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The Only Real Recipe
for
Conquering Uncertainty
by
John Ross Schroeder
"Uncertainty" has become a byword for describing our modern
age. No other term so accurately sums up the present human condit ion. Why?
T
ODAY
we live in a con–
fused ,
uncertain
and
dangerous wo r ld."
Such were the deeply felt
words former Br itish Prime
M inister Edward Heath used
to depict economic and polit–
ical trends.
T he present Prime Minister,
Mrs. Margaret Thatcher , de–
scribed t he aftermath of high–
level changes in the Soviet lead–
ership as a
"period of uncer–
tainty."
In speaking about the possibi lity
of a coming European union, Pope
John Paul
ll
said:
" If
Europe
achieves these goals, its future will
not be dominated by uncertainty
and fear."
Economic Uncertainty
Today economic uncer tainty domi–
nates the headl ines .
The Financia/
Times
captioned an editor ial con–
cerning sharp fluctuations in the
foreign exchange market with "Cii–
mate of Uncertainty." Perhaps this
more than any other describes
today's world wallowing in its eco–
nomic troubles.
Where is the leader who can tell
the world that "the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself"?
American economist and former
ambassador to India, John Kenneth
Galbraith, authored a comprehen–
sive work a few years ago about
today's economic impasse.
The Age
of Uncertainty
was his well-chosen
May 19 83
title. Lt cont rasted the great cer–
tainties of economic t hought in the
19th century wi t h "the great
uncer tainty" of our time, despite
the knowledge explosion! Why
such a paradox?
Those who must decide seem not
to know where to turn. Decisions
are difficult at best. Business exec–
utives speak of "having to decide
with
absolute total uncertainty."
Proj ected in formation is often
character ized by confusion an d
conflict. Why have our computers
not removed this doubt?
Said one United States senator:
" 1 don't trust any economists
today." Not surprisingly, Congress
itself is described as "uncertain" as
to "whether to step on t he gas or
the brakes."
Even mathematics has Jost its
vaunted certainty. Mathematician
Morris Kl ine 's most recent book
Mathematics: The Loss of Cer–
tainty,
explains how the subject has
gone "from precision to doubt" in a
century's time.
Numbers,
however, are not the
only unknowns.
People
are uncer–
tain about the very business of life
itself-and with good reason. Shall
we survive until the 21st century?
The Unce rtainty of Lite l tself
Few people in the Westero wor ld
need to be informed about the
shakiness of our very existence.
Almost daily the media bring us
new evidence of man 's insecurity
without providing a lasting solution
as
The Plain Truth
does.
There is no visible, physical
guarantee that the earth will be
able to sustain the condit ions neces–
sary for organic life. No period of
history has produced more uncer–
tainty than this. And uncertainty
breeds fear-the wrong kind of
fear- t he opposite of faith!
Why do we find ourselves faced
with such a climate of uncertainty?
What is the cause for our plight?
One Br it ish television personali–
ty wrote: "Systematically, stage by
stage, our way of life has been dis–
mantled, our values depreciated,
our certainties undermined,
and
our God dethroned ... "
(Sunday
Teiegraph,
December 30, 1979).
T his man has a gift for gett ing to
the root of a problem. The article
continued: "T hey want to be rich,
so they accumulate wealth, which,
thanks to inflation, t urns out to be
useless paper ; they want to be
secure, so they develop a weapon
powerful enough to blow them–
selves and their earth to smither–
eens; they want to be carnal, and
find themselves stranded in the
wasteland of eroticism and porn ;
they are greedy for knowledge, and
in seeking to know everything they
find nothing. "
Lack of knowledge of and con–
tact with the t rue God is the basic
and fundamental cause of the cli–
mate of uncertainty that pervades
this world. T he apostle Paul wrote
of unbalanced intellectuals in every
generation as people "who are ever
learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth." T he
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