By Chris VerKaik

`Calvin makes my head hurt'

Here's a general warning to anyone thinking about coming to Calvin: a few years here can really mess with your head.

Before I came to Calvin, I had the world all figured out. I knew which political party had the right answers. I knew all the things that I had to do to be a good Christian. I knew everything I was ever going to need to know, and I was confident in that assurance. But lately those days seem like an eternity ago.

For the last four years this institution has systematically dismantled everything I know. Those certainties I was so fond of have come under constant attack. My basic assumptions have been challenged, contrary points of view have been presented and complications have been piled on top of complications. Now every time I go in search of a concrete opinion in this confused little head of mine all I find are more questions. And to make matters worse, I'm going to graduate soon - spit out into an increasingly multifaceted world that I no longer understand, forced to try and make some sense of it all.

I have a few friends who still have the world figured out, and sometimes I find myself somewhat envious of them. When tough questions arise they rest comfortably on readily available answers while I take my regular spot on that metaphorical fence, trying to figure out all the different angles and perspectives. Sure, there might be a certain amount of naivete behind it all, but at least they have an answer. Is my more informed uncertainty any more useful than their less informed resolution?

Well ... yes, I think it is, but it's also a lot harder to deal with. Our cognitive certainties make life less confusing and certainly easier to deal with, but we unfortunately seem to live in a world too complicated for these certainties to fit it. Instead we trudge through the ambiguity of opposing view points and contrary arguments in the hope that at the end of the day we got just a little bit closer to the truth.

Look at all the debate in this section of Chimes every week. You would think that a group of bright and reasonable college students could reach an agreement every now and then, yet each week these pages are full of discussion and disagreement. Nothing ever really gets solved, but there are always new points of view to consider and new evidence to take into account. I suppose I wouldn't have it any way, but I can feel my head spinning already.