Straight paths through crooked roads

Necessity is the "Mother of belief": Reasons why we would want to believe - or not.

I believe that there are fundamental reasons why people choose to believe in God, in Jesus Christ, in another form of religious or philosophical belief.  A fundamental reason why people believe in the God of the Bible (Jehovah) and in Jesus Christ in particular is that they have a level of humility that will allow them to believe in something or Someone greater than they are.  That would also account for the sincere belief in another deity such as Allah or Hindu gods, etc.   This humility looks for one greater than itself so as to find strength, resource, reward, wisdom, even eternal life.  This is a necessity.

 

A fundamental reason why people, more and more of them in modern Western societies, are choosing to not put their faith in a deity is a pride that asserts itself in the concept:  "I am the master of my own fate, I am the captain of my own soul."  These folks will look to just about any form of belief that allows them to retain that sense of self determination.  These folks want to have no guilt for their choices to not believe in a God.  They must do away with a sense of accountability and do so in a logical and acceptible manner.  This, for them, is a necessity.

 

In fact, all of us choose what it is we choose to believe.  That way, we can be held accountable.  We have no grounds to say that our beliefs were forced upon us.  We have the choice to accept or to not accept what is presented to us.  The choice, however, is unavoidable.  Some choice will be made either actively or passively.  This creates necessities in choices as to what to believe.

 

There is no visible, tangible, undeniable deity standing on the mountain top saying, "Believe in me." That is, unless you subscribe to the modern day messiahs who self proclaim their deity.  There is likely going to be more of these creatures presenting themselves in the near future as the answer to great problems that are looming on the time horizon.  But, I digress.

 

The current society in the United States has and is fostering a sexual climate in which young girls are being socialized to believe that sexiness is a major key to social approval.  Young boys are being socialized to believe that the more sexual conquests of girls a boy can achieve the more "male" he is. These are being touted as positives in the media and even in academia in some quarters.  We have members of Congress parading about on social networking sites wearing tiger costumes or showing off their abs.  This is ludicrous.  It is also self destructive.  It is a necessity for society to deal with this.

 

To reverse this situation, rather than challenging what people believe, it may be more helpful to ask them why they would want to believe such a thing.  What if we could convince people that they don't have to give things up but rather trade them in.  That way, rather than making a sacrifice of something desirable but that has sorrows with it, instead, they can trade things in for other things that have benefit without the sorrow added.  

 

I know this is not a new idea.  However, it is an under-used idea.   If we could say to the young boy, rather than making new sexual conquests to prove your manhood, how about choosing one girl to cherish.  If she chooses you in return, you can then choose to lovingly devote yourself to her.  What you gain is the fulfillment as a man of receiving deep and obvious respect from the girl.  You gain the knowledge that you are now vitally important to someone besides yourself and thus you have grown in both stature and maturity.  You avoid sexual diseases, the responsibility of fathering a child that neither you nor the girl are prepared to raise, and the chains of habits you will regret for a lifetime. If you are choosing to be a faithful and devoted man, you are now genuinely being honored.  Being respected and even honored by a woman is, I believe, a fundamental need (now being dismissed by many).

 

If we could say to the young girl, rather than expose your most personal and intimate self to whoever is out there, rather than put up with all the undesirables who are going to respond to your exposure and put pressure on you to do things that are disgusting and unhealthy, how about trading in that attention from many for devoted attention from one special person?  You don't have to expose yourself to find him.  You can avoid attracting most of the undesirables and you can find the someone worth your devotion by being your attractive self and putting yourself in positive social activities where you will meet desirable men.  You can avoid the obvious risks of sexual diseases you may never be rid of, of giving conception to a life destined for great risks.  Being cherished by a faithful man is, I believe, in fact a woman's fundamental need (now being dismissed by many). 

 

This is only one example of many that need to be applied to the principle of "why should I believe" in something.  Necessity is called the "mother of invention".  I am suggesting that it is also the "mother of belief".

Teaching Values (with Thinking Skills) Come, let us reason together.

Could we teach values in such a way as to support the basic goals of education?  Like functional literacy?  Could we help students understand important principles worth valuing?  Could we encourage teachers to express their faith in principles they deeply value and thereby give them fulfillment in teaching?  I certainly believe we can.

A new course is being developed at Fresno Pacific University.  It should be ready by this summer (or even earlier) for online learning.  The introduction of concepts of the course will be video taped and put on Youtube by January 31, 2012. 

The goals of the course are the very questions that opened this post.   One of the basic goals of education is to promote functional literacy.  If a person cannot follow a list of instructions, they are not functionally literate.  (I know, I know, try to follow the directions to put together a toy at Christmas time.)  However, think about it.  A job description is a list of instructions to an employee as to what they are to accomplish on that job.  If the employee cannot or will not comply with these instructions, they cannot function as an employee in that position. 

In the Teaching Values course, the students are presented with a story to illustrate a fundamental principle which is the theme of the short story.  This is followed by a "check for understanding" exercise that begins by taking the principle of the story and transforming it into a learning objective. (What the student should be able to do at the end of the exercise.)  Then, a format is introduced with main ideas being written on the left with matching analysis questions written on the right.  (This is a Cornell Note style of format.)  These open ended questions engage students to investigate the fundamental principle in the story in such a way that the answers shed light, step by step, on the meaning and value of the principle.  At the bottom of the format is a horizontal line.  On the left is the word "closure" and on the right are two or three statements students write to express either evaluation or synthesis of what they have just analyzed.  This is followed by a creative next step on how students would do a new thing to implement the principle in some way. As the students follow each step, they are exercising two things at one time.  First, they are using the upper levels of the cognitive domain: analysis, synthesis/evaluation, and creativity.  Second, they are following a detailed set of instructions.  They are practicing and applying functional literacy.

At the same time, students would be applying reading, writing, speaking, and listening to ways of thinking (paradigms) of learning.  These paradigms are divided into two categories.  First are ways of thinking, values connected to principles, that encourage a learning relationship between student and teacher.  Second are those which encourage ethical choices which will result in improved, trustworthy relationships between students and anyone else in their lives.

Some examples of fundamental principles might be:

What is the relationship of truth inside my head to the truth outside my head?

Why should I care about treating other people the way I would like to be treated?

Why are relationships important to achieving things?

How do I determine actual justice?

Why is compassion important?

Why is faithfulness valuable?

Are there teachers and parents, members of the media and government, and concerned citizens out there who have a concern for our younger generation, for their functional literacy, for their trustworthy relationship to society?  I truly believe so. 

Come, let us reason together.