"A thought-provoking deep dive into how we understand the world and what we come to believe about it. Presented with both humor and intellectual rigor. Highly recommend."
-Julianna K. Wilson, Ph.D. Entomology
"Will Swain writes with the kind of curiosity that feels both down to earth and subtly radical. Drawing from decades as a science educator and a lifetime of lived inquiry, this book doesn't tell you what to think-it invites you into a richer, more compassionate understanding of how we come to know, believe, and make meaning."
- Renee Zukin, Educator, Entrepreneur, & Author of Every Day, I'm Brave
Certainly Uncertain is a book about how we attain knowledge and how we form our beliefs. These two topics are amazingly entangled and complicated. This book uses a variety of topics to untangle and illuminate knowledge and belief in fascinating detail without ever getting boring. Swain uses a conversational tone with humor, stories, and research to explore these ideas using a wide array of topics. From bigfoot to neurobiology, Galileo to epigenetics, the notion of free will to the Salem witch trials, this book entertains and offers a blueprint for evaluating our own thinking. The book also offers a path forward to a broader understanding of the beliefs of others.
"Will Swain writes with wit, in an easy-to-read voice. He makes complex ideas understandable and interesting."
- Judd Lyons, Retired Major General and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense
"The book was as thought-provoking and clever as it was charming. Swain's ideas and arguments are intellectual, inclusive, and refreshingly insightful . . . and I learned more about Bigfoot than I ever expected!"
- Sean Strain, editor and former vice president of Entrepreneur Press
"Mr. Swain's remarkable book encourages us to critically evaluate our thinking in a cultural environment where facts can be obscured by misinformation and political spin. In this massively entertaining and compelling book, he uses a variety of topics to explore the nature of our beliefs and their relationship to the nature of knowledge itself. I could not put it down."
-Mark St. Andre, Ph.D. Educational Psychology
About the Author :
Will Swain is a science educator with over 30 years of experience teaching students across a wide range of ages and settings. He taught undergraduate courses such as Human Biology, Evolutionary Biology, and Principles of Animal Biology at The University of Iowa, where he also administered research programs for undergraduate students, precollege students, and science teachers. At the high school level, he taught Physics, Geology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, and Human Biology. He also served as the regional director of the Iowa Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and as a member of the National JSHS Regional Director's Executive Council.His interest in the relationship between science and religion began early in life and has followed him ever since. Growing up surrounded by family and friends with differing views on faith and science sparked a lifelong curiosity about belief formation. These questions ultimately led him to write Certainly Uncertain, a research-informed and personal exploration of how beliefs, and knowledge itself, take shape-and how understanding their limits and tentative nature can lead to more thoughtful and compassionate conversations.
