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An Explanation Arrives - What To Do?


You hear an explanation of something almost everyday.  What do you do? 
First of all, you consider it mostly on the surface of the brain.  Some new input, as it were. Then comes the decision.  You can
  • Understand what was explained
  • Believe what was explained
  • Accept what was explained.


These three key words, understand, believe, and accept comprise a gross summary. But they typify three principles by which the brain or mind holds explanations. There are variations, exceptions, and exclusions. Just one is important now, and that is you may take the explanation as an example of several others in your mind, none of which have any of the attributes.  It sort of sits there awaiting further processing.

Before getting to the picayune details, note that understand, believe, and accept are mostly exclusive, meaning one does not imply the other.  For example, you may accept global warming into the future, but neither understand nor believe it.  Similarly, you may believe in God but not understand who this God might be. You may accept the nature of economic theory, supply-side or government managed, but neither believe nor understand it.   Another, currently challenging notion is that of abortion.  Many understand and accept the issues but don’t really believe any of them. As well, you may accept black holes but neither understand nor really believe they exist.

The notions evolve.  For example, if someone suggested, plate tectonics only a half-century ago, it may have been neither understood nor believed, but accepted provisionally as a hypothesis.  Now, with more information, it is widely accepted, understood, and believed.

Most desired is that all three concepts coalesce. Example. A ball falling from the table hits the ground.  You accept, believe, and mainly understand it,  But wait, to understand this, you need to understand gravity.  But who really understands gravity?  For many of us, understanding gravity is akin to a fish understanding water.  It’s there all around us.… Is this understanding?

When all three coalesce, we border on the absolute, and very difficult to achieve. Newton’s gravitational theories once had this status, but along came the quantum universe.

Not so clear are political, economic, religious, psychological, and many other explanations. They remain in a flux-state, with one of two of the three key words confirmed but the other(s) still open.

These three options are important to consider, at least personally, for whatever comes through the door. 

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