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8.0.2 Alternative ConclusionsVersion 1.2 December 2015 (Previous Version) Are there other possibilities that may be true? Should we disregard alternatives? How can we live with ongoing uncertainty, when we are not sure what is right and true? Since, as we claim, these ‘global beliefs’ are so sensible, how could anyone disagree? How can they take alternative views seriously? What drives their disagreement? How can we address it? This section is about how we deal with alternative views and those who hold them. As we are all aware, our opinions change over time. Humanity as a whole and we as individuals continue to learn more. So inevitably there will be many differences of opinion. As we do more research, the evidence will sometimes show that currently held theories don't explain the things we thought they did. Sometimes the evidence we have right now doesn’t allow us to decide which explanation is correct: the evidence is “ambiguous”: it could be consistent with several different explanations. We must allow for alternative explanations to be explored, because in the end we may decide that they provide even better explanations than the ones we have already. Nevertheless, as we explain in Parts 1 to 7 there are excellent grounds for rejecting some alterative explanations as definitely false, and we need to appreciate, at a high level, what these grounds are. As part of this Way, we need to keep in mind why we think this path is more justifiable than others. ‘Global beliefs’ would not be global in scope – wouldn’t cover everything that matters – if we didn’t explain why many people disagree with them. If we can understand the relevant psychological and political drivers we may be able to better resolve our disagreements. 8.0.2 Alternative Conclusions In following this Way we can't be dogmatic in reaching our conclusions: we must allow for valid alternative conclusions, and learn to live with some uncertainty. Nevertheless we can reasonably reject some false conclusions, and at the same time explain why some people continue to believe in these false alternatives, based on conceptual misunderstandings or political and psychological drivers. ● There is room in this debate to include alternative conclusions, where the evidence is not clear or new research or investigation raises new points. We need to include these alternatives whenever reaching a single conclusion would be unsound. ● We need to accommodate people who dispute the supporting evidence, or include additional evidence, or interpret the evidence in different ways. We need to identify the where the actual disagreement lies so that we can try to resolve the differences. ● We need to assess the impact of any uncertainty on our values: to consider on what basis should we choose, if we have to act, when the correct choice is not obvious based on our beliefs about the nature of the reality that we face. ● There are also false alternatives that are not supported by reason and the evidence, and we need to show why they are not justified. ● We need to be able to account for why some people continue to accept what are presented here as false alternatives – why they are still believed, apparently despite reason and the evidence, what it is about certain topics that leads to disagreement. ● We need to explain what personal or political drivers motivate such disagreements.
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