"The Modern Mind" - Hilaire Belloc 05/14/2010
In Belloc's work, "Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church", he identifies a number of enemies of the Church, including what he hesitates to call, "The Modern Mind". He identifies this problem in the following:
"Upon dissecting it we discover the "Modern Mind" to contain three main ingredients and to combine them through the force of one principle. Its three ingredients are pride, ignorance, and intellectual sloth; their unifying principle is a blind acceptance of authority not based on reason.
Pride causes those who suffer from this disease to regard whatever they think they have learned, whatever they have absorbed, through no matter how absurd a channel, as absolute and sufficient.
Ignorance forbids them to know with any thoroughness what men have discovered about these things in the past, and how certainly.
Intellectual sloth forbids them to examine an argument, or even to appreciate the implications of their own assertions."
What is sad about this issue is how prevalent it is. Speak to any person of any background and you may quickly identify how much they have been infected by these three identifiers. For instance, open a conversation on politics and it quickly turns partisan usually based on sound bites. A great example of this occurred during the last presidential election. If one were to state they were voting for, say, Ron Paul, the immediate response was, "that is a vote for Obama!" Could they explain the rationale of this without quoting talking heads and pundits? No.
Another instance can be called to mind when discussing traditional Catholicism. Who hasn't spoken of the beauty and grandeur of the Tridentine Liturgy to a modern catholic, only to have them state that their parish is "nice" or their pastor a "good preacher, friendly"? Push a little more and you get the following, "Oh, that is nice for you, but it's not for me." This is a great example of intellectual sloth, in that the person is stating they cannot engage in a reasonable discussion based on facts...they will have it their way, you can have it your way...both are ok.
I think all of us modern people are infected with this virus to some extent. Who among us doesn't at times act as if we have absorbed all the deposit of Faith? Which one of us can honestly say we are open to learning where we might have learned something wrong or simply not learned the truth about some aspect of the faith? As a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, I thought I had learned all the most important truths of the faith and how to live them out. I had embraced a theological pride and ignorance based on what I thought to be a stellar Catholic education paired with a strong spiritual formation. Recently, I have been challenged on a number of things I took for granted, and my first response was to reject engaging in the argument.
As a person truly trying to grasp the traditional faith, I had to face where I might have been deceived. The question is, am I willing to put down my pride, push aside my ignorance, and embrace the rigor of intellectually grasping with the faith so as to become more and more Catholic and ultimately holy? Or will I just sit and fritter away my time on the internet?
"Upon dissecting it we discover the "Modern Mind" to contain three main ingredients and to combine them through the force of one principle. Its three ingredients are pride, ignorance, and intellectual sloth; their unifying principle is a blind acceptance of authority not based on reason.
Pride causes those who suffer from this disease to regard whatever they think they have learned, whatever they have absorbed, through no matter how absurd a channel, as absolute and sufficient.
Ignorance forbids them to know with any thoroughness what men have discovered about these things in the past, and how certainly.
Intellectual sloth forbids them to examine an argument, or even to appreciate the implications of their own assertions."
What is sad about this issue is how prevalent it is. Speak to any person of any background and you may quickly identify how much they have been infected by these three identifiers. For instance, open a conversation on politics and it quickly turns partisan usually based on sound bites. A great example of this occurred during the last presidential election. If one were to state they were voting for, say, Ron Paul, the immediate response was, "that is a vote for Obama!" Could they explain the rationale of this without quoting talking heads and pundits? No.
Another instance can be called to mind when discussing traditional Catholicism. Who hasn't spoken of the beauty and grandeur of the Tridentine Liturgy to a modern catholic, only to have them state that their parish is "nice" or their pastor a "good preacher, friendly"? Push a little more and you get the following, "Oh, that is nice for you, but it's not for me." This is a great example of intellectual sloth, in that the person is stating they cannot engage in a reasonable discussion based on facts...they will have it their way, you can have it your way...both are ok.
I think all of us modern people are infected with this virus to some extent. Who among us doesn't at times act as if we have absorbed all the deposit of Faith? Which one of us can honestly say we are open to learning where we might have learned something wrong or simply not learned the truth about some aspect of the faith? As a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, I thought I had learned all the most important truths of the faith and how to live them out. I had embraced a theological pride and ignorance based on what I thought to be a stellar Catholic education paired with a strong spiritual formation. Recently, I have been challenged on a number of things I took for granted, and my first response was to reject engaging in the argument.
As a person truly trying to grasp the traditional faith, I had to face where I might have been deceived. The question is, am I willing to put down my pride, push aside my ignorance, and embrace the rigor of intellectually grasping with the faith so as to become more and more Catholic and ultimately holy? Or will I just sit and fritter away my time on the internet?
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