ADAPT OR DIE

I’ve been working on The Earth, The Gods and the Soul on the history of pagan philosophy by Brendan Myers. The author describes the transmission knowledge from teacher to pupils as a lineage. And at a time it was a lineage in a way. Plato to his students. Aristotle to his and so on. And the transmission goes both ways. The student has a responsibility to take what’s learned; test it, turn it inside out, test it again. Then if it seems to be true pass it on.

In other words a philosophy secular or religious can grow or it can die. “Each tradition of thinking, if it is a developing critical tradition and not a historical curiosity, moves and changes and adapts itself over time, as it was worked over by hundreds, maybe thousands of others.”

Now can anyone think of a branch of a religious philosophy that not only discourages inquiry but insists on freezing itself not in the present, but two thousand years in the past. And further insists that the rest of us go along for the ride whether we believe or not. And if there are questions or criticisms that answer comes down to “the Bible says so” and there’s and end to it.

Here’s a newsflash for you fundies. Say that to my face and you must might discover the hard way just how much respect little Susie has for that argument as she laughs in your face. Because I'm going to give that argument and you ALL the respect you and it deserve.