Correct vs. incorrect are, unfortunately not a fundamental aspect of reality. They are instead a construct of the human need to reduce perceived risk by simplifying the relationship between cause and effect to the point where we feel comfortable. That is until the next “black swan” appears.

Current wisdom (“settled” science) is, at its best, temporal. So, what is “correct” is wholly dependent on the time in which you live. In one age the majority of learned people believed the world was flat, sometime later, that the world was round. We now live in a time where describing the fundamental nature of reality appears to be oxymoronic when viewed at a quantum level. Just because we have not been able to sort out the paradox doesn’t mean anything other than the combination of our science and intellect haven’t reached the point where we can. Someday we might but it’s just as likely that we may have to leave that to the next rung on the evolutionary ladder.

The biggest danger we face presently is hubris. There is no danger in being open to the concept that our beliefs, no matter how well-grounded in current science, are always fallible. The real danger is in thinking that our beliefs are infallible. We are almost always proven wrong given the passage of time.

Being open to the opinion of others is neither a path to “correct” thinking nor blind “equivalency”. It’s a path to “better” thinking that holds the promise of faster social progress.