Certain?

[paulespino]

In the other post Matt and Brody used the word Certain. I Google it and now I'm more confused of it's meaning.

What is One simple word for Certain?

[jriccitelli]

Well according to some, we just can't be certain of certain

[mattrose]

I'm quite curious what other people mean by it too.

I think we are called to live as if certain things are certain... but that is different from actually being certain. That's why it is called faith.

[paulespino]

Thanks guys for the replies.

Here is a link that describes Certainty According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy :

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/certainty/

[mattrose]

Thanks for the link, I tend to just use dictionary.com when I want to look up a word. It gave these 5 results for 'certain':

1.free from doubt or reservation; confident; sure: I am certain he will come.

Applied to my Christianity, this is an interesting definition. I am not free from doubts. I have doubts pop into my head all the time. I try to be free from reservations about God, but I'm sure I sometimes hold some things back. I am very confident that Christianity is true. But I wouldn't consider myself sure in any absolute sense.

2.destined; sure to happen (usually followed by an infinitive): He is certain to be there.

Christianity is either objectively true or not. If it is true, the future anticipated by Christianity is sure to happen. My rejection of certainty has nothing to do with actual relativism. I believe things are either certainly true or not. My point is that I can't know with certainty in this world. Can I be absolutely sure that Jesus is going to come back? I don't think so. I just believe it based on solid evidence. I try to live as if it is certain despite the uncertainty of it from my perspective. That is what faith is.

3.inevitable; bound to come: They realized then that war was certain.

Seems the same as 2 to me

4.established as true or sure; unquestionable; indisputable: It is certain that he tried.

Still applying this to Christianity... I could go either way with the idea that it is 'established as true.' I suppose it depends on the meaning of established and the meaning of true. I certainly believe it is true. I try to live like it is true. But is it established beyond the possibility of doubt? No. Is it unquestionably true? No. I have questions about it all the time. Is it indisputably true? Of course not. People dispute it all the time. All that being said, I do believe that Christianity is true and that it has the best evidence on its side. I think it is quite reasonable to commit to Christ.

5.fixed; agreed upon; settled: on a certain day; for a certain amount.

Is my faith fixed? Completely worked out? Settled? I don't think so. I continue to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I pursue truth. I think in doing so I'm actually pursuing Truth (capital T). But my goal is not to get to a point where I feel certain that I have truth. My goal is to actually have truth. If I make my goal a feeling of certainty, I am quite likely to conjure up certainty short of actually finding truth.

I believe that too many people in our culture are actually seeking certainty when they should be seeking truth. But certainty is a myth. Short of finding it, people either create it out of nothing or give up completely. Those who create it out of nothing are usually overly dogmatic, annoyingly opinionated, and tend to paint people with other views as utterly stupid. Those who just give up stop asking life's big questions b/c without certainty they feel none of the potential answers are worth risking commitment for.

I think faith assumes doubt and uncertainty. Faith is risky. Faith is trust. Faith is relationship. Faith is about living AS IF something is certain b/c you believe that it is objectively true even though you can't absolutely prove it. Faith expects to be vindicated someday. Faith recognizes the uncertainty of the present age while it works toward the certainty of the age to come.