Some of us are seekers. Our passion, our hunger for truth, is intense. But, we must be careful or we will create an intellectual trap we cannot escape. One of our problems is oversimplifying the process. We think it involves a dyad of elements: questions and answers. In reality, it involves a triad of elements: questions, possibilities, and decisions.
We cannot wait for certainty. As Hume has demonstrated and Kant has clarified, there are some answers that lie beyond our reach. But still, we must live, we must survive without an absolute knowing (we are incipient – limited beings with limited knowing). This calls for a nuanced understanding. We need to understand the difference between an answer and a decision.
Reason asks an ultimate question. Faith weighs a possibility and chooses; it reflects a decision in the absence of a certain answer. We cannot be certain because we are limited beings. We cannot be certain, but we can choose. Dogmatism stems from confusing a vital decision with an absolute answer.
