The scientific method is designed to question. To throw punches of doubt is the process of inquiry and truth acquisition. The most confident intellectuals don’t push away doubters. They welcome them. Successfully refuting contrary ideas with reason and logic only adds sturdiness to their assertions.
Those who do push away such questioning are only doing it out of insecurity.
Even if you’re not confident about your assertions though, you can choose to welcome skepticism. Embracing that conflict will only leverage your growth, solidifying correct ideas while dismissing falsified ones. It’s just like building any other skill.
Next time you are in a debate/discussion, inventory your feelings.
Utilize your emotional intelligence, and employ your mental intelligence.
JB
(For the record, I myself have only partially investigated the sunscreen statement, so I’m not actually making that statement, just using its complexity for the purposes of the article).
