91热爆

Good morning,

Last night saw the final of the The Traitors. No spoilers here, but if you鈥檝e not been glued to the hit 91热爆 show, then let me talk you through the premise.
25 strangers gather at a castle in the Scottish Highlands to be in with the chance of winning tens of thousands of pounds. An undisclosed number of them are picked as 鈥榯raitors鈥� who must go undetected throughout the game, including a series of challenges, while 鈥榢illing off鈥� one of the 鈥榝aithfuls鈥� each night. It鈥檚 like an elaborate game of wink murder.

That some are picked as traitors is merely a random decision on the part of the show鈥檚 producers. And yet I鈥檝e been fascinated by the number of contestants who say they are 鈥�100 per cent鈥� certain that so and so is or isn鈥檛 a traitor.

What makes them so sure? How can any of us ever be 100 per cent sure of anything?

Perhaps what has exacerbated the entrenchment of views, the polarisation, and echo chambers in which so many of us find ourselves is the human tendency towards being certain; certain that our way of seeing the world is the correct one, certain that our politics, our theologies, are the right ones.

Much blood has been spilled over the certainties of particular groups, and people of faith have sadly at times been at the forefront of such bloodshed, waging holy wars against others

It鈥檚 unusual for a religious leader to speak in favour of doubt but Pope Francis did. singling out those who say God is on their side. "If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good鈥� If one has the answers to all the questions 鈥� that is the proof that God is not with him.鈥�

Our public life today tends to push us into opposing and binary positions that we must not only be certain of, but declare, if we are to be welcomed in.

It causes us to see these groups here as faithfuls, and those 鈥榦ver there鈥� as traitors; we are certain that those that lie on the other end of the political or theological spectrum are just plain wrong.

But of course life is more complicated than that 鈥� less black and white, more grey.

Perhaps there is beauty in being uncertain. Less sure of our own positions, more aware of the limits of our knowledge and experience.

Rory Stewart, in his recent Radio 4 series The Long History of Ignorance, described how embracing the power of ignorance 鈥� of not knowing - can help us become more humble, creative, motivated and wise鈥�.

Perhaps if we recognise the limits of our knowledge 鈥� and as St Paul puts it 鈥� that we 鈥渟ee through a glass, darkly鈥�, we might be more open to other ways of being and seeing the world; and perhaps we might just be surprised by what we find.

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