The Legal System: Certainty vs. Doubt
By: Sela Finau
Regardless of time, culture, or location, individuals frequently come in contact with the omnipresent issue of decision making. In order to arrive at a conclusion, a person needs a sense of assurance in which to make a decision. One’s failure to take a position due to a lack of security does not necessarily constitute a disadvantage. On the contrary, even though one’s certainty in a situation may build confidence, the benefits of doubt outweigh those of certainty, for not only does doubt provide hope and allow one to have conversations with others without the presence of biased thoughts, it also leads to the much progressed legal system that exists today. The reluctance to fully rely on a concept, even when against all odds, gives way for a feeling of hope to exist within an individual. Hope, commonly defined as expectations and desires for certain events to take place, repeatedly provides people with optimistic standpoints in which they can base their ambitions and anticipations in during times of stress and desperation. For instance, when fourteen year old Amanda Berry was abducted from the streets, neither her family, nor the authorities could pinpoint her location. Amanda’s situation gradually worsened, as no signs of change in her situation showed over the long periods of time that continued to pass. and negative assumptions for her increasingly surrounded her. With her hands tied behind her back, she grasped onto and never let go of the hope that one day she could reunite with her family. Because Amanda never gave up on the hope of getting out and going home, she was finally able to escape a decade after her kidnapping. By doubting what seemed inevitable, Amanda Berry possessed the hope she needed, and successfully escaped after her kidnapping. Along with providing a way for hope and unbiased thoughts, the feeling of doubt also remains the reason why the American justice system has improved so greatly since the late sixteenth
Regardless of time, culture, or location, individuals frequently come in contact with the omnipresent issue of decision making. In order to arrive at a conclusion, a person needs a sense of assurance in which to make a decision. One’s failure to take a position due to a lack of security does not necessarily constitute a disadvantage. On the contrary, even though one’s certainty in a situation may build confidence, the benefits of doubt outweigh those of certainty, for not only does doubt provide hope and allow one to have conversations with others without the presence of biased thoughts, it also leads to the much progressed legal system that exists today. The reluctance to fully rely on a concept, even when against all odds, gives way for a feeling of hope to exist within an individual. Hope, commonly defined as expectations and desires for certain events to take place, repeatedly provides people with optimistic standpoints in which they can base their ambitions and anticipations in during times of stress and desperation. For instance, when fourteen year old Amanda Berry was abducted from the streets, neither her family, nor the authorities could pinpoint her location. Amanda’s situation gradually worsened, as no signs of change in her situation showed over the long periods of time that continued to pass. and negative assumptions for her increasingly surrounded her. With her hands tied behind her back, she grasped onto and never let go of the hope that one day she could reunite with her family. Because Amanda never gave up on the hope of getting out and going home, she was finally able to escape a decade after her kidnapping. By doubting what seemed inevitable, Amanda Berry possessed the hope she needed, and successfully escaped after her kidnapping. Along with providing a way for hope and unbiased thoughts, the feeling of doubt also remains the reason why the American justice system has improved so greatly since the late sixteenth