In recent years we have seen science coming under siege, by fundamentalists, creationists, climate change deniers, moon landing skeptics, even flat earth theorists. It’s hard to take some of these ideas seriously, but with so much at stake, it’s equally impossible to ignore them. After everything science and rationalism have done to advance the species, how can we allow these flagrant mavericks to blaspheme the holy doctrine of objective verification?
But therein lies the great challenge of our age. We have raised science itself to the infallible status of
religion, and we have reduced religion to the position of just another falsifiable hypothesis. The pendulum has reversed course, swinging from one extreme amplitude to the other, as pendulums always do. In other words, our obsession with the quantifiable has come at the cost of losing touch with the intuitive and the inexpressible.
From the way we raise and teach our children to the way we interact as adults and try to make sense of our lives and purpose, we need both legs to stand up and walk. Tempted as we may be to lean to one side or the other, we as humans are a complex race. Capable of the most profound feats of reason, we are also endowed with an irrational side that has resulted in some of the greatest testaments to human ingenuity. And to meet our full potential we must draw strength from both of these opposing aspects.
Reason Through the Ages
In many respects, the modern world is a product of the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. And for the most part, we can agree that this flourishing of Reason could not have come at a better time. Centuries upon centuries of superstition and inadequate hygiene led to a world of witch hunts, plagues, authoritarianism and a short life expectancy.
To understand the human body, the laws of motion and the benefits of proper sanitation brought a wealth of rewards too numerable and obvious to mention. But when we think of Galileo, whose observations literally caused the earth to move, we can’t help but remember his showdown with the Pope. This was the first of many quarrels between church and science, and for many of us it’s a dispute that persists to this day.
Culturally and historically, however, we can see that the side of science has prevailed, at least in the western world. And that’s because science and industry have demonstrated the ability to produce measurable results, to build cars, fight germs and launch rockets.
Out of Our Depth
To most observers, the supremacy of science and reason is all too evident. And because many look and see a binary dichotomy, science gets exalted while the realm of myth, magic and wonder gets pushed into a corner, the corner for nonsense and child’s play.
In our waking hours we like to think of ourselves as rational beings, unique in the animal kingdom for our ability to reason and calculate. We may be more intelligent than the other creatures, but we are also capable of behaving far more irrationally. We pursue dreams, we tell ourselves lies, and we believe in myths, whether they are religious, political or economic in nature. And that’s a fact we cannot reason our way out of. To deny our irrational side is to deny half of what it means to be human.
Now, you might say that it’s not actually half, that our irrational side makes up less than 50 percent of our nature. But despite the hunger for objective verification, this is just one more aspect of existence that cannot be verifiably measured.
You might also argue that humanity’s legacy of irrational behaviors and ideologies are mere relics of an ancient and obsolete past. Like slavery and misogyny, the belief in supernatural forces and ultimate meaning is just one more outdated paradigm that our species will slowly outgrow.
But, as a man of reason, I have my doubts. First, looking at the skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression, I wonder, can we really thrive in a world that has no place for ultimate meaning beyond what can be scientifically measured? Is this mental health crisis not a consequence of our own hubris, the attempt to deny one half of our nature?
And secondly, where would we be without those irrational instincts and tendencies? Where as individuals and where as a species? I can’t help but think of the Great Pyramids, probably the greatest monuments of humanity ever created. For 4,500 years they have stood, physical evidence of man’s ability to perform incomprehensible feats of engineering, and of man’s mind boggling obsession with the irrational. If there’s one lesson to take away from the Pyramids, it is the duality of human nature, the vitality of both the logical and the illogical, our mastery of both the worldly and the otherworldly.
You can say that the Egyptian story of life after death is a lot of hocus-pocus. You can also say that magical thinking had nothing to do with the construction of the Pyramids. You can even say there’s a logical explanation for everything. But illogical explanation are everywhere. When a sugar pill, for example, can cure your symptoms with nearly the same rate of success as a prescription drug, you have to acknowledge the value of of magical thinking, even if you can’t quantify it. God bless the placebo effect.
I’m not asking you to believe in the afterlife of the Egyptians as a physical reality, only to realize that the belief itself had real, earth-shifting power, of which the Pyramids are physical proof. Non-believers would never have built such things.
Allow me to offer another example. We now have laws against something called hate speech. Is that because hate speech can cause measurable physical damage the same way a brick or a broken bottle can? On the contrary, we understand that such speech can cause a different type of damage that we can’t see or measure, but may in fact be even more severe.
At the risk of drifting down a slippery slope of magical thinking and hippy dippy baloney, I propose that the opposite sort of speech can be just as powerful. The words we use and the stories we tell ourselves and each other have more power than we can imagine.
The Role of Reason in Education
If anyone still appreciates the value of magical thinking, it’s the children. At least until around the age of 7 or 8, when they stop believing in Santa Claus and begin to systematically divide the world into the categories of real and make-believe. Like any religious indoctrination, the process of understanding ultimate reality in terms of scientific materialism takes place at a young age.
Of course, the ability for a developing child to distinguish between fantasy and reality is crucially important. But in an age of quantum uncertainty and non-binary genders, we should acknowledge the possibility that fantasy, too, is something culturally determined, whose definition may vary from place to place, from person to person. But let’s assume for now that we know what’s real and what’s not.
“We do not display greatness by going to one extreme, but in touching both at once, and filling all the intervening space.” Blaise Pascal
I’m not suggesting we draw a new set of lines to separate fantasy from reality, but I do think we need to reconsider our valuation of the two. Aboriginal belief systems commonly assign secondary importance to what we call the real world. Of primary significance to them is the realm of dreams and spirits.
Conversely, the advance of science has taught us to relegate dreams and spirits to the category of the trivial and the frivolous. And this seems to be the case, not only for the secular among us, but for the highly religious as well. For modern believers, it’s easy enough to discard as dubious superstition any set of myths or religious stories that do not fall within their carefully defined scope of what is acceptable.
With the fundamentalist outlook encroaching on science and religion alike, the space for fantasy and imagination is vanishing quickly. And yet the importance of creativity, imagination and emotional intelligence has never been greater.
Sure, computer science is important. Knowing how to write a program can be very useful. But learning to think like a computer? Heavens no! Even the best educated and most highly gifted human will never rival a computer in its ability to compute. And yet, the emphasis on math, programming and standardized testing grows more and more one-sided. Meanwhile, fairy tales, myths, legends and poetry, whose value is difficult or impossible to quantify, sink ever lower on the curriculum.
So is this all one big convoluted buildup to why we need to start teaching Creation in school? As a matter of fact, I feel pretty strongly about teaching as many creation myths as possible. The more stories the better. Just don’t try and pass them off as history or biology. I’m not trying to blur the line between science and story. I’m only suggesting that neither is of a secondary and lessor importance to the other. We can learn from them both, and we ought to be nourishing both appetites, the analytical as well as the spiritual.
Play-Based Learning and Non-Linear Thinking
To develop wholly and completely, students (of all ages) need room to play, not just physically, but also intellectually. But unfortunately, the narrow scope of objective verification leaves no space for non-linear thinking. Yet the ability to recognize opposing viewpoints as equally valid, and to admit the possibility of multiple correct answers is profoundly important. Yes, there’s a place for laws and certainties, and students will encounter enough of these as they delve into math, science, grammar and civics. But freedom too is necessary, freedom to imagine, to pretend and to explore.
“The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Studies show that play-based learning promotes mental flexibility, openness, curiosity, the kinds of traits that become increasingly important in a world where half the jobs of today could disappear next week or next year. In a playful setting, students participate voluntarily, not by coercion and threats of testing. Consequently, their minds are more engaged and the lessons more meaningful.
Rather than squashing that innate spirit of make-believe and replacing it with a hallowed reverence for material certainty, a more open and self-determined model of education, with plenty of room for play and pretend, encourages children to tap into that sense of wonder and mystery, and to see things from multiple points of view. Nurturing that sensitivity leads to an increase in happiness, tolerance and optimism, not just for their own benefit, but for the benefit of society.
Now more than ever, we need to be raising global citizens who will have the special combination of skills to cope with a changing world, to think individually, to respect diversity, and to navigate the bewildering course of untold possibilities and potential calamities that lie ahead.
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The Tao of Fred 