It might have been better phrased as "the only sure thing in software engineering" but that doesn't sound as good.

Oh, I understand. I just have a personal quixotic crusade about the distinction between the two. Computer programming and computer science are parallel fields that complement each other. Too many students who want to learn to program major in computer science, because nobody tells them what CS actually is. IS or IT with a CS minor might suit them a lot more.

Or pretty much... all engineering.

There are many things built off of a basic set of axioms which are internally consistent.

Unless you can prove that those axioms are sure things then how can anything be a "sure thing"?