I must register my strong support for Dr. Steve Eskow in his posting
referred to above. IMVHO, "beliefs" are not disciplines. Rather, they
represent the willing suspension of intellectual discipline.
We all have beliefs. Some, like my belief that Mickey Mantle was the
greatest baseball player ever, are suspect, but not worth arguing about,
except for the sport of it. Others, like my belief that the universe was
'created' somewhere between 3 and 10 billion years ago are probably true
(based on my understanding of current scientific 'knowledge'), but not
worth arguing about either, unless you are a cosmologist (to me, whether
the answer is 4.6 billion or 7.1 billion--or even outside that range--is
irrelevant). Others, like my belief that there is such a thing as the
'brotherhood of man' (i.e. we are all in this thing we call 'life'
together, whether we like it or not), are ones which are vague, but
arguable, as well as worthy of argument. Others, like all religions, rely
completely on faith rather than reason and are, therefore, unarguable.
Let us heed Steve's thoughts and keep the unarguable off of this list. It
detracts from its value as a learning tool. And, let us please all try to
do less preaching and more listening. I hope, at the least, that one
thing we all believe is Senge's elegant observation that 'The more you
learn, the more acutely aware you become of your ignorance.'
Hoping that I have not displayed too much of my ignorance in this post, I
am, sincerely,
Richard Goodale
Managing Partner
The Dornoch Partnership
+44-1383-860660
--"Richard GOODALE" <fc45@dial.pipex.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>