How Do You Know What You Know?
How do you know what you know? I was challenged with this thought recently while reading a book of daily meditations — OMM365 by Jennifer Westrom. Honestly, I have never thought about how I know what I know or why I believe what I believe.
For years, beginning when I was very young, science was the bedrock of truth. After all, my dad was a science teacher, and everything he taught me was through a filter of the scientific method. But at the age of seven, I knew nothing about that. I just knew Dad had the answer to everything.
One evening, I interrupted his reading to ask what caused the wind to blow. Glancing up, he said “It’s the trees waving back and forth,” and then returned to read his book.
(Never interrupt a devoted reader!)
I don’t want to tell you how many years I played with that thought in my head. It made no logical sense, yet I learned it from a trusted authority. Even today, I catch myself feeling the wind and watching the trees. I wonder….
Empirical knowledge
As a science teacher, Dad taught me to conduct experiments to answer my endless questions.
I discovered how to grow crystals in salt water and measure the angles of their facets, and I learned to dissect a rabbit.
But a few years before re-creating the rabbit’s skeleton for a science fair project, I remember asking my father about tides coming and going at the beach.
It seemed only logical that if the tide was coming in on the Maine coast, it had to be leaving the shore of England.
We had a lakeside camp, and that same question arose when I watched waves lapping over the rocks where I stood. I could see the opposite shore across the lake and knew the water had to leave that shore if it was rolling in on my side.
That year, Dad helped me learn about wave motion with the assistance of a handheld jigsaw, a string, and a tack to nail one end of the string to the wall.
I watched in amazement. I could see with my own eyes that waves don’t go back and forth. They go up and down. The empirical truth of wave motion had usurped what I thought was my unflappable logic.
Such was my process of learning as a child. I was fortunate to have a father who taught me the scientific method and teachers who I trusted because, after all, they had been to college and knew a lot more than I did.
I never questioned whether they had challenged the ‘truths’ they taught me.
Trusted Authorities
I had expanded my library of what was ‘true’ to include my logic, trusted teachers, the empirical method of testing, and possibly genetic inheritance. However, I wasn’t aware of that possibility at the time.
Then I went to college, and everything I heard or read I put through a filter of curiosity and doubt.
I felt secure that 2+2=4, but I was never sure about the formulas of trigonometry and calculus and spent too much time arguing their validity. Needless to say, I never became a mathematician.
With the audacity of adolescence, I put more weight on my intuition. Did you ever take a multiple-choice exam by intuition?
When I got the correct answer, it was usually coincidence…another source of truth I have come to respect over the years.
I went through a season of calling things that happened to turn out right (like the correct answer on a multiple choice test) for no good reason ‘God-incidences.’
Perhaps there is truth in that, but God doesn’t stand up to the scientific method—especially the ‘repeatable’ part.
Body Knowledge
I also discovered ‘body’ knowledge. When I can feel (i.e., know) changes in air pressure or temperature, I can choose what to wear or where and when to go for a walk.
My body faithfully teaches me my limits (like not flying) and my possibilities (like dancing).
One thing I appreciate about listening to my body is that this knowledge gives me a fighting chance to stay healthy.
Spiritual Truths
In my later years, I have come to respect spiritual truths as valid ways of knowing. I know I am loved. I know beauty. I know forgiveness. I know mercy.
I don’t need to prove these truths.
They are experiential.
And they are individual.
Once I learned about spiritual ‘truths,’ I realized they may or may not be universally experienced. (Although I believe they are universally available). What is true for me in a spiritual realm is not necessarily true for you.
Spiritual knowledge arises from the Unknown. People have tried unsuccessfully to use the scientific method to prove the existence of the unknowable.
Wars have been fought over disparity of beliefs, from abortion to civil rights to forms of governance—each side believing firmly in their ’truth.’
As we move from the standard agreement that 2+2=4 to the existence of a power outside of ourselves that is eminently unknowable but interpreted differently by everyone, I am left with the question, “How do I KNOW? I mean, really KNOW?!
How do you know what you believe?
A Summary of How We Know What We Know
To summarize some of my ways of knowing
- Empirical truth
- Research & Libraries, i.e. trusted authorities
- Body Knowledge
- Inherited or genetic knowledge
- Intuition
- Coincidence
- Experience
- Logical understanding
- Spiritual Truths and
- Divine Revelation
Is it any wonder life still has so many questions? What is your ‘go-to’ when you want to know something?
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