Are you for or against the separation of church and state?

[Anomalocaris]

Not to derail... er, something. But I've yet to see good evidence that "teaching critical thinking" works.

In my personal experience, it is not the teaching of the tenants of critical thinking that shaped my view of epistomology. Rather it is a wide range interest in things that actually demonstratably works that led me to the following pattern:

1. Most things (gadgets, techniques, and methods) that both demonstratably works well and worked by design came to be so through application of critical thinking. Non-critical thinking without any subconscious guidance from critical thinking did not present any evidence of being able to arrive at any demonstrateble working solution at all, except through chance.

2. Such things that does work well and arguably did not come about as result of critical thinking did not present the appearence of being in principle unattainable through critical thinking.

3. Non-critical thinking modes not only has poor chances of "working", but of the many such modes that there are, there is no evidence any is better, such as better might be, than any others, unless some non-critical thinking modes is in fact aided and abetted by some partial critical thinking.

So in so far as any non-critical thinking method might be better than pure junk, it only attained its elevated status, such as it is, through adulteration with critical thinking.