"Love Believes all Things - And Yet Is Never Deceived" by Soren Kierkegaard

"The mistrustful person and the lover have knowledge in common, and neither is the mistrustful person mistrustful because of knowledge nor is the loving person loving because of knowledge. But when a man's knowledge has placed contrasting possibilities in equilibrium and he wants or has to judge, then what he believes in becomes apparent, who he is, whether he is mistrustful or loving."

I really enjoyed this book by Kierkegaard and this idea kept coming back to me. So I wonder then how many people actually understand what knowledge truly is (assuming, of course, anybody really could know what knowledge is) and how many people believe that what they think they know is knowledge when in fact it is nothing more than a deception they invite upon themselves in order to make what they really hope are the right decisions when faced with a judgment. As Kierkegaard goes on to explain knowledge in and of itself is neither good nor evil but is indifferent to everything with peoples' natural propensity toward mistrust or love affecting knowledge in the way they already naturally lean. Is knowledge the ultimate source of power or is it the ultimate deception? Can we truly know what so many people have accepted as fact or at the least have considered the most probable answer, or is any possibility actually as likely as any other?
When it comes right down to it human knowledge is woefully inadequate and none of it can truly be proven in the most scientific way giving rise to the idea that what we consider knowledge is, in essence, merely mass acceptance of one particular theory over another. For myself, then, I say that nobody should claim as fact anything and should in fact be open to every possible scenario however difficult to believe or improbable as it may be.

Knowing is one thing, and proving something is another...

Evidence is experience based... Perhaps the only knowledge is 'Self-Knowledge'...

You can get the impression from someone that they've proved it to themselves, but this 'proof' is not independent of your own understanding....

I guess this is why so many people talk about, recommend, use, and support the idea, that, all you need to do is to 'prove it to yourself', or to 'see it for yourself'...

In such strong feelings like love... You've got such a strong feeling that is almost shared, an experience almost shared, a proof that is almost shared... There's just so much in the kind of feeling that is shared and, perhaps love is the greatest of these kind of feelings... Hard to deceived at a time like this...

Mistrust is a greatly contrasting feeling to love.

Mistrust is there until you've seen it for yourself, only weakened by the strong feeling(s) you get that the other person(s) (making the claim) has seen it for themselves, or you've gone through something similar before...

As to 'contrasting possibilities in equilibrium'...
You will always have a degree of mistrust, and a degree of love for all things, due to a degree of self-doubt and a degree of hope for all situations. To always see 'a way a thing could work'... Possibilities...
There is an inherent contrast of love and mistrust, simply more profound when they are in equilibrium. The profundity subsides toward the 'absolute' when you have worked 'enough' with the 'idea of contrast'... When you have developed belief...

As to being typically loving or mistrustful...
The judging and belief systems, as tools, will point someone closer to or further from the truth depending on how reliable they are...
However, it's not just the 'tools' we use, it's the state we're in to be able to make the best use of those tools...
Just think of the drug-addicted person at their different stages... From just trying it, to getting serious, to trying to quit, to getting serious again, and finally giving up... Not much changes in the tool 'drugs are bad, m'okay', but through experience, belief, and mental states, they can finally get to 'drugs are bad for me, m'okay'...

As to knowledge being the ultimate power or the ultimate deception...
There is a quote 'Knowledge is power, and knowledge can mean the difference between life and death...'
I don't see how something, made so true by proof, can be deceiving, unless the knowledge was too much based on trust alone, rather than solely from one's experience with the situation at hand...

As to 'Can we truly know what so many people have accepted as fact or at the least have considered the most probable answer, or is any possibility actually as likely as any other?'
If you spend enough time, in a clear mind on something, it will be apparent what your feelings are in regards to whether you have seen it for yourself. True knowledge will come from there...
The idea of 'odds' (like for betting) is what you get to when you think of likelihoods...
To summarise 'odds', although it may be rare or unlikely, you may just happen to come across any of the options in the situation at hand...
In so, you often have a feeling that anything can happen, this is only dampened when belief comes in to play. Eliminating belief eliminates any betting from occurring...
If you have a strong enough belief, from a strong enough 'self-evident' understanding, you're betting or optioning becomes more orientated to knowledge. If this involves another person, maybe their body language, vocal inflexions, or other 'tells' would show their experience in regards to the situation...

Sorry for the lengthy response, I hope I didn't miss the points...