Certainty is a Closed Door??

I recently re-watched a great film from 2008 entitled Doubt.  The film is set in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in New York City.  The year is 1964 and the entire film centers around a Catholic Parish that houses a primary school.  The main characters are a young 'relevant' priest, the old 'grizzled' principal of the school (a nun), and a young 'idealistic' teacher (also a nun).  The conflict of the story centers around the principals belief that the priest is a child predator.  She sets out to have him removed from his post and he sets out to defend himself.  The writer/director, John Patrick Shanley, has a masterful way of keeping the audience off balance and instilling doubt in any film watchers mind, as to whether or not they really understand what has taken place.  In a diverse room at the end of the film the audience, on some level, will be divided as to who's story they believe.  When interviewed, John Patrick Shanley, has said that this was his intention with the film.  He was not concerned that the audience draw conclusions about the guilt or innocence of the priest but rather that they embrace the notion of doubt.  Shanley was not only speaking about how to observe films but in interviews has gone on to espouse that to envelope yourself in doubt is an enlightened way to live.        

John Patrick Shanley, said on NPR's Morning Edition NPR 12-12-08;   "I think that certainty is a closed door, it's the end of the conversation.  Doubt is an open door, it's a dynamic process and I think that this discomfort that many people have with doubt is not something to be overcome as so much as to enjoy."  He went on in the interview to decry what he called "blind certainty."   In Christianity Today 12-9-08

Shanley says it's fine to embrace doubt, and even more, he says it's wrong to embrace any sort of certainty, "because it ends the conversation." 

Is this true?  Does certainty close doors?  Does certainty end the conversation?  Is doubt, about the most important aspects of life, something that we should enjoy?  Is real joy found in doubt?

My next post will address these questions.  Cliffhanger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!