Re: Right answer - Wrong reason
 

[ QUOTE ]
but you seem to have a problem with teaching people to question accepted norms and think for themselves. That is not brainwashing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have a problem if it's done in a genuinely objective manner. I am of the belief that in America the slant is towards atheism while in some other places there are religious biases. In Darrylia (my ideal utopian society), there would be some institutions which truly strive to be truly objective, as well as others which have slants in various directions but whose slant is stated up front for all to see.

My problem relates to how far we are from this utopia compared to how close some people think we are, and not to the concepts of free inquiry and objectivity themselves.

Re: Right answer - Wrong reason
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
but you seem to have a problem with teaching people to question accepted norms and think for themselves. That is not brainwashing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have a problem if it's done in a genuinely objective manner. I am of the belief that in America the slant is towards atheism ...

[/ QUOTE ]
Assuming you don't mean athiesm in the strong sense (belief there is no god) then any genuinely objective approach will lead towards athiesm. Rational theist hold much the same view as athiest but believe in god as a matter of faith - so what else would you expect?

chez

Re: Right answer - Wrong reason
 

I do mean it in the strong sense, and in the broad sense too, ie. not just atheism (a belief in no god) itself but also the type of society an atheist culture breeds like an obsession for technology for example.

Americans are seen from the outside as people who are fighting nature, trying to live forever, stay forever young, have gadgets to do everything for them, even think for them etc. This type of culture is correlated with atheism and the implicit message taught in universities is that technology is good and exciting and the way forward etc....something that a religious person would likely disagree with and an agnostic person would like to question in depth before embarking on a career.

Of course I'm not trying to tell America how to live its life, heaven forbid. I am just saying it would be nice if there were some official admission that such a bias exists so that students entering university could have better chances to avoid getting brainwashed into becoming unwitting drones in the big technological machine, only to realize much later that they've been duped all along.

Edited to add:

One could argue that the philosophy department might be a good place to raise these questions, but it seems the most important questions, ie. those addressing the system itself, are underrepresented and/or downplayed. Naturally a student who writes a thesis entitled "universities are full of crap -- a philosophical treatise" will probably not get a lot of support, financial or otherwise, from universities and those who fund them. Yet if universities were truly objective, they'd be self-critical and encourage that kind of thing just as I am always keenly interested when someone on the forum tells me I'm full of crap.

Re: Right answer - Wrong reason
 

Edit: whoops, I meant this in reply to luckyme...

I think you did a good job with the morph there, but I'm curious as to why it required a morph? Don't those kinds of things happen every day?

A typical case might be if you're having some friends over and you order a pizza....

Which would you prefer:

A: it arrives 30 min. late, cold and soggy, even though the guy was a nice guy who tried his best, had some bad luck and maybe wasn't a very skilled driver, and even apologized

B: it arrives on time, hot and crispy, but the guy only did it because it's his last delivery and he wants to make it to the whorehouse before it closes.

Are you saying that what goes on in the pizza guy's heart is more important than getting the product and service that you paid for?

Are there no services that you purchase for which you expect competence regardless of intentions? I'm thinking of cases in which the service is of high value and importance, and there is little personal interaction with the provider of the service.