"What most human beings really want to attain is not knowledge, but certainty. Gaining real knowledge requires taking risks and keeping the mind open—

"What most human beings really want to attain is not knowledge, but certainty. Gaining real knowledge requires taking risks and keeping the mind open—but most people prefer to be reassured rather than to learn the complex and often unsettling truth about anything."

There are many ways of looking at the issue topic at hand. There are those who believe that what human beings really seek for is certainty, not knowledge and vice versa. However, this assumes that knowledge and certainty fall into two very distinct separate realms. Overall, I tend to disagree with the absolute statement that was presented in the issue topic. However, there are some sentiments expressed in the topic that has a ring of truth to it. I shall present my views below.

There are several factors to be considered while analyzing the topic statement. Firstly, why would one assume that the quest for knowledge and the quest for certainty are two separate matters? Knowledge can provide certainty, for it provides us solid explanations of many things around us. What really drives the human quest for understanding things around them is eliminate the fear of the unknown, and therefore to provide certainty. For example we now know that natural phenomena like lightning is a buildup and discharge of energy between two positive and negative charged areas of a storm, instead of fearing it as some retribution from the gods the way our ancestors might have believed.

Also, if we say that the sole purpose of the human drive for understanding is just to seek certainty, humans would never have made the progress they have made in various scientific and academic fields. That would have meant that humans would have been complacent once they found the knowledge or certainty they have needed and never would have bothered to push beyond the boundaries of discovery. People would have still believed that the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. Of course, we know that this is not the case. We simply cannot disregard the natural human curiosity and thirst for knowledge. We are constantly testing and retesting the validities of old theories and ideas and seeking newer and deeper understanding of things around us.

There is no denying that as humans, we find solace in the certainty of things. This psychological trend have lasted from primitive times where our ancestors sought to understand natural phenomenon like lightning or rain around them. Due to their rudimentary understanding of natural science, they attributed animistic and religious qualities to explain the unknown to them. Of course, we have made vast progress since then and our methodologies of seeking explanations for things around us has become much more sophisticated. We now have the laws of physics to explain matters like gravitational pull and energy transfers, and chemistry to predict the outcome of combining two reagents and many other scientific areas to bolster our framework of understanding.

Though humans are constantly seeking newer discoveries and testing the validity of old ideas in theories of many scientific and academic fields, sometimes new truths can shock and incite fearful emotions in some people. It can be true that people would rather be reassured than to learn the complex and unsettling truth about anything. Gaining real knowledge does require taking risks and keeping an open mind. However, eventually these new knowledge gained assimilates into our library of 'known' knowledge and becomes part of our framework of understanding and certainty. For example, when Joseph Darwin introduced his theories of revolution, it shocked the world and those who believed otherwise about the origins of man. It was even called blasphemous. Today, it is used as the fundamental idea of many scientific experiments.

For all the reasons I have enumerated above, I would like to reiterate my views that knowledge and certainty does not necessarily have to be separate. Knowledge can be synonymous to certainty for it provides the framework of understanding to how we perceive our world. Though real knowledge can at times take away the reassurance of certainty away from people, real knowledge that is gained eventually becomes part of our understanding and in turn reassures people.