HOODWINKED by Wisdom
or folly
November 1 2014 | Category: need to know
Flipping Your Thoughts
There are many ways to describe moments that ignite thoughts or stop you in your tracks with a "say that again!" like query. Happenstance. Serendipity. Or, simply your brain doing its job. When I discovered a commentator I respected, now looked like a opportunist, unable to comprehend ideas outside his comfort zone I was disappointed.
Tim Minchin, a philosopher/commentator from my home town, had always appeared as a thoughtful, humerous speaker, unafraid to challenge his audience. Last week he moved from hero to villain in my eyes. After watching his animated story, "The Storm", on You Tube I could no longer reconcile this Tim with the memory I held of him. In the animated story, an aggressive and overbearing male lambasts and ridicules a gentle female because she cannot prove her beliefs in God, phychic connections, or an afterlife. And, as she cannot, her beliefs must be worthless, "if she could prove it, I would change my mind", he generously asserts.
So, let's turn this thinking on its head. The scientific, confident and knowledgable male, sounding like a five year old demanding to know why he couldn't have a second ice cream., is stamping his feet: my intellect is superior, I can't understand your logic, you are wrong. End of story.
Place him under the light of scrutiny and his argument can seem symbolic and shallow, driven by a necessity to believe in his own correctness, and hiding an ability to consider that his abilities, which give him his power, could be the equivalent of Grade 1 thinking, he is simply not capable of thinking at this 'other' level.
Cautionary note:
this blog is not about my beliefs per se. It is not intended to change your beliefs. The sole purpose of the blog is to freely ponder the meaning of wisdom, and to enable mine, and yours, to be forever growing.
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