Doubt Leads To Questions — Questions Lead To Wisdom
To be wise has changed from being able to answer the questions to being able to question the answers. Unknown
To doubt or not to doubt; that is the question. Actually, if you don’t doubt, there is no question. The lack of questioning is not the road to wisdom. Doubt is not a four letter word, but it is not very popular. Certainty is more popular because it feels so good. Being closed-minded is clearly not being wise. Although I have written a lot about doubt, I consider this blog an urgent reminder of its importance today. Especially today.
Because doubt and wisdom are themes of this blog, this time I want to share some thoughts of others older and wiser than me.
- Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire
- Doubt is the beginning not the end of wisdom. George Ille
- The surest way to lose the truth is to pretend that you already possess it. Gordon Allport
- The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell
- A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition. Jose Bergamin
- The wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions. Claude Levi-Strauss
Today, doubt is needed more than ever. Although truth-telling can’t be required, doubt has become an essential skill. The benefit of doubt is found in its consequence: an open mind. The best way to understand the advantage of open-mindedness is to think of the disadvantage of close-mindedness: a closed mind is a dead end; it has no where to go; it eliminates change. If there is no doubt, there is only certainty.
he consequence of not doubting is that it eliminates the consequences (the benefits) of doubting. What is going on in the mind (and not going on in the mind) determines what we do. Attitudes turn into action. Beliefs become behavior. Thinking and doing are related. The ABC’s of life: Attitudes – Behavior – Consequence.
Keeping the mind open in the face of uncertainty is the single most powerful secret of unleashing your creative potential. Michael Gelb
Positive Uncertainty 
H coming home Saturday Tues breakfast should work. Come to LG. G
Gene
>
I realize in reading this blog, that it is very uncomfortable to doubt a near and dear topic. The outcome of investigating might turn up evidence I don’t want to know. For example, the last expose of Hillary’s financing the DNC and taking over control of finances of the party. I don’t want to know that Bernie could have won and that Hillary might be what Trump calls her, “Crooked Hillary”. If I doubt a friends activities, I might have to open my eyes to the fact that person is not the person I think they are. So, I guess realizing this, means I’m as bad as those Republicans who want to stick their heads in the sand and not wake up to truth. Ugh!