Becoming Intellectual

Usually I am spurred to write because of a book that I am reading at the moment. Today is no exception. The book Love Your God With All Your Mind by J.P. Moreland is stretching me in a new way. My mind is no longer exclusive to one type of input. I am in the process of becoming more intellectual and, in the process, developing true wisdom.

I believe that my generation, the generation behind me, and countless future generations are heading down a path to mental distruction. I myself have grown into this habit of neglecting my mind and its necessity to be stretched and challenged on a day to day basis. I have been numbed by sensory overload. I can sit passive in front of a television for a few hours or even on this computer and mindlessly blow two hours. I do not think this is an accident.

We are being taught that it is okay to let others think for ourselves. Sure, we get this superficial and insincere lecture throughout our primary and secondary education about pushing ourselves. However, we are only being conditioned to think in a straight line that prepares us for a future career. We are taught to focus on one area of education and find the best way of accomplishing all the necessary tasks so that we can make money. However, those one track minds tend to follow an eerily similar path: Artistry.

Don't get me wrong, I love art. I love and appreciate talented photographers, film makers, and drawers, but art is now being shown as an acceptable escape from being well-rounded. Art is being incorporated into everything and trumping that which it is supposed to supplement. I am not saying that it is wrong to incorporate visual aesthetics into advertising, but we tend to stop at the front cover and not delve into the actual material, if there even is substance. From politics to Christianity, we see that the people who have the most flash, the most glitter, or the best advertisment to be the most successful. However, success is seen in money and numbers (amount) and not in individual intellect.

Our society is so completely consumed with being entertained both in our ears and our eyes that we couldn't care less if the information being shown is worth watching. Let's be honest. Take a look at the young children. Heck, look at my peers in college right now. How many hate math? How many read for pleasure? How many people would rather tune in to their ipod instead of having to face the sights, sounds, and (oh my!) conversations that may result from walking on this earth? We have been classically conditioned that those who question are those who #1 are annoying and #2 will not make any money. However, since all society believes this, the reality is that any thinker is annoying and actually does not make money.

Instead of challenging the business ethics of big corporations, we settle for being ignorant of the exploitation of foreign child-labor. Christians get bent out of shape at the sexual immorality of this world as seen modern advertising but are not convicted enough to realize that it starts in every individual mind. Thus, we have church leaders addicted to porn, we have pastors sleeping with women other than their wives, and we see the youth pastor's movie collection to be not far off from the average immature high schooler.

Self-centeredness consumes us. Thus, if we have to be challenged by a book, by an equation, or by a probing question from a true intellectual we duck out by saying that we won't be using this in the future. Yes, you probably won't need that equation to fuction in the real world, but your mind grows in knowledge with every challenge it takes on. Maybe, just maybe, reading that tough book will develop discipline to stick with a future work project. Funny how we cannot see the virtues and values that grow when we have to think hard. Funny how we see the virtues and values of America go out the window when we don't have to think. We are content with walking around with small minds that only tackle the issues that prevent us from being successful in our careers.

It makes me sick to see my attitude towards critical thinking. I realize that I am extremely limited in my knowledge because I only restrict myself to information that appeals to my interests. However, even writing this and thinking about why I am troubled about my mind's condition stretches me. It starts in the mind. What we have put in is what we are getting out. We are conforming to those very things which we think about. This works in both positive and negative ways. Just ask your average dirty-minded, currupt businessman or your perverted, adulterous pastor.

I am going to go do a Sudoku.

Romans 12:2 -- Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.