A few years ago I read the autobiography of David Jenkins, former Bishop of Durham. In it he speaks out against 'certainty-mongers': those who are so fixed in their beliefs that they will brook no challenge or dissent.
We see a lot of this in public life and in the media. At one extreme there is the vicious bile spouted by "Islamic" terrorist leaders who preach death to all but those who hold their point of view. At the other extreme we see "respectable" politicians such as Rumsfeld who are so convinced of the rightness of their cause that they are prepared to go to almost any lengths - even rendition and torture - to achieve their ends.
This is a serious problem. Extreme ideas put simplistically are deceptive and seductive. George W Bush justified his invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam was "a bad man" (his very words, I promise). But that's true of any number of leaders, past and present, including our old WW2 ally, Uncle Joe Stalin.
I don't actually know whether the invasion of Iraq was on balance a good thing or a bad thing. But there are better ways to justify it than the removal of a bad man. When arguments are simplistic we lose all thoughtfulness. We are encouraged to take polar positions on any number of issues and when this happens we stop thinking for ourselves.
But ranting about Iraq isn't my purpose here. Certainty-mongering doesn't just happen on the world stage. It happens in our press, on our social networking sites and in our day-to-day conversations. I get frustrated by the number of simplistic Facebook posts I'm asked to copy and repost to my status. The underlying assumption often seems to be that if you're a good person you'll do it and if you disagree (i.e. think for yourself and come to a different point of view) you're obviously stupid. I shiver any time someone begins a sentence with "everyone knows that..." or "it's obvious that..." because it frequently means I'm about to hear a half-baked opinion or panacea to the world's problems, with which I may well disagree. To my shame I generally just smile and nod because I don't want to cause offence or an argument. Unless it matters to me profoundly and I'm sure of my arguments, I don't usually have the courage to stick my head over the parapet.
Politicians (right and left) ought to know better. Many of them do think carefully and agonize over their views. You can see this if you tune into BBC Parliament for a real debate (i.e. not just PMQs). But when they pop up on the telly the soundbite rules and reasoned argument goes out of the window. What a pity. I long to hear a politician say "I'm not sure yet" or see a tabloid newspaper say "on the one hand...". But that doesn't win elections or sell newspapers.
Our free media often vilify anyone who takes a nuanced point of view on anything. Hence, the Church of England and Rowan Williams in particular are often caricatured as ditherers and mugwumps when in fact their conclusions are often the result of far more robust consideration than those of the headline writers. The CofE is far from perfect, but its thinking is often much less woolly that that of its detractors.
The older I get (and I'm still quite young) the less certain I am becoming about a host of issues. Things that were axiomatic to me twenty, ten, even two years ago have gradually become harder to call. Perhaps this is a sign that I lack moral courage, but I hope it means I'm becoming more open-minded.
There are times when you have to come off the fence and take a position on this issue or that. I have no problem with people who think independently and come to a firm point of view, even when I disagree with it. Independent thinkers will accept challenge and argument even on their most dearly-held beliefs, because they know they can take it and they are willing to accept the possibility that they may be wrong. Adopting a position on politics, morality, faith or anything else isn't worth much unless its arrived at honestly and conscientiously.
And if you disagree with anything I've written above, then obviously, you're wrong...
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