XPost: misc.phone.mobile.iphone, comp.mobile.android   
   From: lcargill99@comcast.com   
      
   (PeteCresswell) wrote:   
   > Per Jolly Roger:   
   >> Irrelevant. He has a degree. And a degree is not a reliable indication of   
   >> how smart you are.   
   >   
   > I'll go along with that....   
   >   
   > But would also think that it's a pretty good indication that the   
   > person's IQ is above room temperature - and that they have better   
   > critical thinking skills than a non-college graduate.   
   >   
   > OTOH, there's Ben Carson and his belief that the earth was created less   
   > than 10,000 years ago and that men walked with dinosaurs.... So I guess   
   > the critical thinking part is not exactly ironclad...... -)   
   >   
      
   Ben Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist, which entails some pretty   
   non-mainstream beliefs. We have these things partly because America   
   was a place where people who were hounded out of civilization   
   because of non-mainstream beliefs could find a place to live here,   
   and because once they got off the beaten track, they were in a small   
   isolated lagoon where they could grow.   
      
   I have older relatives who are Adventists, and they're very gentle,   
   hardworking, honest people. They're generally more literate   
   than most. A couple are fine artists ( I was named for one )   
   and this does not limit them in any way I've been able to find.   
      
   At some point after/during the 1960s, it became more and more   
   commonplace for people of faith to reject what they perceive as   
   ( or are told is ) "secular society". IMO, as the sheer quantity of BS   
   form television built up, people just didn't want to be associated   
   with the mainstream any more.   
      
   Aren't we privileged to not have to worry about that?   
      
   There was a time when it was expected that medical people were basically   
   scientists of a sort. No longer. It's just ticket-punching until   
   they get to the specialty  training. It's "is this gonna be on the test"   
   for all those years...   
      
   > That is not to say it works the other way.   
   >   
   > To wit: the Amish.  Extremely low educational attainment, yet - as my #1   
   > daughter-the-farmer observes "They know how money works"... and the ones   
   > I have interacted with are clearly nobody's fool.   
   >   
      
   During say, the 19th Century, you could have said the same of Harvard.   
      
   The Amish may have low *secular* educational attainment, but   
   they work pretty hard at their own version of liturgical   
   and religious-philosophy learning. I have relatives ( who are   
   not Amish) who didn't make it past high school, but continued   
   their education through a church who might surprise you   
   by the sorts of things they do know because of this.   
      
   My aunt, who is a Church of God lay minister, is pretty well   
   prepared on Greek philosophy because it's peripheral to the study   
   of the apostle Paul.   
      
   I cannot think of a happier human being than her.   
      
   --   
   Les Cargill   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)