I posted this comment to the University of Iowa's newspaper, The Daily Iowan, on July 13, 2006, and I think it bears repeating here:

Religion's place in higher education
Abstract:Argument merits attention Sommerville argues there is a "general academic culture" of secularism in the United States, which he defines as the categorical exclusion of religious or spiritual perspectives from serious consideration in a university setting....

Post Comment
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
Libris Fidelis
posted 7/13/06 @ 11:44 AM EST

Just like the common usage of saying the letter "oh" in a number instead of the number "zero", the use of the term "religion" in the Opinion article Religion's Place In Higher Education is improper.

The definition of "religion" comes from the ancient Greek, which means simply "way of life", not exclusively in god-believing. Additionally, the combination of the words "education" and "(god-believing) religion" is an oxymoron. Education has to do with the provision and acquisition of facts to be learned, whereas god-believing has its own keyword "believing", to warn the observing participant: belief and knowledge are not the same.

Belief is the acceptance of something without proof or veracity of reality. Sometimes believing is justified, provided the believer reserves an open mind for accepting new information and accepts that the belief is probably wrong. Knowledge, on the other hand, is something that can be proven by anyone else who wishes to investigate. The belief that the moon is made of blue cheese is now disprovable, but even with seemingly invisible micro-organisms, with the right equipment and skill, anyone can witness micro-organisms.

Believing and knowing are not compatible in education and science. A belief in something will always be tested by true scientists, historians, and philosophers, who, in this specific, all have the honesty to admit when they do not know something. False scientists, historians and philosophers assert things, rather than test more fully their own perceptions and reasoning. This is how Dr. Williams, of Johns Hopkins University, discredited Freud as the unscientific fraud salesman that he was: Dr. Williams demonstrated that Freud was totally unscientific in his manner and related the address by Freud to the University of Vienna in 1899, in which Freud scornfully asserted that it was the "duty" of mental science researchers to accept Freud's theories and not to question them, and to assail anyone who differed with Freud's dictations.
-- Libris Fidelis LibrisFidelis@hotmail.com

Libris Fidelis

Libris Fidelis is the writing name of Ronald Willet Kinum. It was originated in Saint Louis, Missouri in 2004, taken from the U.S. Marine Corps motto of "semper fidelis", and converted to the ancient Greek version with the intended meaning "faithful to freedom".

Libris Fidelis has been the signing-name on the posters that protest war, advocate peaceful negotiations and diplomacy, anti-capitalist communism and anti-government, with the following explanations all written under the Libris Fidelis name:

"A government is not a Democracy (always spelled respectfully with a capital "D"). It is Democracy we should want and endeavor to achieve, not government. - - - Libris Fidelis 2007"

"A government is a self-important for-profit tyranny that rules over the people. A Democracy is a natizen-participatory legal and political organization that represents the inclusive best interests of society without exclusionary prejudice or elitism. The anti-Democracy republic was created by the Roman Empire to represent their powerful elite in their monarchy empire. - - - Ronald Kinum a.k.a. Libris Fidelis originally written in 2004, modified 2006/2007"

"A Democracy protects the exploitable abusable minorities who are segmented within society from the powerful majority organizations of society, and protects the vulnerable, unknowledgeable majority of society from the knowledgeable and powerful minority of the political, theologic, economic, labor, legal and educational Establishment. A Democracy has no leaders because that is tyranny, but a Democracy does authorize elective administrators and subordinately-appointed coordinators to supervise and manage their duties under full accountability to the responsibilities and duties of their offices according to overriding laws and the Constitution with respect to public approval. Within a Democracy, changes to the system cannot be effected without the official approval of the public majority in accordance with the principles of Democracy. - - - Libris Fidelis 2006"