Haven't blogged in awhile. Life is just so busy.
I was thinking about that today, the busy-ness of life. I think I'm always busy; if I drop something I just pick up something else.
But I like it like that :) I love everything I'm busy with!
Anyhoo...
I came across this whilst working on my online history class
(soooo close to being done!!!):
(Referring to the Renaissance-ish time when people started reading the works of classical literature and the writings of philosophers and scientists)
"What is quite interesting, however, is that on nearly every point the great thinkers of the ancient past were dead wrong. On the subjects of world geography, the nature of the universe, human anatomy, and medical practice, the ancients often erred terribly. So exposure to the wisdom of the ancients did not give the Europeans the right answers, and hence, no advantages.
What it did give them, however, were the 'right' questions, questions nobody had thought to ask in Europe for centuries. Francis Bacon,
the forefather of modern science, stated perceptively that truth springs more readily from error than from confusion. Europe was leaving a dark age of confusion, and with the errors of the ancients recently made available to them, began again the search for truth that had left off with the fall of Rome.
This is a good example of the central purpose of an education: knowing the questions is more important than knowing the answers. Much of what you learn in college will become obsolete. What makes you educated is exposure to the questions, questions that have been and will forever remain important to educated humans.
If you rarely read history, or science, or even the newspaper once you graduate, you are not educated despite your diploma.
Education is not about what you know; it's about how much you are willing to learn."
This came from the class content, instructor Shawn W. Miller. I like what he had to say. It provokes a few thoughts:
First, I realized in typing this that I inevitably type "teh" instead of "the"...pretty much every time.
Second, I am reminded of a part of The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. There is a man who rides a bus from hell to heaven; when he arrives at the bus stop he is met by a friend who will help him walk the journey to heaven. They begin talking, and it is clear that the man residing in hell lives an intellectual lifestyle.
His friend tells him he will take him to the land "not of questions but of answers."
The other does not like this, asserting that the "free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind" because "to travel hopefully is better than to arrive." The finality of finding truth seemed stifling to him.
His friend reminds him that,
"Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth."
I think...it is dangerous to assume that we have all the right answers, and that we perfectly understand all of those answers. Leads to a lot of misconstrued ideas and living.
But it is also dangerous to grow too fond of floating.
Sometimes it seems attractive to let
respecting other ideas work its way into becoming a lifestyle of
not accepting any ideas as truth. Safety in the inconclusiveness. It is easy to be tolerant of other ideas this way. It is less scary than taking the chance that you might be wrong.
But that is floating.
I found myself living like that for awhile for a few months once. But actually.. I guess I didn't just feel like I was floating/drifting between new ideas. I felt like I was drowning in the unknown.
Was there any true reality? Everything seemed to be influenced by a million different factors or motivations; truth was actually just a statement of one's perspective on that particular thing. So not truth at all, really; just opinions. Did absolute truth exist?
Then I let myself believe in the reality of truth. And the world seemed happy again :)
I definitely don't have all of the answers. Or even very many answers, perhaps.
But I held my breath, braced myself, took a leap, and decided to rely on a source, from whom I'd
felt truth before: Christ.
I don't know if any of us really grasp completely absolute truth. But that doesn't mean we can't hold onto the truths we do find.
I'm constantly needing to tweak my understanding of what I know to be true. The pictures become clearer, I find pieces to the puzzle. But with all that, I found a foundation of core truths that I cling to when the world seems confusing and full of questions.
My point: yes, asking the right questions leads you to truth. You won't always find it immediately, but when you do find it, allow yourself to believe it and be glad about it!
Third, I do agree with the point that education is often about what you are willing to learn. Kinda goes along with the saying that the more you know, the more you realize how little you know.
Funny how pondering/answering the important questions of life helps you find where you will truly feel grounded.
:)
