With a tagline like that, how can I help but link to Prager University? University does a lot of damage these days–we have to work to undo that, so thanks, Dennis Prager, for getting the ball rolling. (University did me a lot of damage. I went because it was expected. My Master’s year was more useful–it became educational at that point and I enjoyed that. But four years of undergrad? Not so much. I should add, I wouldn’t have my current job without a degree of some kind. So I won’t be ungrateful, sitting pretty from my employed perch in a knowledge-based economy. But when I talk about how “useful” university was, I’m referring to the pursuit of truth and the development of my relationship with God. And the phrase “relationship with God” is not one I heard for a full five years on campus.)
I plan on taking Prager’s “courses” with regularity. Here’s another one, about how men and women are different.
When a university believes that we live in a uni-verse then there is a basis for believing that phenomena can be investigated and understood – a basis for the pursuit of truth. This has been the foundation for knowledge, philosophic and scientific theory and research and fostered the conviction that there was no dichotomy in knowledge. Science, Philosophy and Theology were kindred studies. This is not a new thing. Some 2500 years ago David wrote; ‘The sky aloft, the visible sky, speaks of the glory of God, speaks of the work of His hands’.(Ps 19). About 600 years later Paul wrote; ”The things not capable of being seen about God… have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..'(Rm 1:19).
On the other hand starting with the idea that things are not a unified whole and things can’t be known lead to statements such as one I encountered in the first seminar of Graduate History studies. The Professor began with; ‘We all know there is no such thing as truth’. In wondering about that I asked; ‘Is that true?’. The 90 minute seminar never got past this question.