Well, we’ve finally come to the end of the quarter, and getting the chance to write in the Lantern every week has been quite a joy.Many of you, no doubt, have been wondering just why the heck I write what I write. I’d like to take some time this week to tell you why, and to issue a challenge. Behind the headlines, behind all the things you and I do and say everyday, lies certain beliefs. My column topics this quarter have examined some of those dearly held notions like, all religions lead to god, there is no moral truth that is valid for all people across all cultural and societal boundaries, there is no ultimate meaning and purpose to life and human beings are basically good and more education and therapy will cure our problems. These are popularly espoused ideas that are rampantly changing our culture. Yet, for many, they never stop to scrutinize these ideas and ask if they are actually true or not. That should be the question, right? Is what you believe true? Because if it’s not, you don’t want to follow it.In the past, the college campus has been devoted to the search for truth. But things have changed. It seems to me, what’s right is no longer a concern. Rather than conform our experiences, desires and lifestyles to the truth, we actually switch the order. The tail wags the dog, and the consequences that brings can be severe.Writer G.K. Chesterton once astutely observed there are many angles at which you can fall, but only one angle at which you can stand straight. That angle is a very slim angle, and in life, if you follow the truth, you win; follow a lie, you lose – big time. By attempting to conform reality to your way of life, you can easily put yourself on one of those angles at which you are going to fall.We are so resistant to change, especially when it comes to the beliefs we hold dear. When we are challenged or when we happen upon reasons and evidence that our beliefs are false, we instinctively run the other way. Our own comfort zones are often too precious, and what’s right and true threatens to pluck us out of them.Many of the ideologies I encounter on campus, some of which I have written about this quarter, are merely smokescreens, set up, not to help people find but hide from the truth that threatens their comfort zones. At first glance, the beliefs sound compelling, but a bit of examination uncovers an emperor with lots of bluster, but no bloomers. I have tried to point this out over the quarter and call us to rigorously examine what we believe and why, and then if we find our beliefs to be false, to ditch them. The failure to do so, as I have already pointed out, can prove detrimental and malignant to both the individual and society at large.In medieval times when a knight threw his gauntlet into the arena, it was a signal to all watching that he was willing to take on the challenger. He was in the fight.So, here’s my challenge: Rather than circle the wagons with those who agree with you, merely defensively guarding against the slightest challenge of your beliefs, why not throw your gauntlet into the arena and put your point of view to the test? Don’t just dismiss the challenger (in this case, that would be me). Throw your ideas into the arena. Like I alluded to earlier this quarter, eternity hangs in the balance: Truth matters. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Rich Bordner is a senior English major and philosophy minor. He can be reached at [email protected].