Dear Organlearners,
Srikanth Goparaju <SGoparaju@CGSB.TAMU.EDU> writes:
>The following two statements sum up what I think is at the
>core of learning:
>
>If we don't believe anything then even the real world will appear
>illusory. If we do not question any of our beliefs then we probably
>will be living in a world of illusion.
Greetings Srikanth,
The wisdom of these words speak to me. Thank you very much.
I grew up in a culture in which the questioning of beliefs is considered
to be a treacherous sin -- a sure way to become an atheist. This culture
is still very dominant today, even though the political transformations in
South Africa caused many people to think twice.
Many people assume that a person acquires faith just as that person
acquires knowledge. And for the acquisition of knowledge they assume rote
learning -- the mind is like sponge which has to suck up the "knowledge"
offered to it, or like a hard disk which has to store data verbatim. In
other words, a person has to absorb beliefs from whoever profess to have
more faith than that person.
I also grew up with this "absorbtion assumption" until I realised that it
is not a belief itself, but merely an unquestioned assumption! Now I know
that there is also another possibility and one which I personally
experienced to be apllicable to me. Just as the "evolution of knowledge"
is possible within a person, we can also have the "evolution of faith"
within a person. For a person to question his/her beliefs is perhaps the
most powerful way to promote his/her "evolution of faith". This also
points to the way how to actually question these beliefs effectively.
Evolution cannot happen by merely negating evolution.
Tacit to your statement "If we do not question any of our beliefs then we
probably will be living in a world of illusion" is the belief that we have
an "evolution of faith". This "evolution of faith" is a belief which each
person self ought to subject to the severest scrutiny possible. This is
far different from subjecting to the severest criticism possible by other
people. The difference is the spontaneous self-organisation possible in
the former whereas in the latter it can at most result in a forced
conformation.
But your statement also leads to an extremely important outcome which we
might be tacitly aware of, but which I have to articulate so that we can
have a dialogue on it so as to question your statement. Faith (beliefs)
is real to the world of humans. In other words, faith may be a mere
illusion to some section of humanity, but it is very actual to the rest of
humanity. To deny things (like faith) which are actual to some humans and
hence to insist that they should be treated at most as virtual
(illusionary) is to distort reality. Likewise it is a distortion of
reality to deny illusions or else insist that illusions should become
actual before they can be acceptable.
The difference between these distortions of reality and reality itself
function as an entropic force. This entropic force (together with its
flux) is necessary for entropy production. The very manifestions of the
entropy so produced (first automatically chaos and then contingently
order) make up the evolution which we recognise. Thus other people and
their different viewpoints helps us to recognise reality and faith as an
important part of it.
But differences should never contribute in such a way that the recognition
has to be paid for by destructive immergences. The "burning of witches" is
a typical example of this destructive reasoning to assist the "evolution
of faith". It is a reasoning which assumes the belief that constructive
emergences have to be paid for or enabled by destructive immergences. It
is a belief which cannot harmonise with the fact that entropy production
happens in the spiritual world also.
Any organisation with a strategy based on destructive immergences to
enable constructive emergences cannot emerge into a learning organisation.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>