<p>I found a great quote the other day in the NY Times and I'd like to share it:</p>
<p>"Fundamentalism and education cannot coexist because in fundamentalism you have all the truths. In education, you're searching for truths." </p>
<p>Is this why a number of institutions are breaking from their religious affiliations (i.e. Wake Forest) ? And why our president seems to say the darndest things sometimes?</p>
<p>I think the whole purpose of education is the exploration of the world and the opening of one's mind. Academics is founded upon the principle that we don't know all the answers, that more often than not there is no easy answer, and we must search for those answers in the world around us and within ourselves. In that way, I feel that education is the stark opposite of dogmatism. I think there exist certain fundamental truths in the world; these include, but are not limited to, the fact that human beings, no matter who they are, are intrinsically valuable and that our primary responsbility as sentient, intelligent, compassionate beings is to other people. This idea is very hard to conceptualize, especially in light of the fact that it is often impossible to fulfill our responsibility to others, or at least, that we have to make choices between two groups of individuals. A much easier concept is to envision the collective conciousness, the aggregate of all the good things about humanity and all the things that make it worth working for, in the form of a God. In reality, is any specific religion's concept of God anything but the foundation of that culture's concept of goodness? </p>
<p>However, I think the reason that academics supports the humanist values that, in my view, underly religion but not religion itself is because academics is concerned with dealing directly with the world and fulfilling our real responsibilities, and not seeking shortcuts to compensate for the fact that we are failing, and perhaps destined only to fail, in what we really seek to achieve.</p>