Certainty leaves us unwilling to change beliefs when we’re wrong

By David McElroy · May 1, 2022

I’ve probably been wrong more often than anybody I know.

I like to think that’s simply because I know my own thoughts. I know all the times when I’ve come to a firm conclusion about something — only to be forced to change what I believe as I learn more and gain more wisdom.

Maybe a lot of other people feel the same inside. Maybe they’ve seen themselves take dogmatic positions and then had to admit — at least to themselves — that they were wrong.

I fear, though, that most people believe they’ve rarely been wrong. At least about the “big things.”

I have a feeling that most people believe they were taught the truth early in life — because they happened to be born into the only group which was right — or else they broke away from whatever they were taught as children. Those in that second group seem to believe that whatever they decided to believe at that point in life is the truth.

Most people seem to believe they have life figured out. Most have little interest in understanding why other people see reality differently than they do. Even those who want to be honest and consistent in their beliefs resist change, because pride leaves us afraid to change when we discover we’ve been wrong.

I know what that feels like. That’s the way I lived for years. I was rarely wrong — in my own mind — because I rarely changed what I believed. One of the hardest things I ever learned is that growth and wisdom required me to accept that I’ve been wrong about much of what I’ve believed.

What’s more, I’m still wrong about some of the things I believe. I simply don’t know yet which of my beliefs are wrong.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to determine what’s true. I’m not suggesting there aren’t values and truths which aren’t worthy of defending. I’m not even saying there’s no such thing as objective truth.

All I’m saying is that there’s no reasonable chance that I’ve correctly discovered all objective truth. (And there’s no reasonable chance you’ve discovered truth about everything, either.) That doesn’t mean we should stop trying to determine the truth. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t push back against ideas which we believe are wrong or evil.

But it does mean we have to be honest with ourselves. It means we have to stop letting our pride get in the way when facts or reason show us we’ve been wrong. It means we have to be more committed to The Truth — whatever it is — than we are to defending whatever we’ve been taught or that we’ve decided to believe.

For me, this means that I will explain my ideas and beliefs as clearly as I can, but if someone is genuinely able to show me the errors in my thinking, I have to be grateful, not angry or in denial.

I’ve had to change my beliefs about so many things over the years. A lot of what I was taught as a child was wrong or incomplete. I’ve found myself wrong over the years about things which I never consciously decided — things I just absorbed from my culture or family. At other times, I’ve had to repeatedly modify things I’ve changed as I found new ways of seeing and interpreting my experiences.

When I was a teen-ager, I thought I had everything figured out about theology and politics and culture. I wasn’t mature enough to realize that I had simply absorbed everything I was told by my family and church and culture.

What my family believed was right. What my country practiced was moral and good. What my culture believed was best for everyone. And what my church taught was the truth about everything.

But reality is far more complicated than that. As time went on, I found errors and contradictions in things I’d been taught. I discovered factual inputs which completely changed my perspective on many things which had seemed settled and decided to me back then.

Eventually, I had to say to myself, “This is what I believe to be truth right now, but I trust God and reason and my experience to show me where I’m wrong.”

That’s not always easy. There have been times when I’ve had to reject cherished beliefs and tell people that I’ve been wrong. But the more often I practice this — and the more often I set aside my ego — the easier it is.

I still don’t like to be wrong. There are times when my ego still tries to stop me from being intellectually honest. But there’s a lot more peace about living this way, even though I know I’ll still have to face additional errors in the future. I’ve gotten to the point that I’d rather say, “I strongly believe that I’m right about this, but it’s possible I’ll turn out to be wrong.”

And that’s still not always easy.

As a Christian, I believe deeply in the concept of redemption, but I think we have looked at redemption far too narrowly. Redemption isn’t only the process of God saving a creature — in the afterlife — who he’s made and who he loves. Redemption is about that creature bringing himself into alignment with all truth.

Aligning with truth has required me to find a lot of things which I didn’t intend to find. It’s required me to change myself in all sorts of ways. It’s required me to quiet my ego and to pursue honesty and love at times when it didn’t seem convenient.

I don’t yet understand all truth. I doubt I ever will in this lifetime. But wherever I find truth — no matter what I had previously believed — that’s where I find God.

Because God is the author of all truth and all love. And bringing myself into alignment with God in all of these ways — in love and in truth — is a work of redemption which I’ll still be completing on the day that I die.

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