Knowledge isn't absolute

Every once in a while I meet somebody who believes that they know everything there is to know about a subject and that what they know is all that will ever be known about the subject. It is nice to be sure of yourself but come on! It is silly to think that what is known now is absolute truth and that this is all that will ever be known about a subject. We are constantly learning new things about old subjects and finding out that what we used to know about something isn't true. But no, these people are absolutely certain and cannot be swayed by logic.

What would lead somebody to this viewpoint? Why would anybody believe that what they know is absolute and no new knowledge is possible?

I have considered this question at length and have come to the conclusion that this is a form of wishful thinking. These people want to believe they know everything because they want to believe they are in control of their lives and there are no more surprises coming.

I like learning so the fact that no knowledge is absolute isn't a problem for me. But I think I can see why some people would want it otherwise because of a desire to be in control. I can sort of see it. But I wouldn't want to live in that world.

Been ill for a while but am doing better now

For the last couple of years my life has been getting progressively more painful. After a recent "we tried everything else" test gave a possible clue to an autoimmune problem they gave me Prednisone as a temporary test to see if it helps. It helps a lot. I hope this leads to better things.

Meanwhile I have been reading because that is about all I could do. I am currently reading Xenocide, the third book in the Ender's Game series. One of the worlds settled in this book is one totally settled by Chinese. They follow the old gods and the traditional Chinese philosophy. The closest they have to royalty is the god touched. Those who can sense the gods. Since the gods are perfect people who are god touched feel they are filthy. The early sign of a god touched is a person who compulsively washes their hands until they bleed. To test if they are truly god touched they put the person in a special room, dip their hands in dirty grease and leave them alone. If they try to kill themselves rather than live with the dirty hands then they are truly god touched.

I wish most of the religions people followed made even half that much sense. I mean this was freaky to read but compared to the popemobile it made a lot of sense!