The other day, sitting in the relative comfort of the back row of a certain unnamed class, I watched as something troubling unfolded in the skewed mass of desks before me. Here, in the underbelly of Woods Hall, a body of future scientists bought a group-discounted ticket to the crazy train and seriously considered, even for just a moment, that magic might somehow trump reason.
Allow me to elaborate. The topic under discussion was pseudoscience (i.e. fake science) — more specifically, dowsing. Those of you unfamiliar with dowsing can be forgiven for your lack of encyclopedic knowledge of 16th century occultism. Dowsing got the official stamp of disapproval from Martin Luther back when nailing theses to church doors was the ultimate act of bad-boy defiance. It consists of taking a Y-shaped branch, or two “divining rods,” and then walking back and forth until the rods move of their own accord and tell you you’ve found something, whether it be water, treasure or the missing half of your favorite pair of socks.
So what’s the issue with all of this? Shouldn’t any class, but a science class in particular, be open to all opinions? What’s the big deal in considering a few wacky ancient practices, especially if they aren’t hurting anybody?
Well, therein lies the problem. I’m all for learning as much as you can about as many things as you can. That’s what a liberal arts education is all about — a well-rounded experience. However, there’s a difference between learning and accepting.
We learn that the ancient Greeks believed in an angry bearded fellow who enjoyed sitting on top of mountains, casting lightning bolts and turning into sexy swans, but we don’t accept it to be true. We learn that at one point doctors thought cleaning the stump where your leg used to be would kill you faster, but we don’t believe them to be right (and if you do, please reconsider sending your application to medical school). When we start to accept as truth crazy things such as dowsing, exorcism or that the New York Giants can possibly have a winning season, we put in danger concepts such as reasoned thinking and sound judgment.
There needs to be some level of calculated objectivity, both from professors and students. The majority of the burden here lies with students, though I’m fairly comfortable throwing some blame in the general direction of the faculty, who it seems have been largely forbidden from broaching opinion on subjects of even the slightest emotional delicacy.
When there’s no authority to help frame our thinking, especially when it comes to more complex issues such as science and religion overall, it’s easy to just throw up your hands and go with majority opinion. As college students growing up in a world that grows more and more complicated by the day, we simply can’t afford that kind of moral and intellectual cowardice. At a certain point, the everything-is-worthy-of-consideration mentality does more harm than good. When you accept all things as plausible, you dampen your ability to distinguish reason from outright stupidity.
In summation, let’s all agree on one thing: When you hear something that so outrages your sense of intellect, that so offends your dignity to even hear it considered, don’t let it go without a fight. I don’t care how you do it — talk about it, yell about it, write an angry blog post that only your mom will read — just defend your right to be an intelligent person.
Liam Casey is a junior English major. He can be reached at lcaseydbk@gmail.com.
