uncertainty

110:3.5Con­fu­sion, be­ing puz­zled, even some­times dis­cour­aged and dis­tracted, does not nec­es­sar­ily sig­nify re­sis­tance to the lead­ings of the in­dwelling Ad­juster. Such at­ti­tudes may some­times con­note lack of ac­tive co-op­er­a­tion with the di­vine Mon­i­tor and may, there­fore, some­what de­lay spir­i­tual prog­ress, but such in­tel­lec­tual emo­tional dif­fi­cul­ties do not in the least in­ter­fere with the cer­tain sur­vival of the God-know­ing soul. Ig­no­rance alone can never pre­vent sur­vival; nei­ther can con­fu­sional doubts nor fear­ful un­cer­tainty. Only con­scious re­sis­tance to the Ad­juster’s lead­ing can pre­vent the sur­vival of the evolv­ing im­mor­tal soul.

86:1.4Early man lived in un­cer­tainty and in con­stant fear of chance—bad luck. Life was an ex­cit­ing game of chance; ex­is­tence was a gam­ble. It is no won­der that par­tially civ­i­lized peo­ple still be­lieve in chance and evince lin­ger­ing pre­dis­po­si­tions to gam­bling. Prim­i­tive man al­ter­nated be­tween two po­tent in­ter­ests: the pas­sion of get­ting some­thing for noth­ing and the fear of get­ting noth­ing for some­thing. And this gam­ble of ex­is­tence was the main in­ter­est and the su­preme fas­ci­na­tion of the early sav­age mind.

48:6.35From them you will learn to let pres­sure de­velop sta­bil­ity and cer­tainty; to be faith­ful and earnest and, withal, cheer­ful; to ac­cept chal­lenges with­out com­plaint and to face dif­fi­cul­ties and un­cer­tain­ties with­out fear. They will ask: If you fail, will you rise in­domitably to try anew? If you suc­ceed, will you main­tain a well-bal­anced poise—a sta­bi­lized and spir­i­tu­al­ized at­ti­tude—through­out ev­ery ef­fort in the long strug­gle to break the fet­ters of ma­te­rial in­er­tia, to at­tain the free­dom of spirit ex­is­tence?

26:5.3That, then, is the pri­mary or el­e­men­tary course which con­fronts the faith-tested and much-trav­eled pil­grims of space. But long be­fore reach­ing Ha­vona, these as­cen­dant chil­dren of time have learned to feast upon un­cer­tainty, to fat­ten upon dis­ap­point­ment, to en­thuse over ap­par­ent de­feat, to in­vig­o­rate in the pres­ence of dif­fi­cul­ties, to ex­hibit in­domitable cour­age in the face of im­men­sity, and to ex­er­cise un­con­quer­able faith when con­fronted with the chal­lenge of the in­ex­pli­ca­ble. Long since, the bat­tle cry of these pil­grims be­came: “In li­ai­son with God, noth­ing—ab­so­lutely noth­ing—is im­pos­si­ble.”

• Absolutes cause unpredictability

4:1.8I am en­tirely com­pe­tent to trace out and to an­a­lyze the work­ing of all phe­nom­ena di­rectly re­sult­ing from the func­tion­ing of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther, the Eter­nal Son, the In­fi­nite Spirit, and, to a large ex­tent, the Isle of Par­a­dise. My per­plex­ity is oc­ca­sioned by en­coun­ter­ing what ap­pears to be the per­for­mance of their mys­te­ri­ous co-or­di­nates, the three Ab­so­lutes of po­ten­tial­ity. These Ab­so­lutes seem to su­per­sede mat­ter, to tran­scend mind, and to super­vene spirit. I am con­stantly con­fused and of­ten per­plexed by my in­abil­ity to com­pre­hend these com­plex trans­ac­tions which I at­trib­ute to the pres­ences and per­for­mances of the Un­qual­i­fied Ab­so­lute, the De­ity Ab­so­lute, and the Uni­ver­sal Ab­so­lute.

4:1.9These Ab­so­lutes must be the not-fully-re­vealed pres­ences abroad in the uni­verse which, in the phe­nom­ena of space po­tency and in the func­tion of other super­ul­ti­mates, ren­der it im­pos­si­ble for physi­cists, philoso­phers, or even re­li­gion­ists to pre­dict with cer­tainty as to just how the pri­mor­dials of force, con­cept, or spirit will re­spond to de­mands made in a com­plex re­al­ity sit­u­a­tion in­volv­ing su­preme ad­just­ments and ul­ti­mate val­ues.

• Absolutes cause unpredictability

7:1.9But along­side this very de­pend­able and pre­dictable func­tion of the spir­i­tual pres­ence of the Eter­nal Son, there are en­coun­tered phe­nom­ena which are not so pre­dictable in their re­ac­tions. Such phe­nom­ena prob­a­bly in­di­cate the co-or­di­nate ac­tion of the De­ity Ab­so­lute in the realms of emerg­ing spir­i­tual po­ten­tials. We know that the spirit pres­ence of the Eter­nal Son is the in­flu­ence of a ma­jes­tic and in­fi­nite per­son­al­ity, but we hardly re­gard the re­ac­tions as­so­ci­ated with the con­jec­tured per­for­mances of the De­ity Ab­so­lute as per­sonal.

• Absolutes cause unpredictability

9:6.8The mind-grav­ity cir­cuit is de­pend­able; it em­anates from the Third Per­son of De­ity on Par­a­dise, but not all the ob­serv­able func­tion of mind is pre­dictable. Through­out all known cre­ation there par­al­lels this cir­cuit of mind some lit­tle-un­der­stood pres­ence whose func­tion is not pre­dictable. We be­lieve that this un­pre­dictabil­ity is partly at­tributable to the func­tion of the Uni­ver­sal Ab­so­lute. What this func­tion is, we do not know; what ac­tu­ates it, we can only con­jec­ture; con­cern­ing its re­la­tion to crea­tures, we can only spec­u­late.

• due to incompleteness of Supreme Being

9:6.9Cer­tain phases of the un­pre­dictabil­ity of fi­nite mind may be due to the in­com­plete­ness of the Su­preme Be­ing, and there is a vast zone of ac­tiv­i­ties wherein the Con­joint Ac­tor and the Uni­ver­sal Ab­so­lute may pos­si­bly be tan­gent. There is much about mind that is un­known, but of this we are sure: The In­fi­nite Spirit is the per­fect ex­pres­sion of the mind of the Cre­ator to all crea­tures; the Su­preme Be­ing is the evolv­ing ex­pres­sion of the minds of all crea­tures to their Cre­ator.

• due to incompleteness of Supreme Being

10:7.4We do not find the over­con­trol of Su­prem­acy to be wholly pre­dictable. Fur­ther­more, this un­pre­dictabil­ity ap­pears to be char­ac­ter­ized by a cer­tain de­vel­op­men­tal in­com­plete­ness, un­doubt­edly an ear­mark of the in­com­plete­ness of the Su­preme and of the in­com­plete­ness of fi­nite re­ac­tion to the Par­a­dise Trin­ity.

• Absolutes cause unpredictability
• personality gives rise to unpredictability

12:6.4In all your con­tem­pla­tion of uni­ver­sal phe­nom­ena, make cer­tain that you take into con­sid­er­a­tion the in­ter­re­la­tion of phys­i­cal, in­tel­lec­tual, and spir­i­tual en­er­gies, and that due al­lowance is made for the un­ex­pected phe­nom­ena at­ten­dant upon their uni­fi­ca­tion by per­son­al­ity and for the un­pre­dictable phe­nom­ena re­sult­ing from the ac­tions and re­ac­tions of ex­pe­ri­en­tial De­ity and the Ab­so­lutes.

• higher mind meanings and spirit values not highly predictable

12:6.5The uni­verse is highly pre­dictable only in the quan­ti­ta­tive or grav­ity-mea­sure­ment sense; even the pri­mal phys­i­cal forces are not re­spon­sive to lin­ear grav­ity, nor are the higher mind mean­ings and true spirit val­ues of ul­ti­mate uni­verse re­al­i­ties. Qual­i­ta­tively, the uni­verse is not highly pre­dictable as re­gards new as­so­ci­a­tions of forces, ei­ther phys­i­cal, mindal, or spir­i­tual, al­though many such com­bi­na­tions of en­er­gies or forces be­come par­tially pre­dictable when sub­jected to crit­i­cal ob­ser­va­tion. When mat­ter, mind, and spirit are uni­fied by crea­ture per­son­al­ity, we are un­able fully to pre­dict the de­ci­sions of such a free­will be­ing.

12:6.6All phases of pri­mor­dial force, nas­cent spirit, and other non­per­sonal ul­ti­mates ap­pear to re­act in ac­cor­dance with cer­tain rel­a­tively sta­ble but un­known laws and are char­ac­ter­ized by a lat­i­tude of per­for­mance and an elas­tic­ity of re­sponse which are of­ten dis­con­cert­ing when en­coun­tered in the phe­nom­ena of a cir­cum­scribed and iso­lated sit­u­a­tion. What is the ex­pla­na­tion of this un­pre­dictable free­dom of re­ac­tion dis­closed by these emerg­ing uni­verse ac­tu­al­i­ties? These un­known, un­fath­omable un­pre­dicta­bles—whether per­tain­ing to the be­hav­ior of a pri­mor­dial unit of force, the re­ac­tion of an uniden­ti­fied level of mind, or the phe­nom­e­non of a vast pre­uni­verse in the mak­ing in the do­mains of outer space—prob­a­bly dis­close the ac­tiv­i­ties of the Ul­ti­mate and the pres­ence-per­for­mances of the Ab­so­lutes, which an­te­date the func­tion of all uni­verse Cre­ators.

12:6.7We do not re­ally know, but we sur­mise that such amaz­ing ver­sa­til­ity and such pro­found co-or­di­na­tion sig­nify the pres­ence and per­for­mance of the Ab­so­lutes, and that such di­ver­sity of re­sponse in the face of ap­par­ently uni­form cau­sa­tion dis­closes the re­ac­tion of the Ab­so­lutes, not only to the im­me­di­ate and sit­u­a­tional cau­sa­tion, but also to all other re­lated cau­sa­tions through­out the en­tire mas­ter uni­verse.

• statisticians may announce laws governing groups but not for an individual

42:7.10The first twenty-seven atoms, those con­tain­ing from one to twenty-seven or­bital elec­trons, are more easy of com­pre­hen­sion than the rest. From twenty-eight up­ward we en­counter more and more of the un­pre­dictabil­ity of the sup­posed pres­ence of the Un­qual­i­fied Ab­so­lute. But some of this elec­tronic un­pre­dictabil­ity is due to dif­fer­en­tial ul­ti­ma­tonic ax­ial rev­o­lu­tion­ary ve­loc­i­ties and to the un­ex­plained “hud­dling” pro­cliv­ity of ul­ti­ma­tons. Other in­flu­ences—phys­i­cal, elec­tri­cal, mag­netic, and grav­i­ta­tional—also op­er­ate to pro­duce vari­able elec­tronic be­hav­ior. Atoms there­fore are sim­i­lar to per­sons as to pre­dictabil­ity. Statis­ti­cians may an­nounce laws gov­ern­ing a large num­ber of ei­ther atoms or per­sons but not for a sin­gle in­di­vid­ual atom or per­son.

• u. inherent in simultaneous measurements

65:6.1It is im­pos­si­ble ac­cu­rately to de­ter­mine, si­mul­ta­ne­ously, the ex­act lo­ca­tion and the ve­loc­ity of a mov­ing ob­ject; any at­tempt at mea­sure­ment of ei­ther in­evitably in­volves change in the other. The same sort of a para­dox con­fronts mor­tal man when he un­der­takes the chem­i­cal anal­y­sis of pro­to­plasm. The chemist can elu­ci­date the chem­istry of dead pro­to­plasm, but he can­not dis­cern ei­ther the phys­i­cal or­ga­ni­za­tion or the dy­namic per­for­mance of liv­ing pro­to­plasm. Ever will the sci­en­tist come nearer and nearer the se­crets of life, but never will he find them and for no other rea­son than that he must kill pro­to­plasm in or­der to an­a­lyze it. Dead pro­to­plasm weighs the same as liv­ing pro­to­plasm, but it is not the same.

• no absolute certainty in knowledge, only increasing probability of approximation

102:2.4Time is an in­vari­able el­e­ment in the at­tain­ment of knowl­edge; re­li­gion makes its en­dow­ments im­me­di­ately avail­able, al­beit there is the im­por­tant fac­tor of growth in grace, def­i­nite ad­vance­ment in all phases of re­li­gious ex­pe­ri­ence. Knowl­edge is an eter­nal quest; al­ways are you learn­ing, but never are you able to ar­rive at the full knowl­edge of ab­so­lute truth. In knowl­edge alone there can never be ab­so­lute cer­tainty, only in­creas­ing prob­a­bil­ity of ap­prox­i­ma­tion; but the re­li­gious soul of spir­i­tual il­lu­mi­na­tion knows, and knows now. And yet this pro­found and pos­i­tive cer­ti­tude does not lead such a sound-minded re­li­gion­ist to take any less in­ter­est in the ups and downs of the prog­ress of hu­man wis­dom, which is bound up on its ma­te­rial end with the de­vel­op­ments of slow-mov­ing sci­ence.

3:5.5The un­cer­tain­ties of life and the vi­cis­si­tudes of ex­is­tence do not in any man­ner con­tra­dict the con­cept of the uni­ver­sal sov­er­eignty of God. All evo­lu­tion­ary crea­ture life is be­set by cer­tain in­evitabil­i­ties. Con­sider the fol­low­ing:

3:5.83. Is hope—the grandeur of trust—de­sir­a­ble? Then hu­man ex­is­tence must con­stantly be con­fronted with in­se­cu­ri­ties and re­cur­rent un­cer­tain­ties.

99:4.6Dur­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cally un­set­tled times of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury, amid the eco­nomic up­heavals, the moral cross­cur­rents, and the so­ci­o­logic rip tides of the cy­clonic tran­si­tions of a sci­en­tific era, thou­sands upon thou­sands of men and women have be­come hu­manly dis­lo­cated; they are anx­ious, rest­less, fear­ful, un­cer­tain, and un­set­tled; as never be­fore in the world’s his­tory they need the con­so­la­tion and sta­bi­liza­tion of sound re­li­gion. In the face of un­prece­dented sci­en­tific achieve­ment and me­chan­i­cal de­vel­op­ment there is spir­i­tual stag­na­tion and philo­sophic chaos.

39:5.9In the more ad­vanced plan­e­tary ages these ser­a­phim en­hance man’s ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the truth that un­cer­tainty is the se­cret of con­tented con­ti­nu­ity. They help the mor­tal philoso­phers to re­al­ize that, when ig­no­rance is es­sen­tial to suc­cess, it would be a colos­sal blun­der for the crea­ture to know the fu­ture. They heighten man’s taste for the sweet­ness of un­cer­tainty, for the ro­mance and charm of the in­def­i­nite and un­known fu­ture.

111:7.1Un­cer­tainty with se­cu­rity is the essence of the Par­a­dise ad­ven­ture—un­cer­tainty in time and in mind, un­cer­tainty as to the events of the un­fold­ing Par­a­dise as­cent; se­cu­rity in spirit and in eter­nity, se­cu­rity in the un­qual­i­fied trust of the crea­ture son in the di­vine com­pas­sion and in­fi­nite love of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther; un­cer­tainty as an in­ex­pe­ri­enced cit­i­zen of the uni­verse; se­cu­rity as an as­cend­ing son in the uni­verse man­sions of an all-pow­er­ful, all-wise, and all-lov­ing Fa­ther.