75 lines
4.4 KiB
HTML
75 lines
4.4 KiB
HTML
|
<p>In recent times it would seem that, led by the principles of the
|
||
|
Enlightenment, society has decided mostly to leave behind Tradition as a
|
||
|
means of obtaining Truth. With the tools of reason and empirical
|
||
|
evidence, primarily the scientific method, we've become naïve in
|
||
|
thinking that with these tools alone, man can discover absolute and
|
||
|
complete Truth. This has fostered a mentality of rejection to Tradition,
|
||
|
perceiving it as something archaic that no longer applies to this modern
|
||
|
world where men have the ability to discover this truth on their own.
|
||
|
But I believe this dismissal of Tradition is misplaced, and has even led
|
||
|
us down a dangerous path of egoism and pride which may have devastating
|
||
|
consequences for humanity.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Usually, when we refer to Tradition, we think of ceremonies and
|
||
|
rituals, vestments and hymns. But this is a very superficial and even
|
||
|
ambiguous understanding of what Tradition truly is. When I say
|
||
|
"Tradition", I refer specifically to the accumulated knowledge of tens
|
||
|
of thousands of years, of billions of people throughout history, that
|
||
|
tells us how to live life in a way that is fulfilling and good. In a
|
||
|
sense, Tradition is a form of social evolution that, thanks to our
|
||
|
ability to communicate and learn from one another, is able to advance
|
||
|
much faster than our natural instinct which evolves at a much slower
|
||
|
rate through our genetic code. This obviously does not take away that
|
||
|
some bad mutations may occur and spread themselves like a cancer, but
|
||
|
over thousands of years these bad mutations in Tradition are weeded out
|
||
|
as they fail to survive and provide us with a healthy and fulfilling way
|
||
|
of life. As such, Tradition has an intrinsic merit within itself, as it
|
||
|
is something that is proven to function.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Alas, this isn't something particularly satisfying to us today, as it
|
||
|
contradicts fundamental aspects of our modern mentality, those primarily
|
||
|
being relativism and individualism. We may be tempted to ask, have
|
||
|
science and reason not replaced the need for Tradition? The problem here
|
||
|
comes from a misunderstanding of what science truly is, how the
|
||
|
scientific method truly works, and what the conclusion of a scientific
|
||
|
study actually means.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Science as it is defined today in its scientific method, is a
|
||
|
procedure by which we make a general observation of reality, form a
|
||
|
hypothesis, test this hypothesis against data we have collected in
|
||
|
controlled tests, and arrive at a conclusion. The conclusion of a
|
||
|
scientific study is either rejection of the hypothesis because it did
|
||
|
not accurately predict the data, or the acceptance of the hypothesis as
|
||
|
a current theory that gives us a better understanding of the world.
|
||
|
However, this hypothesis is never to be accepted as absolute. For at any
|
||
|
moment the theory may require changes that may be minor or major. As
|
||
|
such, all scientific theories are tentative. Therefore, science can be
|
||
|
used to disprove, but never to prove. It is an approximation of reality,
|
||
|
a perfect representation of reality.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>What is more, because of the inability to create a fully controlled
|
||
|
environment - especially for matters pertaining to the social sciences,
|
||
|
which is what Tradition makes claims on - this makes the results of our
|
||
|
social science studies to be susceptible to all kinds of environmental
|
||
|
factors. Compare this to Tradition, which is the collective learned
|
||
|
experience of even trillions of human beings throughout different time
|
||
|
periods, social contexts, and natural environments. Of these, the latter
|
||
|
seems much more complete and robust than the former.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Another area in which science lacks ability is that it cannot measure
|
||
|
morality. Science is a tool for approximating an explanation to a
|
||
|
natural phenomena, but it cannot tell us whether such a phenomena is
|
||
|
good or evil. For this we must resort to the areas of philosophy and
|
||
|
logic. Yet, we already have a source that provides us with the closest
|
||
|
moral approximations through historical experience: Tradition.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>All this, of course, is not to take away the merits of science with
|
||
|
regards to the study of the natural world and the cause of natural
|
||
|
phenomena. In this regard, science is a marvelous tool that allows us to
|
||
|
understand this world that God created for us. However, to apply science
|
||
|
to the realm of morality and way of life is simply illogical. In this
|
||
|
regard it is much wiser to trust in the collective experience of our
|
||
|
ancestors over tens of thousands of years that we have had human
|
||
|
civilization.</p>
|
||
|
|