This has got to be one of the more important items* we’ve pointed to in a while: Mathematician John Lennox, speaking on November 1 in the film Against the Tide (tickets)
The idea of tolerance has changed its meaning in a tragic and very dangerous way. The Latin verb “tolerāre” means, If I tolerate you, I disagree with you but I will defend your right publicly to say what you believe. We need to get back to that but we’re losing it. This is a complex story, and I’m not an expert on culture, but at least from what I observe there is a huge danger today in putting on colored glasses that see everything in terms of power, oppression, and oppressors. There’s an element of what’s often called critical theory, pejoratively called cultural Marxism, that is sweeping around on the left side of political academic thinking. It’s been very influential in the university world. And to my mind, anything that stops freedom of speech is the exact opposite of a university.
One of the things that I never tire of saying is: Look to the origin of the great universities. They were mostly founded on Christian thinking. That is extremely important. Now what we’ve got is the dominance of naturalism, with universities going against their very foundation.
David Klinghoffer, “Against the Tide: The Darkening Intellectual Scene” at Mind Matters News
But a naturalist regime would want a quiet public that, like most animals, never asks questions. There would still be universities, of course, but it would all be a carefully managed show. The few Top People who are allowed to think would keep suicide pills handy.
*This is way more important than our usual stuff about how crabs evolved five times (carcinization). Apparently, every life form with no other future on offer decides to be a crab?
But what if we humans aren’t allowed to think for ourselves any more?