THE FIRST AND FINAL WAR

THE FIRST AND FINAL WAR, aka THE WAR FOR MAN'S MIND. It all began thousands of years ago with the admonition to Adam and Eve, "Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge or you will surely die."

The cast was set. On one side, THE KNOWITS, those who craved knowledge about the mysteries of the world. They understood that the Universe was a knowable reality, that man had the capacity to know it, to shape it. They savored knowledge realizing it was the key to a more fulfilling, enriched and rewarding life. And they became advocates of Reason, Logic and Scientific Study.

On the other side, THE BELIEVERS, those who disdained the effort and commitment that the acquisition of knowledge entails. They equated knowing what was true with a mere belief of what was true. And their belief of what was true was rooted in blind acceptance of what they were told by others, on their feelings, and on the most casual observations of reality. (They even went so far as to suggest that perhaps reality was nothing more than a dream and that, in fact, there was nothing to know and no one to know it.)

It is interesting to note that in that first skirmish of the war in the Garden of Eden, the KNOWITS lost and were punished with a lifelong sentence of shame for wanting to know more. And the snake, the facilitator of knowledge, was made to crawl on the ground. Notice the derogatory way in which the term "snake" is used today to label someone as sinister and treacherous.

The battle lines were clear:

THE BELIEVERS accepted without proof, sought answers in an imagined world, accepted answers contradicting known knowledge, believed man requires revelations to know things, commanded obedience.

THE KNOWITS required proof before accepting, sought answers in the known world, rejected the arbitrary, knew it is man that reveals, questioned.

For 1,500 years, THE BELIEVERS reigned supreme. Fear, doubt, ignorance and despair enveloped mankind and plummeted the world into the appropriately-named Dark Ages, where it wallowed for 200 years.

And then the War turned. Perhaps because of the depths to which it had fallen, THE KNOWITS' message of hope and achievement resonated throughout much of the civilized world, and the Age of Enlightenment was born and with it came progress galore in medicine and technology and production and in the enrichment of human life.

Another 200 years has passed, the pendulum swings again, THE BELIEVERS are surging. Their rallying cries bellow out across the land and seas:

"You can't know anything for certain" (except presumably that)

"The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing" (including that?)

"What's true for you may not be true for me" (that's not true for me)

"What you don't know can't hurt you" (I didn't know that)

"Ignorance is bliss" (how do they know that?)

"Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing" (or that?)

The onslaught continues. THE BELIEVERS own many of the print, radio and tv media. They set the curriculums in academia. They are the preachers in the pulpits. They run governments and foster policies that are forced on all. They spawn terrorist groups and suicide bombers. Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung were BELIEVERS as is every other murdering, enslaving, dictator. And in an ultimate irony, THE BELIEVERS have redefined "I think" to mean "I believe" rather than "I know."

The attack on knowledge is serious and sinister. It is a frontal attack on man since it is his mind, its capabilities and potential, that is man's distinguishing characteristic. The mindless man, the man who accepts the belief that knowledge cannot be acquired or cannot benefit his life, is malleable and easily manipulated. And easily conquered.

Adam and Eve, it is said, were punished for seeking knowledge. Does that portend what will happen, again?