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by swabby429 on December 21st, 2006

swabby429

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I really would like to know why it seems that people, in general, the past few years, reject wisdom, intelligence and reason? It appears that there is massive movement towards humanity embracing superstition and discounting reason. Why?

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  • by Stableboy on February 2nd, 2007

    Stableboy

    Well I think the question is a bit to broad, but you are pointing at something that's real.

    My theory is that it's a reaction to post-modernism.

    Modernism was largely dominated by the notion that science was going save us, now that this appears unlikely there's a fair amount of anti-science feeling, especially in the U.S. (where science education lags behind much of the rest of the developed world).

    Because science is founded on logic, math, and experimental observation, the veracity of these foundations are also in doubt by many.

    But the most important problem is that the failure of science to provide the "big" solutions to life's problems has left a vacuum -- a vague semi-conscious anxiety that borders on nihilism: what exactly is the basis for our values, how will we move into the future without any compass? This is what worries us.

    Lacking some solid basis for answering those questions, there's a strong trend toward fundamentalism -- running back to the apparent safety of old-time religion and old-time philosophies. These perspectives are naturally hostile to science, whose adherents tend to see it as a value-free province of atheists and nihilists.

    So in short, fear of emptiness, fear of meaninglessness -- or my preferred term "fear of groundlessness" is what's driving the phenomenon.

    The irony is that groundlessness is actually a profound opportunity: an opportunity to create, to take responsibility, and to move forward into uncharted territory with courage and self-direction. It's the opportunity for mankind to take on the challenge of fulfilling it's potential: on the blank canvas that the future always has been -- the canvas we rarely notice -- unencumbered by superstition, we can draw our own road.

    The question is whether we can let go of the past sufficiently to realize this. As dark as the current times may seem to be, I don't know that any of us can see the whole picture -- the jury is out on that.

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