THINK

These words, written by Arne Tiselius, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1948, ring more true than ever in our increasingly fractious world. Are we witnessing the capitulation of critical thinking to mentalities that are fed with a steady diet of hyperbole and outright falsehoods? I’m beginning to wonder. In the end it boils down to education, does it not? Have we, particularly in North America, failed in this regard? Martin Luther King, Jr. defined education’s role as follows: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” King was on the same wavelength as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who in the early part of the last century stated that “Training in morals and good conduct is far more important than book learning. A child that is cleanly, agreeable, of good character, well-behaved even though he be ignorant is preferable to a child that is rude, unwashed, ill-natured, and yet becoming deeply versed in all the sciences and arts. The reason for this is that the child who conducts himself well, even though he be ignorant, is of benefit to others, while an ill-natured, ill-behaved child is corrupted and harmful to others, even though he be learned. If, however, the child be trained to be both learned and good, the result is light upon light.” All the book learning in the world, all the money in world, all the power in the world amount to a hill of beans if not combined with a “good” character — in fact they can become forces of destruction if not tethered and channeled by some form of ethical standard. The consequences of ignoring this truth are playing out daily on our television screens, laptops and mobile phones. Perhaps the time has come to at least attempt to redress the imbalance (many are already doing so) — future generations will thank us for at least having made the effort.
