Purpose of
Reason & Revelation Section
(Under Construction)
How many of you have ever taken a class in logic, epistemology, philosophy, critical thinking? How many of you even know what epistemology means? If you are educated as a pure or applied scientist, were you required to study philosophy of science and formal logic as a foundational prerequisite before you began your scientific studies? Why not?
Thinking is not something that takes place in a vacuum. When an educational system tells us what to think about certain topics without teaching us how to think it is guilty of indoctrination. If David Koresh and his followers had infiltrated a public school system, taken it over and begun teaching children their esoteric teachings as fact without a hint of alternatives, I imagine many parents might be angry. How does this differ from what we actually have today in government schools?
By making the study of critical thinking, logic and similar disciplines almost non-existent at the grade school level and a rarity even for most college students, the contemporary school system assures that students will be incapable of thinking for themselves. Not only are they trapped in certain modes of thought (determined by the curriculum), they react with hostility and close-mindedness to alternative views. Even if they do maintain "unapproved" beliefs not endorsed by their curriculum, such beliefs must be distorted to conform to the cultic thought structures ingrained in them.
When these students are confronted with challenges to their worldview, things get ugly. Unable to think rationally and poorly equipped with data to defend their beliefs (for textbooks rarely justify or explain the conclusions they teach), the typical reaction can scarcely be distinguished from that of a cornered animal. The mind snaps shut as a self-defense mechanism, and cliches taught by school or society are flung out as a screen.
Evolution is the pre-eminent example. It is the critical foundation to the religious beliefs of humanists who control the government schools. As such it dare not be questioned and must be defended at all costs. All data must be bent to conform to it, and all evidence must be interpreted in a manner consistent with evolutionary theory. To fail to do so is heresy.
Even in the short time since I became a creationist I have perceived a noticeable decline in the ability of students and recent graduates who believe in evolution to actually defend it. Without knowledge of logic or epistemology, they find themselves unable to formulate a consistent defense. Epithets are hurled forth, followed by blanket statements by which the evolutionist attempts to invalidate everything the critic might say. "Creationism is religion" they cry, the unspoken dogma being that whatever is religion must automatically be wrong. Simply declaring it and believing it is somehow held to be sufficient to prove it true. Then, regardless of what I might say, the evolutionist stands invincible in his ignorance.
This I find frustrating and not fun, to the extent that I have given up trying to dialogue with diehard evolutionists. If I want to play with dangerous animals I'll kick a pit bull. The capabilities for critical thinking appear little different in either a high school student or a Ph.D. scientist, apparently because there is nothing in the curriculum for most Ph.D.'s that teaches people how to think any better. The scientist may use longer words and be familiar with vastly more data, but I have experienced sadly little evidence that they actually think better. When one allows for the fact that most scientists are more intelligent than average to begin with, there may not be any improvement at all for all I can tell.
Obviously I am severely displeased with the state of things. I suspect that the "powers that be" overseeing most government schools have a vested interest in maintaining the system as it is. (Government schools are not failures as many people today mistakenly claim; the critics don't understand the goals which these schools are pursuing are not their goals, like high academic standards, independent thinking skills, objective knowledge, etc. But that is a topic for another paper.) Thus, the purpose of this section of the InfoCenter is to provide the initial tools with which people can teach themselves to think.
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