Proof & Beliefs

I spent some time this morning thinking about the difference and sameness of proofs and beliefs. When you say the word proof, my mind immediately gravitates toward our court system.

In civil law, we ask what the preponderance of the evidence says. In a criminal court, something has to be true beyond reasonable doubt. So criminal courts remind me of observational scientists amassing enough evidence to make the likelihood of anything else negligible.

Then my mind wanders toward mathematics, science and geometry. The difference between the two couldn't be more clearly defined. In law the facts are amassed to support a claim; in science, a claim is fashioned around the nature of the facts.

I'm drawn to a television episode I recently saw about breaking the sound barrier. Prior to that event, scientists formulated that the instant a plane started across the sound barrier, the molecular structure of the metal would begin to change. These scientists came to this conclusion using their own understanding of science and mathematics. We understand that their hypothesis was incorrect. However, at the time all of their mathematical and scientific conjecture pointed toward their conclusion.

Belief lent itself to proof yet it should not have done so. We don't come to any beliefs as the result of proof. Belief is our complex integration of a vastly greater sea of evidence than memory or logic can handle. Belief is based on the trust of the proof of ourselves or anther, regardless of how right or wrong it turns out to be. Belief can also be influenced by our own level of knowledge. If one doesn't have the technical understanding to prove to yourself what you are being told and it goes against your own beliefs, you will err on the side of belief.

I believe both must be taken hand in hand. Had we not people who challenged the beliefs of the day, we would still be traveling on what we thought was a flat world at sub-sonic speeds. To never challenge beliefs is to stand by the status quo. Proof gives us, not belief, but confidence in what we all knew or suspected to be true. Or it might tell us when we were wrong in our suppositions. Proof may not instill belief, but we've missed something very important if we don't understand the value, the structure, and the limitations of proof.

I guess opposites do attract.