A Certain Post

Here is a post by Dr. Roger Olson on the topic of certainty. I found the post personally very beneficial since much of it articulated some of the problems I have run into in regards to my conversations with others.

Dr. Olson defines himself as a fallibilist, which he defines as someone who believes that all humans (other than Christ and infallibly inspired biblical authors) are fallible in their perspectives. Because I don't have a better term, I would say that I would therefore also be a fallibilist. One of my sayings is "I am always wrong about something, I just don't know what that something is."

Now, I think most people would accept the idea that everyone is fallible as an axiom, but I think very few people (or at least dramatically fewer people) would have this as their epistemology (epistemology is one's belief on how humans understand things). Practically speaking, most people are extremely confident in their beliefs, and hold them as if they are absolute facts.

I don't do that. For me, almost everything I believe is theory. There are very few things that I accept as definitely true, but a whole bunch that I treat as probably true. It is actually making decisions in light that you are possibly wrong that truly makes you a fallibilist.