The Distributed Conviction Principle

That you believe in what you can’t see
Or measure by any instrument
Is one thing. That you believe you can

Characterize, and confidently,
What none of your instruments detect
Is another. But that some of you

Believe so passionately, many
Others more half-heartedly, many
Others still, at some risk to themselves,

Believe not at all, while the few left
Remain uncertain from day to day,
Whether they believe in the unseen,

Including the evidenced unseen,
Given they don’t trust the instruments
Or the users of the instruments—

That’s a stranger thing altogether.
As a species, are you hedging bets?
Are your thoughts so wholly pliable?

It would serve you right if everything
In the basket of all your beliefs
And skepticisms were equally

Nonsense, none of your convictions right.
But not even self-evident truth
Could do more than start another fight.