Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Seeing and Believing
"The empiricism to which liberal education is devoted – let’s assemble the evidence and figure out where it leads us – is well encapsulated in the familiar saying 'Seeing is believing,'" writes Stanley Fish a professor of law at Florida International University and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago in his New York Times column, "Think Again."
"The model of religious knowledge inverts that proverb and declares instead “Believing is seeing.” And that is why, as I have already acknowledged, teaching religion in the strong sense – the sense that would internalize its truths rather than study them – does not belong in the public schools."
I highly recommend Fish's columns in general and his recent writing about religion in particular. He brings to the subject what few other observers are able to -- finely honed reasoning skills.
Reader Warning: Don't look to Fish for easy answers. You won't find them there.
"The model of religious knowledge inverts that proverb and declares instead “Believing is seeing.” And that is why, as I have already acknowledged, teaching religion in the strong sense – the sense that would internalize its truths rather than study them – does not belong in the public schools."
I highly recommend Fish's columns in general and his recent writing about religion in particular. He brings to the subject what few other observers are able to -- finely honed reasoning skills.
Reader Warning: Don't look to Fish for easy answers. You won't find them there.
