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