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Liturgical Lessons
Friday, April 25th, 2008 by Admiral_CoeymanLong ago in a galaxy so far away that we do not realize that we are standing in the middle of it, education was much different. The ‘People of the Book’ required universal literacy. Literacy alone would not do since there could be no understanding in the absence of reason. All people of the book had to have the ability to think in reverence to the greatest gift that their Lord had bestowed on them. You cannot be thankful for what you cannot know about.
As a stand up philosopher, I regret not having grown up in a society that prized the ability to think for yourself. We have replaced that system with a cookie cutter factory that turns out workers for the hive of state. What joy is there in an endless recitation of precompiled thoughts which we are told to embrace as our own? Why has the concept of education been reduced to putting the correct answers into the blanks on a printed form? Recent generations have done wonders with turning out protesters who can carry picket signs that they cannot read.
Education used to start with a solid foundation. There is no reason why one plus one equals two. God said so and it just is. We have a law of non-contradiction and there is no reason why it is. The basis of understanding is the essential facts upon which all reason relies and this is the reason that theology is the prince of the sciences.
Then you come to logic. Understanding must stand on facts and then be refined with logical reasoning. If you cannot test a conclusion, then you cannot determine its truth. First you must understand the laws of logic and then you must be able to apply them to reach your own conclusions. When you can defend your own conclusions in an honest debate, then you have demonstrated the ability to reason on your own.
Now we seem to teach our young that I think means the same thing as I feel. Many truths hurt our feelings and still are true. Repealing gravity would have prevented a great many broken bones. I have been led to explore many ideas because the conclusions that were force fed into my mind did not fit with what I saw of the world around me. Why are generations now denied the option of going on these intellectual safaris for themselves?
