HEY, I HAVE A GREAT IDEA…
…HAVEN’T I HEARD THAT SOMEWHERE BEFORE?
You and your friends have put together perfect 60’s outfits for Halloween, complete with hip hugger bell bottoms, beads, lacy long-sleeve blouses, leather chokers for the neck, bandannas, sandals, and the peace sign written on the body or flashed with the fingers, as you gather candy from the neighborhood houses. There is a part of the 60’s that can’t be worn like your costume. It is the attitude of those of us who lived in the 60’s. It think that is when I first became a know-it-all. College life felt so new and adventurous.
I lived in a 12 story brand new college dorm, had classes with exciting names like philosophy and psychology, not just the old boring high school subjects of English, history or reading. I was taking Old English Literature, Current English Usage, Principles of Sound Reasoning, Origins of Development of Man and Culture, and Clothing Selection. These were important classes. Big Ideas. And all of them were waiting for me and MY ideas.
The dining hall was where it all came together. We would stand in line waiting for the servers to punch our cards, discussing professors, classes, guys in our classes. Over dinner, Jeanie would educate us on the vitamin content of our various meals, Georgann would tell us where she and Tom were taking the Volkswagen on the coming weekend, and we would make plans for our own weekend based on who had dates and who was left to go see a show. It was exciting to venture into this new adult world.
The dining hall was also where other important discussions took place. Was it important to celebrate Christmas? Who was going to attend a rally for peace? Weren’t sororities filled with trite, surface-level friends? (Wonder what sorority dining rooms were saying.) Marriage wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Such a phoney institution. Love was the bond of any good relationship. We were busy evaluating life, searching for inconsistencies, distilling ideas for the pure essence of what is important in life, denying anything that seemed fake and pretentious, and declaring all of our discoveries boldly and without challenge from parents.
One evening we ended up eating dinner seated next to some new men. They joined in our serious conversation. Gradually, as people finished eating, my regular friends moved from the table and went up to the 6th floor to begin studying. I was left finishing my meal with these men, deep in a heated conversation. Did God exist? Yes, No, or Maybe.
Can you guess which side of the argument I held? The two men were strongly Christian. They were sure God existed. How could they prove it, I asked. I was doing well in my Principles of Sound Reasoning class, and I knew I could back them into a corner. No, I wasn’t an atheist, I told them. It’s just that I wasn’t willing to commit to something that couldn’t be proven. You have to believe, they insisted. What does that prove, I challenged. They pointed to all the believers of God in the world. How could they be wrong? Well, does that mean that God exists because we believe he exists, I demanded. Why not, they shot back.
I gave them both barrels loaded. Imagine this, I told them. I believe in a large purple bird who lives high up in the universe. He flies from planet to planet. He has large orange eyes and three feet. I REALLY believe in him. NOW…tell me…does that mean he exists?
Their faces turned red. I was SO good!! I had them. One man glared at me, told me that I was being ridiculous when I knew no such bird existed. Just stick to reality, he told me. Like God. I got ready to open my mouth and answer back, when he glanced at his watch, stared me down, and said, “You have one minute. One minute. Prove there isn’t a God, and you have one minute.”
Can you imagine his audacity?! One minute! I snorted in contempt, told him he was afraid to even consider new thoughts and that I had better things to do than to continue such a pointless conversation.
I got an A in Principles of Sound Reasoning. But this discussion of reason about God was one of my bigger mistakes in life. I won’t say my ideas about God were so cockeyed. But my attitude stunk. I was only 18 years old, and I had already made up my mind completely about God. I had the answers. All I had to do was think logically, on my own, and I was able to come to infallible conclusions.
My mind was as closed as the young man’s. I was so arrogant, thinking that I had the perfect answer to prove him wrong at every turn. I never realized that God and discussions about God have existed for thousands of years, with hundreds of different questions, insights, and possible answers floating out there for our consideration. I was the perfect know-it-all, and I was proud of it.
I remember the 60’s as a time when we had the perfect answers to solve the world’s problems. We were going to do things right and fix the mess our parents had made for us. I can’t blame my own arrogance on the 60’s.
I should have taken as much pride in asking and considering questions as I was taking in having the answers. It has taken me a life-time to correct this attitude…and it is a daily battle I will probably wage until my dying breath.
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QUESTIONS* (And Answers)
BASED ON PRINCIPLES OF SOUND REASONING
Everyone, whether he be plowman or banker, clerk or captain, citizen or ruler, is, in a real sense, a philosopher. Being human, having a highly developed brain and nervous system, he must think; and thinking is the pathway to philosophy.
The world in which we live will not let us rest. It keeps prodding us, challenging us with problems to be solved, demanding that we act wisely or be destroyed by the forces which inhabit our world. In this way experiences are born–hungers and satisfactions, pains and pleasures, sights, feelings, sounds, and a host of others.
Your philosophy, then, is the meaning which the world has for you. It is your answer to the question, “Why?” Having fitted your experiences into a whole, having related them to each other, you say of the world, “This is the way things fit together. This is the world as I understand it. This is my philosophy.”
What are the great philosophic problems which puzzle all of us, and which the great philosophers throughout the ages have sought to answer? We find that there are ten major problems which have always challenged thinking men and women.
The first of these problems is: What is the nature of the universe? Did this universe come into being through an act of God or is it the result of a gradual process of growth?
The second problem is: What is man’s place in the universe? Is the human the crowning achievement of the universe or a mere speck of dust?
The third great problem is: What is good and what is evil? Is it something we can decide for ourselves? How can we distinguish good from evil?
A fourth problem is What is the nature of God? Is He a spirit which pervades everything? Is God all-powerful, all-good, and all-just?
A fifth problem is related to the question of Fate versus free will? Are we free individuals who can make our choices…or is it all determined for us from the beginning of time?
The sixth problem is concerned with the Soul and immortality. What is the soul about which we have heard so much? Is there a future life in which good is rewarded and evil punished, or does death mark the end of everything?*
And if those first six problems are not enough…
Man and the state: Where does government come from?
Man and education: What is the best education and what does it serve?
Mind and matter: Which is superior, mind or matter?
Ideas and thinking: Where do we get our ideas?
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*Frost, S. E., Jr., Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers, Rev. Ed., New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962.
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