The Issue of Indoctrination

[Leonardo17]

It has everything to do with literacy rates especially with the enlightenment movement and the publication of the Encyclopédie in 1771 and the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1768. When I was a kid it was such a prestigious item in our library. I even had a printed “Medical Encyclopedia” that I would consult whenever I felt like maybe I had this or that illness.

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If no one invented the Internet and chat-gbt, this would still be a huge leap forward for humanity. Since I was born, whenever someone told me anything, I was able to check and double-check that information and learn things for myself.
 
In the past, we had religious preachers here who would preach that the Apollo mission was a fraud because the moon was made of Divine Light (“Nur” in Arabic) and it would be impossible for anyone to land on it.
 

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It has a lot to do with pedagogy too. See: In many less developed countries learning things by hearth, being hard working and showing obedience to the teacher are core values. Not every education system (even today) promotes critical thinking, motivation to learn things for yourself and independent thinking.
 

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Yet, indoctrination has still been some sort of method of education. Learning about Adam and Eve and Jesus dying on the cross is still a situation where you learn “something” as opposed to learning nothing at all. If you look at medieval churches you can see all these imagery that are there to teach illiterate people about the stories in the Bible. You had to wait until the end of the 19th century for ordinary people to start reading their own holy books for themselves. There are illiterate people today who happen to be believers in this or that religion, know about all the prayers and practices, yet are unable to read the vey holy book they believe in


 
   So methods are evolving very fast. I think one can be religious but not indoctrinated, be faithful yet not undogmatic about spiritual issues. I think it’s a problem if you are a 21st century man or woman and simply believe (a spiritual or non-spiritual issue) because some authority figure told you that “this is the truth”.



 
   This was the way of our ancestors. I don’t think it’s still the right way to go in our time

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