Question of the day:

Can a person articulate a belief system without being creedal?

Answer:

If the focus of a person’s faith corresponds to the referent of the description and not the description itself, it is entirely possible.

The Nicene Creed
Church Fathers

I believe in one God, the Father almighty.
Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen,
and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all worlds,

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, of one being with the Father,
through whom (him) all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit he was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.


Follow-up questions:

Why are so many afraid to say they affirm this statement of beliefs?

What do they believe?

If they put their own beliefs into words what would be the difference?

Oculi plus vident quam oculus
"Several eyes see more than only one"

Groupthink

Groupthink

Def = is the tendency for groups to reach a consensus prematurely because the desire for harmony overrides the process of critical thinking and the search for the best decision.
As introduced by Irving Janis 1982 in his many academic writings


A question comes to mind:
Is maintaining cohesion more important than developing good ideas?


Groupthink has its beginning when a close group becomes somewhat isolated. The leader(s) then become more controlling. The leader controls the discussion in order to promote his or her own preference.

What are the symptoms?
Illusion of invulnerability = the members believe they can do no wrong. This is usually followed by “mindguards” which are individuals who take it upon themselves to censor dissenters.
Members eventually censor their own behavior. This gives the appearance of little to no disagreement.
With no dissention the group then believes they have the moral high ground.
The group is also lulled into a false unanimity.
The group then begins to denigrate those remaining within the group who do not just “go along to get along.”

What are the consequences?
Generally only discusses one or two ideas.
Fails to look for all possible solutions.
Commits the mistake of not assessing all the risks.
Avoids discussing the downside of the chosen idea.
Never developing any contingency plans in case the idea fails.

I would offer a few ways to prevent this situation:
Promote open inquiry and skepticism.
Possibly appoint someone to research the downside.
Invite open debate when possible.
If plausible alternatives are offered, assign them to smaller groups to study.
Once a decision is made, come back to the table after a time of reflection and if it still remains solid, move forward.
The leader should refrain from offering an opinion to make sure other options have a chance to come to the surface.
Research, Research, Research!

Just a project I am working on. Maybe the formal paper will be written soon. Only time will tell.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur
"The world desires to be deceived; therefore it is."
Petronius

Thoughts About Life

As I sat and thought about why we “do church,” and why come to a building to meet together in a religious community, I came to several conclusions.

This being one:

We need each other, and so we need this place
To worship and praise and laugh and cry and think.
We call ourselves a family gathered by God
Not because this place is in itself holy ground,
But because what we do here and say here, and are here
Make it so.


Ad augusta per angusta
"To high places by narrow roads"

Questions Anyone?

Questions are the lifeblood of knowledge. The fear of asking when the moment calls for the question has limited many an inquiry that might have lead to a wealth of discovery. How many times have you had questions in a given situation, but you never ask because of the fear of revealing ignorance, the fear of public ridicule, the fear of loss of perceived status (being smarter than you actually are), or maybe the fear of the answer you know will come? Here is a question. What now?

Quod nocet, saepe docet
"That which harms, often teaches."

Life 101

The remedy for dirt is soap and water.

The remedy for dying is living.

Logic 101

Non-Christian philosophers from the time of the Greeks until the late 1990s had three things in common. First, they were rationalist. That means they believed everything was balanced on the premise of reason alone. They believed that man could begin from himself and gather enough information to form his own universe. Rationalism rejects any knowledge outside of man himself, with a special exclusion reserved for God.

Second, they took reason seriously. They accepted the fact that the mind thinks in terms of antithesis. To elaborate, that with their minds people can come to the conclusion that certain things are true while certain other things are not true, that some things are right in contrast to other things being wrong.

Logic 101:
“A” is “A” and “A” is not “non-A”

Third, they believed in the validity of reason. Non-Christian philosophers, before 1800, were also optimistic. They thought they would and could succeed in their goal to establish by reason alone a unified and true knowledge of what really is. When that happened people would have the answers to all the questions of the universe and for all that people are and all they think. They hoped for something, which would unify all knowledge and all of life.
To be continued…

Malum quidem nullum esse sine aliquo bono
"There is, to be sure, no evil without something good."

Docendo discimus

The blog name comes from a quote attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, or as some may call him, Seneca The Younger. Docendo discimus is humbly translated "we learn by teaching."
It is my belief that the evidence of learning comes from the ability to teach what we have learned to others.

The blog name and signature are employed with a light heart, but they are used because of the message they convey. I will leave it to the reader to research meanings of words and imagery that appear on this blog. One important aspect of learning is a degree of personal investment. To truly understand a subject, being fed information is only one component in the equation. A person must spend time to research and draw conclusions based on objective study of a given topic, word, idea, or a complete belief system.


Veritatem dies aperit.
Time discovers truth.
On Anger, 2, line 22