In Doubt We Trust on BBC Radio 4

I finished editing these two programmes earlier this week and 2 very interesting programmes they are too. Programme 1 went out today and is on iPlayer here for the next 7 days.  If you missed it then do catch it this week.

Are we fooled into thinking we know it all? Has the immediacy of information and knowledge created an illusion that we have all the answers and therefore don't want or feel the need to challenge or doubt our actions and the world around us? Mark Vernon came face to face with these issues having studied physics, been ordained in the Church of England and then lost his faith. In this programme he looks at why we have a lust for certainty and are loosing our ability to doubt and question well. "Doubt has become a bad word. It's associated with fear and failure" he says. But how have we arrived at this situation? Why do we feel uneasy if politicians or religious leaders express doubts in public? Mark looks at how this attitude has affected the worlds of politics and finance. And tries to see whether a mistaken view of science and the way our brains work might give us answers.
Edited by Mike Thornton
Producers: Amanda Hancox and Rosie Dawson.

Programme 2 goes out on Radio 4 next Sunday at 1:30pm....

"We take things very personally at the moment. People get very disturbed and angry when their certainties about themselves and their world are questioned." So says the philosopher Angie Hobbs. But why? In this programme the writer Mark Vernon, who himself had a crisis of faith, looks at our attitudes towards doubt and certainty. In conversations with David Jenkins, the former Bishop of Durham, Karen Armstrong, Ann Widdecombe and a variety of scientists and philosophers, he explores the art of doubting and our the ability to question well. He discovers that if we can master this art, it can help us to flourish and become more fully human.
Edited by Mike Thornton
Producers: Amanda Hancox and Rosie Dawson.

I enjoyed these two programmes especially because Amanda and Rosie haven't restricted themselves to the classic 'doubt zone' of religion annd faith but extended it to science and politics. In programme 1 it was very interesting to hear that we still expect to have certainties from our politicans but hammer them when they get it wrong.
In programme 2 it was very interesting to hear that science, an area that one would normally expect to be full of certainites, is actualy full of doubts because we cannot be sure of how things happened, we can only theorise about them and may be able to disprove a theory at some point later. It was also interesting to hear Mark talk about lack of certainty in faith beng a good thing and that if he had got the certainites he was looking for then it actually wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on.