As I look back over the course of my life, I am struck by the deterioration of the political and religious discourse within America and around the world. I think about the milestones that my lifetime on this planet has witnessed (e.g. putting men on the moon, the construction of the interstate highway system, the development of the internet, etc.), and I am struck by the palpable decline in respect for science and learning which has occurred throughout that same period. I find myself bewildered by the rise of religious and political extremism, and the headlong plunge to embrace conspiracy theories and obvious falsehoods.
Moreover, what was not always apparent to me while I was living that life is brought into sharp focus as I contemplate the course of events of the last sixty-plus years. Sure, I was vaguely aware of the fact that respect for learning and science was not what it had once been, but the damage that this lack of respect was wreaking on our society was obscured by all of those advancements I've already noted. Slowly, an awareness of an approaching darkness dawned on my consciousness, and I could clearly discern the outlines of the damage which our widespread ignorance of history and science has inflicted upon our conversations about religion and politics. Even so, like the frog who starts out in a pot of room temperature water that is slowly brought to a boil, I have wondered if the realization came too late - Is a new Dark Age inevitable?
That our current situation has been long in the making is brought into sharp focus by an article that appeared in Newsweek magazine in January of 1980 entitled "A Cult of Ignorance." The piece was penned by Isaac Asimov, and it makes plain that he discerned the importance of this trend long before I did. He wrote: "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
Asimov went on to note that during the 1960s America went through a period where the slogan was "Don't trust anyone over thirty!" According to him, the new slogan for the America of the 1980s became "Don't trust the experts!" He continued: "We have a new buzzword, too, for anyone who admires competence, knowledge, learning and skill, and who wishes to spread it around. People like that are called 'elitists.'" see A Cult of Ignorance - Newsweek
In a piece posted two years ago by Brian Ferguson of the Mormon Church entitled "The Rise of Ignorance," we read: "The problem is that our modern tools of communication allow the voices of the ignorant and the biased to be just as loud as the voices of the informed and the impartial. Sadly, a strong case could be made that ignorant voices are now louder than informed voices. One result of this is that the ignorant, the bigoted, and the dangerous can now easily find each other and band together — often reinforcing each other’s worst instincts." see The Rise of Ignorance - Insight: Seeing through the Dark Glass
And that brings us to the month of May in 2021, and the bewildering world that I can see from The Teacher's Roost At White Cedars. A world where masks and vaccines are shunned and ridiculed in the face of a pandemic which has already claimed over three million lives. A world where climate change is denied and ridiculed in the face of mounting natural weather related catastrophes. A world where people insist that evolution is a disproven theory, that the world is just over six thousand years old, and that an ancient book written by humans about God is inerrant and more reliable than archaeology, paleontology, biology, physics, geology or history in explaining earth's past. A world where intolerance, prejudice and bigotry are exalted; and love, compassion and compromise are seen as the hallmarks of weakness and depravity. For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope I'm wrong; but I can't help but wonder when I see what's going on around me: Has ignorance triumphed?
Yes, ignorance has triumphed. But, it is spiritual ignorance that is deepening the most. Yes, our social media has allowed the uninformed to boast their opinions regarding religion, science and politics. It is also allowing those who claim the moral high ground (virtue signaling of the radical left) to call good evil and call evil good.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible, as we have it today, probably does not convey a perfect translation of the original intent of the scriptures. All certainly those biblical scriptures have been misapplied, misused and misunderstood down through the centuries. But, as Herbert Armstrong used to say: The Bible is the foundation of knowledge. Not the summation of knowledge - but the basis or paradigm from which one seeks to learn and acquire additional essential knowledge for living life. Today's biblical translations are not perfect - but without the Bible as reference - mankind is lost in confusion and trapped in his own human thinking - which seems right to a man, but leads to death.
You stated the following about our world: "A world where intolerance, prejudice and bigotry are exalted: and love, compassion and compromise are seem as hallmarks of weakness and depravity." Sadly, that is the direction America and the Western world is going under the confused thinking of the radical marxist left, touted by dangerous organizations such as BLM. So, is the solution for America to be found by politically supporting the moderates or far right Republicans? No. Humans can't solve mankind's spiritual problems. That is the root of man's suffering. Rejecting God and the Bible (which the radical left does) only hastens the confusion and ignorance! Yes, for now ignorance is triumphing! This humanistic ignorance is actually predicted by the Bible, as a time when people would call evil good and call good evil. It will lead up to the chaos described in Matthew 24 - where literally - only God can save us now! We truly need the Kingdom of God to come to this earth to save mankind!
Dean
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ReplyDeleteYou make some good points, as usual.
I would also add that there seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of the scientific method, especially the awareness of how science sometimes makes advances in fits and starts, and that scientists often have to revise theories or conclusions in light of new evidence (as occurred with the pandemic). If one understands that, then the fact that a scientist says one thing today and a different thing tomorrow should be expected, rather than viewed as proof that the scientist doesn't know what he/she is talking about.
Having said that, there are also some scientists who are more dogmatic (and arrogant) than the evidence warrants -- they are human, after all! And it's not hard to find "definitive" conclusions having to be later revised. But some scientists resist change when it runs counter to what they've taught for a long time. Thomas Kuhn's book (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) is illustrative of that tendency, showing how the scientists of any particular era operate within a paradigm that makes many of them reluctant to adapt to new concepts, particular ones they view as radical.
You're right though, that conservatism has now become equated with anti-scientism (as well as with "alternative science"). So, many conservatives fall for quackery and crackpottery just because it's not part of the mainstream they so mistrust.