Is adversity necessary to develop intelligence?

[Christopher]

You sound a little like an Eastern mystic, but I get your drift. You aren't making a cause-effect statement, you are hypothesizing (or postulating) a cosmic relationship. True?

 

 

 

I try to combine modern physics and the wisdom of certian anceint lines of knowledge.

 

I find it hard to reduce the way I see the world into catagories. I have developed a world veiw that is personal and not based in the concesses veiw. One is that life came from an emergent point that is connected to eternity. This point is the center of not only the human but is shared with all cordates. This connecting point is not human it expereances the earth though all the cordates which makes it more bird than human.

[Biochemist]

It's somewhat silly to assume that everyone who believes in Christianity also needs to be well versed in quantum mechanics....or...globalization as it relates to corporate economy and Andean coffee farmers.

Really good general point.

[lindagarrette]

I would say that most everyone either believes whatever they were taught or whatever suits their purpose at the time...

I disagree. There are many freethinkers and open minded people in the world. Not many of them are Christians, however.

[Biochemist]

I disagree. There are many freethinkers and open minded people in the world. Not many of them are Christians, however.

I think Francis Schaeffer was a good example of a thoughtful, openminded Christian thinker.

[bumab]

I disagree. There are many freethinkers and open minded people in the world. Not many of them are Christians, however.

 

There are? I'll give you open minded, but not "freethinkers," by which I assume you mean something along the lines of critical thinkers.

 

Example: Approval polls for any president. They go up and down as the stock market does, despite the fact that the president has little immediate control over the economy whatsoever.

 

The war in Iraq. Many people (I saw a poll that said 47%) still think there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I don't even know how that's possible...

 

Fashion. People spend billions a year to look like somebody else. Why? We're taught that looking good fashion wise is important.

 

Advertising. If it wern't for people believing what they are told without thinking critically about it, advertising would not exist. It wouldn't work- and the fact that many advertisers resort to "scientifically proven" claims only underscores the pathetic ability of many people to think critically about things. Well- not ability, I think anybody can learn to think critically. But most don't.

 

Modern culture is an exercise in mass marketing, mass consumption, mass everything. It's driven, almost entirely, by what suits your purpose at the time (the disposable generation) or what you were told (enter Madison Ave.).

[C1ay]

There are? I'll give you open minded, but not "freethinkers," by which I assume you mean something along the lines of critical thinkers.

 

One definition of freethinker is:

 

n : a person who believes that God created the universe and then abandoned it

[infamous]

One definition of freethinker is:

 

n : a person who believes that God created the universe and then abandoned it

 

Thats because a freethinker doesn't want to be instructed, and when they find out that there are rules, they just leave. Very lonely out there, beyond the universe.

[C1ay]

Thats because a freethinker doesn't want to be instructed, and when they find out that there are rules, they just leave. Very lonely out there, beyond the universe.

 

That would be the other definition of freethinker:

 

n, One who has rejected authority and dogma, especially in religious thinking, in favor of rational inquiry and speculation.

[infamous]

That would be the other definition of freethinker:

 

n, One who has rejected authority and dogma, especially in religious thinking, in favor of rational inquiry and speculation.

 

Yes, however speculation leaves the door open for inquiry into all disciplines, including those of a spiritual persuasion.

[Christopher]

This is one of the dualities I spoke of and one that is personal to me . Their exist a tremendous amount of pressure in the U.S. to conform and it's been a trend that is fed to are children though the media and Schools, reinforced to a degree that is Orwellian in its scope.

 

I can remember when it was cool to follow your heart to be an individual. Kids are not told that enough today. The peer pressure has been replaced by a monolithic structure like they had in Russia and is reinforced by others instilling fear, and only offering acceptance on criteria of the consensus.

 

If the kid has some feeling in his are her heart that is not being meet and begins to act out those feellings in a way that the schools interpret as sickness they give it a medical term and force the child to take drugs and at the same time we tell them just so no to drugs. We as a society will pay dearly for these hypocrisies in the future.

[Biochemist]

That would be the other definition of freethinker:

 

n, One who has rejected authority and dogma, especially in religious thinking, in favor of rational inquiry and speculation.

Emphasis added. You will note the assumption that religious thinking is not rational. I have never thought that was true. Some folks who are religious are indeed not rational, but that is not the point. Religion is not intrinsically irrational.