The Seduction of Certainty: A New Way of Looking at Faith, Knowledge, Science, Religion, Politics, and the Media

By: Mike Luoma

Narrated by: Mike Luoma

What is the Seduction of Certainty? And do we really need a new way of looking at faith, knowledge, science, religion, politics, and the media? Writer Mike Luoma believes we do, and delves into the ways we fool ourselves into believing our metaphors are truths. This book covers its subject in sharp, concise fashion, delivering numerous insights in its compact form.

There is an element of faith in any human endeavor. There has to be. Because certainty is an illusion. Whatever metaphors we use to cope with the world's basic uncertainty will be human constructs attempting to define the undefinable, the human mind attempting to encompass itself. We label things and build systems to explain the world to ourselves. We have to!

The trap is in losing oneself in the metaphor, in convincing oneself the metaphor isn't merely one way of trying to define the ineffable, but the way - losing the sense of metaphor to that sense of "truth" and certainty. It is seductive, that certainty. But that same certitude becomes destructive when and if reality begins throwing up things that challenge the faith in that certainty. At best, the certitude leads its believers to ignore and reject any evidence contrary to their belief systems. At worst, it leads to violent suppression of contrary ideas.

We need to see our metaphors - all of them - for what they are: attempts to put labels on and to describe a reality which is actually beyond our complete comprehension.

©2019 Michael Luoma (P)2019 Michael Luoma