THE DEEPER PROBLEM

In a segment on his tv show, Bill O'Reilly addressed the story of a Muslim father who shot and killed his two teenage daughters allegedly because they were dating non-Muslim boys. Muslims refer to them as "honor killings" on the argument that the girls dishonored the family by violating Islamic law. There are thousands of such killings around the world each year.

O'Reilly asked his guest whether there was a deeper problem behind the killings. It was an excellent question. Unfortunately, he did not get an excellent answer.

Man is a rational animal. His unique and fundamental trait distinguishing him from other living things is his ability to use reason. Man must make choices as to what action to take in the course of, and in the interest of, his life. His rational faculty gives him the ability to learn the facts of reality...the IS...to think about them, contemplate them in the context of other knowledge he has, and to make appropriate choices. We call it "thinking". It does not automatically guarantee the thinker will arrive at the right, or best, decision. But it is man's best means of making informed and life-nurturing decisions. It accounts for ALL of man's progress through the ages.

Rational thinking takes effort, the more complex the question, the more effort required. Unfortunately for man, in this regard, is that he has a much easier, quicker, way of coming to conclusions: relying on his feelings. Ask most people what they think about certain issues (gay marriages, legalization of marijuana, changing the minimum age for drinking alcohol, should we have a military draft, etc.) and you are likely to hear something like: "I haven't considered it all that much, but I think...this or that".

Wrong. That person does not THINK something, but FEELS something, and on the basis of that feeling has come to a preference, a viewpoint, a conclusion. While feelings serve a purpose in our lives as indicators of how we SENSE our lives are going, they are open-ended, subjective not objective in nature, and contain no standard to prove they are "right"...that is, based on reality, on truth. That is solely in the province of rational thought. Making important decisions on the basis of feelings, as most seem to do, is risky business. It is not acting as man: the rational animal. It is a violation of man's nature, it is sub-human. Irrational. Catastrophic.

And that, Bill, is the deeper problem. "Mercy killings" are irrational. The planes flying into the Twin Towers were driven by irrationality. Politicians who flaunt the law and their responsibilities are acting irrationally. The moral breakdown we are seeing in the world, the rampant cruelty and violence, are all effects of the spoiled seed: irrationality. In each case, the perpetrator knew, or would have known after some minimum rational thinking, that what he or she was doing is wrong. But they CHOSE to act on the basis of whims, wishes, feelings, detached from reality. "Go by your gut" is in. Very in.

The solution? Start teaching rational thinking, rational decision-making, in elementary school...and reinforce that teaching in high school and universities. Teach young children the function, the value, the beauty, and the glorious potential of their reasoning ability. Honor and reward those who act rationally.

Or we will all pay the price.