A great piece on why it is so difficult to convince people
by using reason and evidence has just appeared in Atlantic Magazine ‘s online
site.  Lane Wallace’s The Uncommon
Navigator 
is well worth reading by all Pagans – and by everybody else.

I  have often thought my personal encounter with the Goddess,
and with various so-called paranormal phenomena has made me a better social
scientist.  The reason is that I
have been convinced by those encounters that I will never figure the world out.  So any theory, and explanation I come
up with, is at best a decent approximation until we know more.  In other words, compared to what we
will know later – or even what other people may know – it is WRONG, or missing
key elements others might grasp.

Many people will grant this intellectually, but the
important point is to feel its truth in your gut. Once I did I felt a lot less
tense encountering what might turn out to be disconfirming evidence and
arguments.  Rather than threats to
my reality, they helped me understand that reality better.

This insight made it easier for me to apply the real
contribution science has made to understanding – a contribution many people seem
not yet to understand.  Science grew
because it provided a way for people to eliminate error, not to find Truth.  We see patterns everywhere – but only some are meaningful.

A experiment gives an explanation a chance to
fail.  So does a measurement or
a prediction.  It is still our
responsibility to admit to the error, and that is hard.  But at least science is built on
propositions that can be tested, and might fail.  And if it fails, there is another explanation out there to be discovered that will do a better job.

To those who devote their lives to seeking truth this might
sound like “then why try.”  I don’t
think so, and I continue trying. 
There are degrees of wrongness, and some of what we now know to have
been wrong were enormous steps forwards in their time.  We know Isaac Newton was wrong
regarding the nature of space and time – but even now his work can still get us
to the moon.  Newton’s is only the
most impressive example.  So it’s
definitely worth our while trying to figure things out, but it’s stupid to ever
think you or anyone else has.

I am reminded of what a retired physicist said when
asked  if knowledge were a monopoly
board, and we were on a square, where did he think we were.

Just past “Go” was his answer.

Happily, some of the same experiences that demonstrated my
complete inability to ever really comprehend how things work also demonstrated
to me the fullness and power of love. 
So the best take I have is that while we will never figure the world
out, we can figure out how to live I it I 
a good way, by applying love, compassion, and generosity in our own
lives, and in our dealings with others human and nonhuman.