Certainty. A False Goal.

“Certainty is, I think, a false goal. We’re achieving functional certainties in science and just… in our day to day lives. I mean, it’s a functional certainty that I’m sitting here talking to you, though it’s possible I could be dreaming or, you know, deceived by an evil demon.

Those kind of philosophical, epistemological worries don’t really relate too much to the ordinary practice of science, the very useful practice of science and our ordinary task of just negotiating our lives and finding happiness in this world.

We recognize there is a range, there’s a continuum of, you know, “I’m not sure,” “You know, it’s a coin toss, 50/50”, understanding of our circumstances, to be functionally certain about what is so.

And many people are pretending to be functionally certain or believe themselves to be functionally certain about things like “Jesus is going to come back and judge the world in their lifetime,” and 20% of the American population claims to be functionally certain that, that is going to come to pass and 78% think that Jesus is going to come back sometime, not necessarily in their lifetime.

And these certainties do real work for us. The person who is certain that the soul enters the zygote at the moment of conception, is the person who wants to veto stem cell research despite the fact that tens of millions of people are suffering conditions for which stem cell research is the best line of research to generate therapies.

So, these are ideas that are not just of academic interest or personal, private, spiritual relevance, I mean, these are shaping policies, they’re shaping the national conversation. And when you look at the Muslim world they are causing people to blow themselves up on street corners.” —Sam Harris

Watch video here: Is there certainty in science? (Hint: Choose the video titled, "Is there certainty in science?")

The Big Think website does not give the date this video was recorded. However, it's most likely after 2006, not sure.