My name is Mark Callaghan Hickey and Phys.org is, to a large extent, my own personal website. However, my general aim is to stimulate and promote analysis and discussion of questions of religious faith, particularly Catholic faith, theology, philosophy, physics, metaphysics, mathematics, art, music, sociology, politics and economics. One of the things I believe to be missing in the modern world of today is a unified perspective on culture, society and education.
The groves of academe in the secular realms have become more and more specialised and fragmented and are missing an over-arching meta-narrative by which contributions can be evaluated. Furthermore, our educational establishments in the West are approaching subjects like science and engineering (which command disproportionate authority) with a rigour that appears to be missing from subjects like theology and philosophy. This is unfortunate because the university was originally based on these latter subjects as its foundation. Far from being devoid of rigour, these foundational subjects are prior and necessary to any intellectual endeavour and the fragmented and reductionistic worldview that comes with their abandonment impoverishes the intellect, fore-shortens the horizon of inquiry, makes shallow the depths of our understanding and makes the student into a utilitarian, blinkered sheep that can be swayed by mob group-think. We need to apply the rigour that is seen as so desirable in ‘STEM’ subjects, to all questions, especially the ‘big’ questions – what is our origin, the origin of our present state, our eternal destiny and how we are to get there.
Another aspect of this is something missing from a of modern discourse and confrontation – meaningful confrontation. I might be wrong, you might be right or vice- versa, but we are not going to get off the truth-train for the sake of avoiding giving or taking offence. The truth is worth that, at the very least.
Phyos 