Everything that is taught on a large scale is a religion.
It takes time to master anything. Because life is finite, teachers often start teaching before they have mastered their subject. When there are a lot of teachers, a lot of them end up being incompetent. Thus, there is a limit to the quality of public, large-scale education.
Systematic education changes students' thinking. Every subject has a set of postulates, and systematic education projects these postulates over and over and over, changing students' thinking. This is especially true with children; systematic education puts certain principles into their subconsciousness.
Most people are unable to transcend the limits of the view they have learned as children. This is because it takes time to learn to transcend these limits, and life is finite. Also, some of these people become teachers; and when you have a teacher who does not see the limits of the subject, it is so much more difficult to see them for the students.
Therefore whether we have physics, Judaism, democracy, or basic economics presented to millions of students, a certain set of principles ends up being mindlessly drilled into subconsciousness.
We can change our thinking by encountering someone with a different perspective; this is the easiest way. Therefore, the easiest defense against dogmatism is pluralism; having multiple schools of thought, so different children (or adults) are taught different things.
This is why there is no single best system, because any system, when taught on a large scale, deteriorates into near-religious dogmatism, for the reasons already explained. In particular, science needs to have some people educated in a religious way, so that at least we can notice certain tendencies in science, by reflecting on similar tendencies in those who have received religious education. Similarly, democracy needs non-democratic countries, or at least it needs people with authoritarian thinking, so that we can have a sense of perspective.
Everything that is taught on a large scale is religion. It does not have to be so-called. It just has to be repeated often enough.
Every sentence that is repeated extremely often in a given culture acquires near-religious meaning.
Examples: "common sense is not common" (means the world is full of idiots, but I am not one of them), "forgive but not forget" (which usually means not forgive), "we hold these truths to be self-evident..." (then why say so?), "every man should have a son, write a book, and plant a tree" (not true, and also puts you in a selfish mode of thinking).
Every word that is repeated extremely often in a given culture acquires near-religious meaning. It starts to appear more significant because there are more and more associations with this word in the mind (or connections in the brain), and it almost automatically becomes a powerful symbol through sheer repetition.
Examples: God, science, rationality, common sense, law, money, democracy, 9/11, GPA, dating, security, sustainability, healthy lifestyle, work-life balance.
If a word is repeated extremely often, virtually nothing you believe about it is true.
If a sentence is repeated extremely often, virtually nothing you believe about it is true.
Everything that is taught on a large scale is religion.
It takes time to master anything. Because life is finite, teachers often start teaching before they have mastered their subject. When there are a lot of teachers, a lot of them end up being incompetent. Thus, there is a limit to the quality of public, large-scale education.
Systematic education changes students' thinking. Every subject has a set of postulates, and systematic education projects these postulates over and over and over, changing students' thinking. This is especially true with children; systematic education puts certain principles into their subconsciousness.
Most people are unable to transcend the limits of the view they have learned as children. This is because it takes time to learn to transcend these limits, and life is finite. Also, some of these people become teachers; and when you have a teacher who does not see the limits of the subject, it is so much more difficult to see them for the students.
Therefore whether we have physics, Judaism, democracy, or basic economics presented to millions of students, a certain set of principles ends up being mindlessly drilled into subconsciousness.
We can change our thinking by encountering someone with a different perspective; this is the easiest way. Therefore, the easiest defense against dogmatism is pluralism; having multiple schools of thought, so different children (or adults) are taught different things.
This is why there is no single best system, because any system, when taught on a large scale, deteriorates into near-religious dogmatism, for the reasons already explained. In particular, science needs to have some people educated in a religious way, so that at least we can notice certain tendencies in science, by reflecting on similar tendencies in those who have received religious education. Similarly, democracy needs non-democratic countries, or at least it needs people with authoritarian thinking, so that we can have a sense of perspective.
Everything that is taught on a large scale is religion. It does not have to be so-called. It just has to be repeated often enough.
Every sentence that is repeated extremely often in a given culture acquires near-religious meaning.
Examples: "common sense is not common" (means the world is full of idiots, but I am not one of them), "forgive but not forget" (which usually means not forgive), "we hold these truths to be self-evident..." (then why say so?), "every man should have a son, write a book, and plant a tree" (not true, and also puts you in a selfish mode of thinking).
Every word that is repeated extremely often in a given culture acquires near-religious meaning. It starts to appear more significant because there are more and more associations with this word in the mind (or connections in the brain), and it almost automatically becomes a powerful symbol through sheer repetition.
Examples: God, science, rationality, common sense, law, money, democracy, 9/11, GPA, dating, security, sustainability, healthy lifestyle, work-life balance.
If a word is repeated extremely often, virtually nothing you believe about it is true.
If a sentence is repeated extremely often, virtually nothing you believe about it is true.
Everything that is taught on a large scale is religion.
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