Nothing is Certain except death and taxes

Last updated on: February 6, 2016 at 10:10 pm by Glenn Morison

Nothing is Certain except death and taxes 2016-02-06T22:10:43-05:00 Glenn Morison

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Northrup Frye

Ben Franklin wrote these words but earlier phrases of similar intent can be found. The meaning – certainty is rare – is obvious to some. However it would be ridiculous to others who would be quicker to quote a phrase like “it is as plain as the nose on your face.” Franklin was writing to a friend, excited about the stability he hoped the newly signed United States Constitution would bring. What makes the words even more profound is that they are found in a letter from one scientist (Franklin) to another, Jean-Baptiste LeRoy (of France). These are not abstract philosophers talking about the absence of certainty. They were both working physical scientists in a context of a long and fruitful correspondence.

Job 19:25 “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth”

Certainty and Faith are a combination that can cause a lot of trouble. It is such thinking that leaves us with history like the Crusades and other mass persecutions in the Name of God. Even this verse in Job implies that it is one man’s opinion speaking from his own experience. Northrop Frye, Canadian scholar and writer of The Great Code, speaks of the complex relationship of faith and doubt in succinct terms: “Job is vindicated partly because he does protest, and consequently, that doubt is not the enemy of faith. Doubt is the dialectical opposite of faith, and it is an essential part of faith. A faith that never doubts is not worth having. It’s in the dialectic of faith and doubt that the reality of faith emerges. The enemy of faith is not doubt, but rather the sheer insensitivity of mind that doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.”

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