Convictions

It happens while talking with friends that someone might say “it is what you believe, it is not a proven fact or theory, it is a conviction/opinion...”. How valid is such a statement? Do we have a clear division of people between the ones whose thoughts and ideas are based on proven theories (normally the ones who claim they are bright, educated and open-minded), and many others who do not follow this and simply live their beliefs and convictions? Let’s bring a simple example that is easy to find in our time.

Is the Earth flat or like a ball? I have had hard talks with someone who firmly defended the idea of flat Earthers by watching YouTube videos aiming to reject earth sphericity. Of course, I clearly refused all of them due to basic flaws in supporting evidence and the logical reasoning behind the claims that made him quite angry. But what gave the discussion another pitch and made it shocking to him was the question he asked me of what I thought about earth, and I replied “I don’t know!, I have the “idea” or I “do believe” that the earth is a globe”, and he was surprised and continued “so it is not a proven thing for you?!!” and I again replied “I neither have the brain, nor the means, capacity, time, competence, etc. to develop a theory and provide from scratch enough evidence to support the idea of earth sphericity” and I explained that I simply put my believe on extremely huge scientific works, and systematic measurements made by philosophers, scientists, curious minds over centuries that makes it extremely difficult to bring convincing evidence to reject this idea. My response to his surprise was like a cold shower on him!

Basically we arrive at a notion here that there is no “proven-fact” in absolute terms as some say, but very strong theories instead. And in this example what makes the theory solid-rock is our daily experience of all technologies, devices, machines, etc. that could never function if the earth was flat; and as far as they work, the rest is not my business to worry about!

By the way does anyone know if a flat Earther has ever developed a technology like GPS, or any other machine that functions only if the Earth is flat?

Theories are supported by observation, experiments and measurements for validity. We cannot prove a theory as many mention in their discussions. There are only 2 choices after a theory is formed; you either “reject” a theory by bringing contradictory evidence, or you cannot find anything against it and you “fail to reject” the theory. As long as supporting evidence and measurements are in place the theory holds (it is what is mistaken for “proving”). Furthermore every theory is constrained to its boundaries, context, and its unique perspective. Last but not least, if verification of a theory is not possible, it is irrelevant.

Nevertheless we have deductive arguments in logical reasoning and in mathematics, where the validity of the argument is always true as long as its premises are true but as mentioned not in experimental science.?

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” (Marcus Aurelius, 120 AD).