Uncertainty

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
– Albert Einstein

"To trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown – the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states. First principle: any explanation is better than none… The cause-creating drive is thus conditioned and excited by the feeling of fear …"
– Friedrich Nietzsche

"Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner."
– Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat


We trust what we see, what we feel, what we touch. We have a way of believing in the permanence of it, in the reality of it, in the truth of it. Few care to embrace the uncertainty in life, or to acknowledge the limited capacity for perception and retention that we posses. Life becomes so much simpler when I can simply say "I don't know." It's the most honest thing I've ever uttered. I think our natural tendency is to follow that up with the phrase "but I will figure it out." This is the mistake, the challenge is to be at peace with uncertainty, to embrace it. The best we can do in life is "highly probable."