Section III - Philosophical

Perspectives in Education Part 2

Four General or World Philosophies

The term metaphysics literally means "beyond the physical." This area
of philosophy focuses on the nature of reality. Metaphysics attempts to
find unity across the domains of experience and thought. At the
metaphysical level, there are four* broad philosophical schools of thought that apply
to education today. They are idealism, realism, pragmatism (sometimes called
experientialism), and existentialism. Each will be explained shortly. These four
general frameworks provide the root or base from which the various educational
philosophies are derived.
* A fifth metaphysical school of thought, called Scholasticism, is largely applied in Roman Catholic schools in the
educational philosophy called "Thomism." It combines idealist and realist philosophies in a framework that
harmonized the ideas of Aristotle, the realist, with idealist notions of truth. Thomas Aquinas, 1255-127, was the
theologian who wrote "Summa Theologica," formalizing church doctrine. The Scholasticism movement encouraged
the logical and philosophical study of the beliefs of the church, legitimizing scientific inquiry within a religious
framework.

Two of these general or world philosophies, idealism and realism, are derived from
the ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Two are more
contemporary, pragmatism and existentialism. However, educators who share one of
these distinct sets of beliefs about the nature of reality presently apply each of these
world philosophies in successful classrooms. Let us explore each of these
metaphysical schools of thought.

Idealism
Idealism is a philosophical approach that has as its central tenet that ideas are the only
true reality, the only thing worth knowing. In a search for truth, beauty, and justice
that is enduring and everlasting, the focus is on conscious reasoning in the mind.
Plato, father of Idealism, espoused this view about 400 years BC, in his famous
book, The Republic. Plato believed that there are two worlds. The first is the spiritual
or mental world, which is eternal, permanent, orderly, regular, and universal. There is
also the world of appearance, the world experienced through sight, touch, smell, taste,
and sound, that is changing, imperfect, and disorderly. This division is often referred
to as the duality of mind and body. Reacting against what he perceived as too much of
a focus on the immediacy of the physical and sensory world, Plato described a utopian
society in which "education to body and soul all the beauty and perfection of which
they are capable" as an ideal. In his allegory of the cave, the shadows of the sensory
world must be overcome with the light of reason or universal truth. To understand
truth, one must pursue knowledge and identify with the Absolute Mind. Plato also
believed that the soul is fully formed prior to birth and is perfect and at one with the
Universal Being. The birth process checks this perfection, so education requires
bringing latent ideas (fully formed concepts) to consciousness.

In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual's abilities
and full moral excellence in order to better serve society. The curricular emphasis is
subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Teaching methods
focus on handling ideas through lecture, discussion, and Socratic dialogue (a method
of teaching that uses questioning to help students discover and clarify knowledge).
Introspection, intuition, insight, and whole-part logic are used to bring to
consciousness the forms or concepts which are latent in the mind. Character is
developed through imitating examples and heroes.

Realism
Realists believe that reality exists independent of the human mind. The ultimate
reality is the world of physical objects. The focus is on the body/objects. Truth is
objective-what can be observed. Aristotle, a student of Plato who broke with his
mentor's idealist philosophy, is called the father of both Realism and the scientific
method. In this metaphysical view, the aim is to understand objective reality through
"the diligent and unsparing scrutiny of all observable data." Aristotle believed that to
understand an object, its ultimate form had to be understood, which does not change.
For example, a rose exists whether or not a person is aware of it. A rose can exist in
the mind without being physically present, but ultimately, the rose shares properties
with all other roses and flowers (its form), although one rose may be red and another
peach colored. Aristotle also was the first to teach logic as a formal discipline in order
to be able to reason about physical events and aspects. The exercise of rational
thought is viewed as the ultimate purpose for humankind. The Realist curriculum
emphasizes the subject matter of the physical world, particularly science and
mathematics. The teacher organizes and presents content systematically within a
discipline, demonstrating use of criteria in making decisions. Teaching methods focus
on mastery of facts and basic skills through demonstration and recitation. Students
must also demonstrate the ability to think critically and scientifically, using
observation and experimentation. Curriculum should be scientifically approached,
standardized, and distinct-discipline based. Character is developed through training in
the rules of conduct.

Pragmatism (Experientialism)
For pragmatists, only those things that are experienced or observed are real. In this
late 19th century American philosophy, the focus is on the reality of experience.
Unlike the Realists and Rationalists, Pragmatists believe that reality is constantly
changing and that we learn best through applying our experiences and thoughts to
problems, as they arise. The universe is dynamic and evolving, a "becoming" view of
the world. There is no absolute and unchanging truth, but rather, truth is what works.
Pragmatism is derived from the teaching of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), who
believed that thought must produce action, rather than linger in the mind and lead to
indecisiveness.

John Dewey (1859-1952) applied pragmatist philosophy in his progressive

approaches. He believed that learners must adapt to each other and to their
environment. Schools should emphasize the subject matter of social experience. All
learning is dependent on the context of place, time, and circumstance. Different
cultural and ethnic groups learn to work cooperatively and contribute to a democratic
society. The ultimate purpose is the creation of a new social order. Character
development is based on making group decisions in light of consequences.

For Pragmatists, teaching methods focus on hands-on problem solving,

experimenting, and projects, often having students work in groups. Curriculum should
bring the disciplines together to focus on solving problems in an interdisciplinary
way. Rather than passing down organized bodies of knowledge to new learners,
Pragmatists believe that learners should apply their knowledge to real situations
through experimental inquiry. This prepares students for citizenship, daily living, and
future careers.

Existentialism
The nature of reality for Existentialists is subjective, and lies within the individual.
The physical world has no inherent meaning outside of human existence. Individual
choice and individual standards rather than external standards are central. Existence
comes before any definition of what we are. We define ourselves in relationship to
that existence by the choices we make. We should not accept anyone else's
predetermined philosophical system; rather, we must take responsibility for deciding
who we are. The focus is on freedom, the development of authentic individuals, as we
make meaning of our lives.

There are several different orientations within the existentialist philosophy. Soren
Kierkegaard (1813-1855), a Danish minister and philosopher, is considered to be the
founder of existentialism. His was a Christian orientation. Another group of
existentialists, largely European, believes that we must recognize the finiteness of our
lives on this small and fragile planet, rather than believing in salvation through God.
Our existence is not guaranteed in an after life, so there is tension about life and the
certainty of death, of hope or despair. Unlike the more austere European approaches
where the universe is seen as meaningless when faced with the certainty of the end of
existence, American existentialists have focused more on human potential and the
quest for personal meaning. Values clarification is an outgrowth of this movement.
Following the bleak period of World War II, the French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre,
suggested that for youth, the existential moment arises when young persons realize for
the first time that choice is theirs, that they are responsible for themselves. Their
question becomes "Who am I and what should I do?

Related to education, the subject matter of existentialist classrooms should be a matter

of personal choice. Teachers view the individual as an entity within a social context in
which the learner must confront others' views to clarify his or her own. Character
development emphasizes individual responsibility for decisions. Real answers come
from within the individual, not from outside authority. Examining life through
authentic thinking involves students in genuine learning experiences. Existentialists
are opposed to thinking about students as objects to be measured, tracked, or
standardized. Such educators want the educational experience to focus on creating
opportunities for self-direction and self actualization. They start with the student,
rather than on curriculum content.

Think about It:

1. Which general or world view philosophy best fits with your own views of
reality? Why?

2. What have you learned from the history of education that is related to these
metaphysical philosophies?

3. It is said that an image is worth a thousand words. What might be your image
metaphor for each of these world or metaphysical philosophies?

Section III - Philosophical

Perspectives in Education Part 3

Educational Philosophies

Within the epistemological frame that focuses on the nature of knowledge and
how we come to know, there are four major educational philosophies, each
related to one or more of the general or world philosophies just discussed.
These educational philosophical approaches are currently used in classrooms
the world over. They are Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and
Reconstructionism. These educational philosophies focus heavily on WHAT
we should teach, the curriculum aspect.

Perennialism
For Perennialists, the aim of education is to ensure that students acquire
understandings about the great ideas of Western civilization. These ideas have
the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus is to teach ideas that
are everlasting, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the
natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change. Teaching
these unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their
minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest
priority in a worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on
attaining cultural literacy, stressing students' growth in enduring disciplines.
The loftiest accomplishments of humankind are emphasized the great works
of literature and art, the laws or principles of science. Advocates of this
educational philosophy are Robert Maynard Hutchins who developed a Great
Books program in 1963 and Mortimer Adler, who further developed this
curriculum based on 100 great books of western civilization.

Essentialism
Essentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be
transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this
conservative perspective is on intellectual and moral standards that schools
should teach. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and
academic rigor. Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways
to Perennialism, Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may
change. Schooling should be practical, preparing students to become valuable
members of society. It should focus on facts-the objective reality out there--and
"the basics," training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and
logically. Schools should not try to set or influence policies. Students should be
taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline. Teachers are to help
students keep their non-productive instincts in check, such as aggression or
mindlessness. This approach was in reaction to progressivist approaches
prevalent in the 1920s and 30s. William Bagley, took progressivist approaches
to task in the journal he formed in 1934. Other proponents of Essentialism are:
James D. Koerner (1959), H. G. Rickover (1959), Paul Copperman (1978), and
Theodore Sizer (1985).

Progressivism
Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather
than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that
students should test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the
questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not
passive. The learner is a problem solver and thinker who makes meaning
through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context.
Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing.
Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions. The
scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study
matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-
how one comes to know. The Progressive education philosophy was
established in America from the mid 1920s through the mid 1950s. John
Dewey was its foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the school should
improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and
democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with
students, student-selected topics are all aspects. Books are tools, rather than
authority.

Reconstructionism/Critical Theory
Social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the addressing of
social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide
democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights
social reform as the aim of education. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the
founder of social reconstructionism, in reaction against the realities of World
War II. He recognized the potential for either human annihilation through
technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society
using technology and human compassion. George Counts (1889-1974)
recognized that education was the means of preparing people for creating this
new social order.

Critical theorists, like social reconstructionists, believe that systems must be

changed to overcome oppression and improve human conditions. Paulo Freire
(1921-1997) was a Brazilian whose experiences living in poverty led him to
champion education and literacy as the vehicle for social change. In his view,
humans must learn to resist oppression and not become its victims, nor oppress
others. To do so requires dialog and critical consciousness, the development of
awareness to overcome domination and oppression. Rather than "teaching as
banking," in which the educator deposits information into students' heads,
Freire saw teaching and learning as a process of inquiry in which the child must
invent and reinvent the world.

For social reconstructionists and critical theorists, curriculum focuses on

student experience and taking social action on real problems, such as violence,
hunger, international terrorism, inflation, and inequality. Strategies for dealing
with controversial issues (particularly in social studies and literature), inquiry,
 dialogue, and multiple perspectives are the focus. Community-based learning
and bringing the world into the classroom are also strategies.

Think about It:

1. Which of these educational philosophies would you describe as

authoritarian? Which as non-authoritarian? Why?
2. Each of the educational philosophies relates to one or more of the
metaphysical world view philosophies. What connections do you see?
3. Which educational philosophy is most compatible with your beliefs?
Why?
Related Theories of Learning (Psychological
Orientations)
Related to both the metaphysical worldview philosophies and the educational
philosophies are theories of learning that focus on how learning occurs, the
psychological orientations. They provide structures for the instructional aspects
of teaching, suggesting methods that are related to their perspective on
learning. These theoretical beliefs about learning are also at the epistemic level
of philosophy, as they are concerned with the nature of learning. Each
psychological orientation is most directly related to a particular educational
philosophy, but may have other influences as well. The first two theoretical
approaches can be thought of as transmissive, in that information is given to
learners. The second two approaches are constructivist, in that the learner has to
make meaning from experiences in the world.
Information Processing
Information Processing theorists focus on the mind and how it works to explain
how learning occurs. The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body
of knowledge and how it is attended to, received in the mind, processed, stored,
and retrieved from memory. This model is derived from analogies between how
the brain works and computer processing. Information processing theorists
focus on the individual rather than the social aspects of thinking and learning.
The mind is a symbolic processor that stores information in schemas or
hierarchically arranged structures.
Knowledge may be general, applicable to many situations; for example,
knowing how to type or spell. Other knowledge is domain specific, applicable
to a specific subject or task, such as vowel sounds in Spanish. Knowledge is
also declarative (content, or knowing that; for example, schools have students,
teachers, and administrators), procedural (knowing how to do thingsthe steps
or strategies; for example, to multiply mixed number, change both sides to
improper fractions, then multiply numerators and denominators),
or conditional (knowing when and why to apply the other two types of
 knowledge; for example, when taking a standardized multiple choice test, keep
track of time, be strategic, and don't get bogged down on hard problems).
The intake and representation of information is called encoding. It is sent to the
short term or working memory, acted upon, and those pieces determined as
important are sent to long term memory storage, where they must be retrieved
and sent back to the working or short-term memory for use. Short term memory
has very limited capacity, so it must be kept active to be retained. Long term
memory is organized in structures, called schemas, scripts, or propositional or
hierarchical networks. Something learned can be retrieved by relating it to other
aspects, procedures, or episodes. There are many strategies that can help in
both getting information into long term memory and retrieving it from memory.
The teacher's job is to help students to develop strategies for thinking and
remembering.
Behaviorism
Behaviorist theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in
the environment and that the type of person and actions desired can be the
product of design. In other words, behavior is determined by others, rather than
by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality and
information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead
to satisfying aftereffects. Repetition of a meaningful connection results in
learning. If the student is ready for the connection, learning is enhanced; if not,
learning is inhibited. Motivation to learn is the satisfying aftereffect, or
reinforcement.
Behaviorism is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific information
and observation, rather than subjective or metaphysical realities. Behaviorists
search for laws that govern human behavior, like scientists who look for pattern
sin empirical events. Change in behavior must be observable; internal thought
processes are not considered.
Ivan Pavlov's research on using the reinforcement of a bell sound when food
was presented to a dog and finding the sound alone would make a dog salivate
after several presentations of the conditioned stimulus, was the beginning of
behaviorist approaches. Learning occurs as a result of responses to stimuli in
the environment that are reinforced by adults and others, as well as from
feedback from actions on objects. The teacher can help students learn by
conditioning them through identifying the desired behaviors in measurable,
observable terms, recording these behaviors and their frequencies, identifying
appropriate reinforcers for each desired behavior, and providing the reinforcer
as soon as the student displays the behavior. For example, if children are
supposed to raise hands to get called on, we might reinforce a child who raises
his hand by using praise, "Thank you for raising your hand." Other influential
 behaviorists include B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) and James B. Watson (1878-
1958).
Cognitivism/Constructivism
Cognitivists or Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or
her own understandings of reality through interaction with objects, events, and
people in the environment, and reflecting on these interactions. Early
perceptual psychologists (Gestalt psychology) focused on the making of wholes
from bits and pieces of objects and events in the world, believing that meaning
was the construction in the brain of patterns from these pieces.
For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what
the learner already knows. Therefore, the learner's previous experiences
determine what can be learned. Motivation to learn is experiencing conflict
with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to
restore the equilibrium. Piaget described intelligent behavior as adaptation. The
learner organizes his or her understanding in organized structures. At the
simplest level, these are called schemes. When something new is presented, the
learner must modify these structures in order to deal with the new information.
This process, called equilibration, is the balancing between what is assimilated
(the new) and accommodation, the change in structure. The child goes through
four distinct stages or levels in his or her understandings of the world.
Some constructivists (particularly Vygotsky) emphasize the shared, social
construction of knowledge, believing that the particular social and cultural
context and the interactions of novices with more expert thinkers (usually
adult) facilitate or scaffold the learning process. The teacher mediates between
the new material to be learned and the learner's level of readiness, supporting
the child's growth through his or her "zone of proximal development."
Humanism
The roots of humanism are found in the thinking of Erasmus (1466-1536), who
attacked the religious teaching and thought prevalent in his time to focus on
free inquiry and rediscovery of the classical roots from Greece and Rome.
Erasmus believed in the essential goodness of children, that humans have free
will, moral conscience, the ability to reason, aesthetic sensibility, and religious
instinct. He advocated that the young should be treated kindly and that learning
should not be forced or rushed, as it proceeds in stages. Humanism was
developed as an educational philosophy by Rousseau (1712-1778) and
Pestalozzi, who emphasized nature and the basic goodness of humans,
understanding through the senses, and education as a gradual and unhurried
process in which the development of human character follows the unfolding of
nature. Humanists believe that the learner should be in control of his or her own
destiny. Since the learner should become a fully autonomous person, personal
freedom, choice, and responsibility are the focus. The learner is self-motivated
 to achieve towards the highest level possible. Motivation to learn is intrinsic in
humanism.
Recent applications of humanist philosophy focus on the social and emotional
well-being of the child, as well as the cognitive. Development of a healthy self-
concept, awareness of the psychological needs, helping students to strive to be
all that they can are important concepts, espoused in theories of Abraham
Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Alfred Adler that are found in classrooms today.
Teachers emphasize freedom from threat, emotional well-being, learning
processes, and self-fulfillment.
Related Theories of Learning (Psychological Orientations)

Related to both the metaphysical worldview philosophies and the educational philosophies are theories
of learning that focus on how learning occurs, the psychological orientations. They provide structures for
the instructional aspects of teaching, suggesting methods that are related to their perspective on
learning. These theoretical beliefs about learning are also at the epistemic level of philosophy, as they
are concerned with the nature of learning. Each psychological orientation is most directly related to a
particular educational philosophy, but may have other influences as well. The first two theoretical
approaches can be thought of as transmissive, in that information is given to learners. The second two
approaches are constructivist, in that the learner has to make meaning from experiences in the world.

Information Processing

Information Processing theorists focus on the mind and how it works to explain how learning occurs.
The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body of knowledge and how it is attended to, received
in the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from memory. This model is derived from analogies
between how the brain works and computer processing. Information processing theorists focus on the
individual rather than the social aspects of thinking and learning. The mind is a symbolic processor that
stores information in schemas or hierarchically arranged structures.

Knowledge may be general, applicable to many situations; for example, knowing how to type or spell.
Other knowledge is domain specific, applicable to a specific subject or task, such as vowel sounds in
Spanish. Knowledge is also declarative (content, or knowing that; for example, schools have students,
teachers, and administrators), procedural (knowing how to do thingsthe steps or strategies; for
example, to multiply mixed number, change both sides to improper fractions, then multiply numerators
and denominators), or conditional (knowing when and why to apply the other two types of knowledge;
for example, when taking a standardized multiple choice test, keep track of time, be strategic, and don't
get bogged down on hard problems).

The intake and representation of information is called encoding. It is sent to the short term or working
memory, acted upon, and those pieces determined as important are sent to long term memory storage,
where they must be retrieved and sent back to the working or short-term memory for use. Short term
memory has very limited capacity, so it must be kept active to be retained. Long term memory is
organized in structures, called schemas, scripts, or propositional or hierarchical networks. Something
learned can be retrieved by relating it to other aspects, procedures, or episodes. There are many
strategies that can help in both getting information into long term memory and retrieving it from
memory. The teacher's job is to help students to develop strategies for thinking and remembering.

Behaviorism
Behaviorist theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in the environment and that
the type of person and actions desired can be the product of design. In other words, behavior is
determined by others, rather than by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality
and information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying
aftereffects. Repetition of a meaningful connection results in learning. If the student is ready for the
connection, learning is enhanced; if not, learning is inhibited. Motivation to learn is the satisfying
aftereffect, or reinforcement.

Behaviorism is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific information and observation, rather than
subjective or metaphysical realities. Behaviorists search for laws that govern human behavior, like
scientists who look for pattern sin empirical events. Change in behavior must be observable; internal
thought processes are not considered.

Ivan Pavlov's research on using the reinforcement of a bell sound when food was presented to a dog and
finding the sound alone would make a dog salivate after several presentations of the conditioned
stimulus, was the beginning of behaviorist approaches. Learning occurs as a result of responses to
stimuli in the environment that are reinforced by adults and others, as well as from feedback from
actions on objects. The teacher can help students learn by conditioning them through identifying the
desired behaviors in measurable, observable terms, recording these behaviors and their frequencies,
identifying appropriate reinforcers for each desired behavior, and providing the reinforcer as soon as
the student displays the behavior. For example, if children are supposed to raise hands to get called on,
we might reinforce a child who raises his hand by using praise, "Thank you for raising your hand." Other
influential behaviorists include B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) and James B. Watson (1878-1958).

Cognitivism/Constructivism

Cognitivists or Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or her own understandings
of reality through interaction with objects, events, and people in the environment, and reflecting on
these interactions. Early perceptual psychologists (Gestalt psychology) focused on the making of wholes
from bits and pieces of objects and events in the world, believing that meaning was the construction in
the brain of patterns from these pieces.

For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what the learner already knows.
Therefore, the learner's previous experiences determine what can be learned. Motivation to learn is
experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to restore
the equilibrium. Piaget described intelligent behavior as adaptation. The learner organizes his or her
understanding in organized structures. At the simplest level, these are called schemes. When something
new is presented, the learner must modify these structures in order to deal with the new information.
This process, called equilibration, is the balancing between what is assimilated (the new) and
accommodation, the change in structure. The child goes through four distinct stages or levels in his or
her understandings of the world.

Some constructivists (particularly Vygotsky) emphasize the shared, social construction of knowledge,
believing that the particular social and cultural context and the interactions of novices with more expert
thinkers (usually adult) facilitate or scaffold the learning process. The teacher mediates between the
new material to be learned and the learner's level of readiness, supporting the child's growth through
his or her "zone of proximal development."

Humanism

The roots of humanism are found in the thinking of Erasmus (1466-1536), who attacked the religious
teaching and thought prevalent in his time to focus on free inquiry and rediscovery of the classical roots
from Greece and Rome. Erasmus believed in the essential goodness of children, that humans have free
will, moral conscience, the ability to reason, aesthetic sensibility, and religious instinct. He advocated
that the young should be treated kindly and that learning should not be forced or rushed, as it proceeds
in stages. Humanism was developed as an educational philosophy by Rousseau (1712-1778) and
Pestalozzi, who emphasized nature and the basic goodness of humans, understanding through the
senses, and education as a gradual and unhurried process in which the development of human character
follows the unfolding of nature. Humanists believe that the learner should be in control of his or her
own destiny. Since the learner should become a fully autonomous person, personal freedom, choice,
and responsibility are the focus. The learner is self-motivated to achieve towards the highest level
possible. Motivation to learn is intrinsic in humanism.

Recent applications of humanist philosophy focus on the social and emotional well-being of the child, as
well as the cognitive. Development of a healthy self-concept, awareness of the psychological needs,
helping students to strive to be all that they can are important concepts, espoused in theories of
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Alfred Adler that are found in classrooms today. Teachers emphasize
freedom from threat, emotional well-being, learning processes, and self-fulfillment.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Each line in the table of contents is a hyperlink

EDUCATION
What is Education?
Ellen G. Whites Purpose and Meaning of Christian Education
The Purpose of Education
The Meaning of Education
What is Educational Philosophy?
Educational Philosophies of Distinguished Philosophers
Leo XIIIs Position on Proper Religious and Moral Instruction
The Value of Futurism to Education
The Application of Reconstructionism to Education
Educational Value of Humanism
Educational Value of Progressivism
Educational Value of Perennialism
The Educational Value of Behaviorism
Educational Value of Essentialism
Educational Value of Existentialism
A Critique of Platos Philosophy of Education as Given in The
Republic
The Eden School
The Schools of the Prophets
Jesus the Master Teacher: His Method
His Mission
His Preparation for Ministry
His Qualifications
His Teaching Scope
His Philosophical Base
His Content
His Methods
The Aims of Seventh-Day Adventist Education
Are Seventh-Day Adventists Unique in Their Idea That the Church
Should Be
Concerned with Both the Temporal and Spiritual Aspects of
Mans Life?

Content-Centered Approach Versus Child-Centered Approach to

Education
The Child-Centered Educational Approach
The Content-Centered Educational Approach
 Curriculum and Teaching Method of the (A) Idealist, (B) Realist,
and (C) Pragmatist
The Curriculum of the Idealist
The Teaching Method of the Idealist
The Curriculum of the Realist
The Method of the Realist
The Curriculum of the Pragmatist
The Method of the Pragmatist
PHILOSOPHY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
3
What is Philosophy?
The Aims and Tasks of Philosophy
Metaphysical Questions
Are Most Philosophers Atheists?
Relationship Between Science and Philosophy
Definition of Terms
Idealism: Ultimate Reality Is Non-Material and Mental
The Correspondence Theory of Truth Versus The Coherence
Theory of Truth
The Criterion for Knowledge
The Sources of Knowledge
World Views
Essence of World Views

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS
The Philosophical Positions of (A) Idealism, (B) Realism, (C)
Pragmatism
What Is Pragmatism?
The Seeking of Knowledge as a Transaction
The Core of Idealism
Dichotomous Reality of the Idealist
New Realism Versus Critical Realism
What Is Sense Realism?
Bishop Berkeleys Idea of Reality - My Position
What Is Scholasticism
Am I an Idealist, a Realist, or a Pragmatist?
Every Rational Person is a Philosopher

GOD
Logical Arguments for the Existence of God
The Cosmological Argument
 The Teleological Argument
Who Is God?
Why Do I Believe in a God I Cannot See - My Response to an
Atheist

CREATION
The Nature of Human Beings
The Personal Dimension
The Spiritual Dimension
The Mental Dimension
The Social Dimension
The Moral Dimension
The Physical Dimension
Scientific Principles that Lend Support to the Theory of Creation
Comparison of the Approach of Adventist Scientists and Worldly
Scientists
Points of Agreement
Points of Disagreement
What Do the Fossil Records Indicate?
A Comparison Between What Evolution Predicted and What
Creation Predicted in Fossil Record
The Significance of Einteins Theory
Cloning

EDUCATION
What is Education?
Education is the most important and most noble of human endeavors. All
other activities have their foundation in education. Education is so important
that it will continue even in eternity. It enables humans to achieve their fullest
personal, spiritual, mental, social, and physical potentials. The ability of being
educated is what distinguishes humans from animals. Education transforms an
individual and allows her to effect change in her environment.
To discover the varied facets of education, we shall review a few
definitions of education.
Education is a continuing voyage of discovery, an everlasting quest to
achieve the fullest wisdom and stature that God meant for us.
Education according to George Knight (1980) is a life long learning
process that can take place in an infinite variety of circumstances and contexts.
 According to Kleining (1985), education is The range of activities both
formal and informal whereby people are initiated into or realigned with the
evolving traditions, structures, and social relations which are taken to constitute
their education.
Education should equip an individual to become a rational, willing agent,
who is able to participate in and change ones world with a realistic
understanding of its possibilities.
Peter (1975) wrote: Education consists in initiating others into activities,
modes of conduct and thoughts which have standards written into them by
references to which it is possible to act, think and feel with varying degrees of
relevance and taste.

Ellen G. Whites Purpose and Meaning of Christian Education

The word education comes from the Latin educare, to draw out. In a broad
sense it means not only to elicit creative thought and knowledge from the
student, but to draw humankind out of the predicament it is in. And that
predicament, according to both Jewish and Christian viewpoints, radically
differs from the original perfection God established at creation (Youngberg,
1994, p. 69).
Based on this definition, E. G. White had a very comprehensive and
correct conception of education. She saw education and redemption as being one
and the same. Her conception of education was practical and had earthly value,
yet it had eternal implications.
The Purpose of Education
The quotation that best summarizes her purpose of education states that:
To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the
perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body,
mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized
this was to be the work of redemption. This is the object of education, the
great object of life (White, 1903, pp. 15-16).

The Meaning of Education

Mrs. White contends that:
True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study.
It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with
the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man.
It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the
spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world
and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come (White, 1903,
p. 13).
She further states that: In the highest sense the work of education and the
work of redemption are one, for in education, as in redemption, other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (White, 1903,
p. 30).
She explains that:
He who cooperates with the divine purpose in imparting to the youth a
knowledge of God, and molding the character into harmony with His,
does a high and noble work. As he awakens a desire to reach Gods ideal,
he presents an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the
universe; an education that cannot be completed in this life, but that will
be continued in the life to come; an education that secures to the
successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the
higher grade, the school above (White, 1903, p. 19).

Her most meaningful statement relates to the nature of the learner. She
emphatically affirms that:
Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a
power akin to that of the Creatorindividuality, power to think and to do.
. . . It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the
youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other mens thought.
Instead of confining their study to that which men have said or written, let
students be directed to the sources of truth, to the vast fields opened for
research in nature and revelation. Let them contemplate the great facts of
duty and destiny, and the mind will expand and strengthen. Instead of
educated weaklings, institutions of learning may send forth men strong to
think and to act, men who are masters and not slaves of circumstances,
men who possess breath of mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of
their convictions (White, 1903, pp. 17-18).

What is Educational Philosophy?

Educational philosophy is philosophy applied to education as a specific
area of human endeavor. It involves bringing those critical reflections which
characterize philosophy in general to influence and direct the range of
experiences and possessions that may be referred to as education. Philosophy of
education does not exist in a vacuum, but within a particular social and historical
context.
Educational philosophy, according to Soltis (1988) has three dimensions:
(1) the personal, (2) the public, and (3) the professional. The personal dimension
has to do with having a set of personal beliefs about what is good, right, and
worthwhile in education. The public dimension is aimed at guiding and
directing the practice of many. The professional dimension provides specific
guidelines for the practice of teaching.

Educational Philosophies of Distinguished Philosophers

 The educational philosophy of Plato rests on the four moral principles of
wisdom, virtue, service, and leadership.
Hebart declared that character, the moral end of life, should be the central
aim of education.
Aristotle indicated that it was not clear to him whether education should
be concerned more with intellectual or with moral virtues. He concluded that
education should be based on three principles: (1) the golden mean, (2) the
possible, and (3) the becoming.
John Locke in his book, Thoughts on Education, concluded that a sound
mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this
world.
Ellen G. White stresses the mental, physical, moral, and spiritual
development of the student. She espouses a philosophy based on the Word of
God, a philosophy that recognizes God as the Creator of all mankind.

Leo XIIIs Position on Proper Religious and Moral Instruction

Park cited in Thomas (1998) stated that Leo XIII has wisely pointed out,
that without proper religious and moral instruction every form of intellectual
culture will be injurious; for young people not accustomed to respecting God
will be unable to bear the restraint of virtuous life, and never having learned to
deny themselves anything, they will easily be incited to disturb the public
order. In essence, Leo XIII is saying that religious and moral instruction is
indispensable to the formation of the whole person.

The Value of Futurism to Education

Futurism focuses on social and political reforms. Futurists are calling for
educators to generate successive alternate images of the future by: (1) creating an
awareness of the injustices, contradictions, and problems in our current world
order and thinking of positive ways to deal with them; (2) using curricular
subjects such as economics, psychology, sociology and political science to create
awareness.

The Application of Reconstructionism to Education

Reconstructionism application to education is twofold: (1) the
identification of major problem areas of controversy, conflict and inconsistency
in subject areas such as economics, sociology, political science, psychology, and
anthropology; (2) the use of methodologies, such as role plays, simulations and
jurisprudential models to create awareness of problems and openness to
solutions.

Educational Value of Humanism

 Humanism has made three contributions to education, namely: (1) open
classrooms, (2) free schools, (3) schools without failure.

Educational Value of Progressivism

Progressivism has given to education six basic principles on which it
operates:
1. The process of education finds its genesis and purpose in the child.
2. Pupils are active rather than passive.
3. The teachers role is that of an advisor, a guide, a fellow traveler, rather
than an authoritarian and classroom director.
4. The school is a microcosm of the larger society. Learning should be
integrated.
5. Classroom activity should focus on solving problems, rather than on
artificial methods of teaching subject.
6. The social atmosphere of the school must be cooperative and
democratic.

Educational Value of Perennialism

Perrenialists have given to education six basic principles on which they
operate:
1. Man is a rational animal so as individuals develop their minds, they can
use reason to control appetites, passions, and actions.
2. Knowledge is universally consistent, therefore there are certain basic
subject matters that should be taught to all people.
3. The subject matter, not the child, should stand at the center of the
educational endeavor.
4. The great works of the past are a repository of knowledge and wisdom
which has stood the test of time and are relevant in our day.
5. Human nature is consistent, so education should be the same for
everyone.
6. The educational experience is a preparation for life, rather than a real-
life situation.

The Educational Value of Behaviorism

Behaviorists contributed four basic principles to education:
1. Humans are highly-developed animals who learn in the same way that
other animals learn. Scientists can refine the techniques of teaching through
experimentation with animals.
2. Education is a process of behavioral engineering. People are
programmed to act in certain ways by their environment. Behavior may be
modified by manipulating environmental reinforcers.
 3. The teachers role is to create an effective learning environment that will
provide positive reinforcement.
4. Efficiency, economy, precision and objectivity are central value
considerations. Teachers are accountable and responsible for what children learn.

Educational Value of Essentialism

Essentialists have given three major principles to education:
1. The schools task is to teach basic knowledge. Basic subject matters
should be mastered at the elementary and secondary school levels to eliminate
illiteracy at the college level.
2. Learning is hard work and requires discipline. Memorization, drill, and
problem solving methods foster learning.
3. The teacher is the focus of the classroom activity. She decides what
students ought to learn and is responsible for presenting the subject matter in a
logical sequence and has the right to discipline students to create a conducive
learning environment.

Educational Value of Existentialism

Existentialism focuses on helping the child into a fuller realization of self
based on the following propositions:
1. I am a choosing agentunable to avoid choosing my way through life.
2. I am a free agentfree to set the goals of my own life.
3. I am a responsible agentpersonally accountable for my free choices as
they are revealed in how I live my life.

A Critique of Platos Philosophy of Education as Given in The Republic

The allegory of the Cave represents Platos theory of knowledge. In this
allegory he describes how the human mind achieves knowledge and indicates
what knowledge consists of. According to this allegory, there are two worlds:
The world of shadows inside the cave and the world of light outside the cave.
Those who live in the cave have a distorted view of reality because their
apprehension of knowledge is through their senses. Those who live outside the
cave have full knowledge because they rely on the intellect to apprehend it.
This allegory suggests that most of mankind dwells in the darkness of the
cave. They have oriented their thoughts around the blurred world of shadows. It
is the function of education to lead men out of the cave into the world of light.
Education, then is a matter of conversion. But this conversion does not come by
easily. It takes a ruler to bring it about.
The ruler, according to Platos theory, represents the rational element of
society. Only the ruler has the competence and the qualification for authority.
Platos allegory proposes a system of classes in a state. At the lower levels you
have the artisans, workers, etc., and at the top you have the elite. The artisans
and workers are ignorant and do not possess rationality. The elite, by contrast, is
gifted with knowledge and rationality. The artisan would be educated, but his
education would stop at the level of his abilities.
Platos allegory suggests an elitist concept of education. It goes against the
Biblical truth that all human beings were created in the image of God and are
endowed with a power akin to that of the creator, individuality and the power to
think and to do.
Moreover, history testifies of the disastrous consequences of such an elitist
system and of the inequalities it generated. The elimination of the masses from
preparatory schools in Medieval Europe kept the people ignorant and at the
mercy of their rulers.
Other consequences of this system were mass poverty, gender and racial
discrimination since women and Negroes were not considered worthy of
education. The physical and mentally disabled were eliminated automatically
from the educational process as well.
Such restricted concept of education gave rise to such regimes as
totalitarianism, dictatorship, and any other sort of government that restricts
personal liberty and freedom of conscience and religion.
Platos philosophy of education is a denial of the right of every individual
to be educated to the fullest of her or his potential. It is a denial of civil and
religious liberties.

The Eden School

In the book Education, Ellen G. White states that the Garden of Eden was
the home of our first parents. Not only it was their first home, but it was their
first school. She says: The Garden of Eden was the schoolroom, nature was the
lesson book, the Creator Himself was the instructor, and the parents of the
human family were the students (p. 20).
Adam and Eve, the first students were created to be the image and Glory
of God. Their physical appearance, their intellectual faculties, their spiritual
gifts bore the resemblance of their Maker.
The knowledge of nature and of its laws, the knowledge of God and His
love, great spiritual truths, and character building formed the first curriculum.
Mrs. White states that The laws and operations of nature, and the great
principles of truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds
by the infinite Author of all (p. 22). In addition to intellectual pursuits, God in
his infinite wisdom and love included manual labor in the curriculum to develop
their physical and mental powers. Mrs. White comments, Useful occupation
was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind,
and to develop the character (p. 21).
The Schools of the Prophets
The term prophet comes from the Hebrew words nabi, chozeh, and roeh.
The latter mean seer. Together these terms describe two phases of the work of the
prophet. As seer, he/she discerned Gods will, and as prophet, conveyed that
will to others.
Prophets and the Schools of the Prophets were established because many
Israelite households had disregarded Gods plan of education. They became
corrupted through their association with heathen nations. The schools were (1) to
serve as a barrier against the wide-spreading corruption, (2) to provide for the
mental and spiritual welfare of the youth, and (3) to promote the prosperity of
the nation by furnishing men qualified to act in the fear of God as leaders and
counselors.
Samuel, who traveled from place to place as a teacher (see 1 Sam. 10:10-13;
cf. 7:16, 17), founded the first school mentioned in the Bible, the School of the
Prophets (1Sam. 19:20). Though the Scriptures provide little detail about these
schools, it is clear that Samuel recruited and trained pious young men who
would go out to teach and counteract the threatening tide of idolatry (2 Kings
2:3-5). Not all the sons of the prophets, as these disciples were known, had the
prophetic gift, but hey all instructed the people. The prosperity of the nation
during the reigns of David and Solomon was largely due to the work of these
schools in preparing leaders, teaching Yahweh worship and serving as a barrier
against polytheistic corruption and superstition (Youngberg, 1994, pp. 25-26).
Ellen G. White, under inspiration, provides information about the method
of education adopted by the School of the Prophets. The word and the works of
God were the source of their curriculum. The instructors were teachers who
enjoyed communion with God and were students of the truth. The students and
teachers supported themselves through manual labor. The teaching was oral, and
the subjects taught were the Law of God with the instruction given to Moses,
sacred history, sacred music, and poetry. Prayer constituted a major part of their
daily activities. The goal of education was faith in God.
These practices stand in sharp contrast with todays Christian schools. In
most Christian schools, the curriculum includes not only religious knowledge,
but the works and ideas of secular authors. The creation account has been
replaced by the theory of evolution. Useful manual labor is no longer considered
a necessary factor in developing mental and physical powers. Its substitute,
physical education, concentrates on increasing physical power and enhancing
self-glorification.
Todays Christian schools aim at developing the intellect and preparing
young men and women for the world of work, not necessarily for service to God
and humankind. The transmission of faith and prayer and the fear of the Lord
are not central to the purpose of these schools. In many Christian schools,
teachers are hired who do not profess Christianity. Thus, students are exposed to
many ideas that conflict with Christian principles and values. Individual
achievement is glorified at the expense of achievement that will benefit the group
or community. These schools do not provide a barrier against wide-spreading
corruption found in todays society, instead they provide fertile ground for its
propagation. A reformation is needed to bring back these schools into conformity
to the will of God.

Jesus the Master Teacher: His Method

When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, he said, We know that you are
a teacher come from God (John 3:2). He was not the only one to address Jesus as
teacher. Norman Anderson cited in Youngberg (1994) states that Teacher was
the predominant title by which Jesus was addressed during His earthly life. The
Greek words translated as teacher, Anderson says, are the equivalent to the
Hebrew Rabbi, the common title of respect for a distinguished teacher.
Christs methods can best be explained and appreciated after examining
His mission, preparation for ministry, qualifications, teaching scope, content, and
philosophical base. Thus, a few paragraphs are dedicated to providing a
backdrop to His teaching ministry.
His Mission
Kent cited in Youngberg (1994) postulates that Jesus defined His mission
as liberating captives, healing the afflicted, restoring sight to the blind, and
enlightening the world with truth (Luke 4:18,19). He came to wrest the kingdom
from Satan (Luke 4:5-8); to show human beings how to habituate the principles
of heaven into daily living (Matt. 4:4). To accomplish His mission, Jesus had to
instruct (Isa. 42:5-7), to disengage truth from the dross of mere human
philosophy. He came to reveal to humanity the true knowledge of God (Isa. 40:5;
John 14:9). Here, Youngberg exclaims, we find the nucleus of true educational
work.

His Preparation for Ministry

Jesus preparation for his ministry included useful work, the study of
Scripture and nature, and the experiences of life. He received his early education
from the lips of His mother, and in the carpentry shop of his father. Thus his
early education was complete, covering the cognitive, affective, psychomotor,
and spiritual domains.

His Qualifications
Those who heard Jesus speak recognized his authority. His words and
character commanded respect, while His miracles gave evidence of divine
unction and approval.

His Teaching Scope

 Christs teaching embraced the world. His audience consisted of people
from all ages and walks of life. His conversation with the woman at the well
showed that He was no respecter of persons, and that His mission was to seek
and save that which was lost regardless of nationality, creed, or race.

His Philosophical Base

According to Youngberg (1994), when Jesus declared, I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life, He presented the three great questions of life in reverse
order from what is customary. Youngberg goes on to explain the philosophical
base of Jesus found in this statement. First, He is the way (axiology)all that is
good and beautiful is found in Christ (Col. 2:9). He is the truth (epistemology)
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17 NIV). He is LifeHe
came that humankind might have an existence that measures with the life of God
(John 3:16). It is the truth that leads to life (ontology). Now this is eternal life:
That they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have
sent (John 17:3 NIV). The genius in this order, Youngberg says, is that it conveys
the surprising insight that the doing comes first. In doing the will of God is the
discovery of truth and life.
From this philosophical base Jesus, continues Youngberg, taught the truth
of existence and moral fidelity. So wide was His view of truth, so comprehensive
His
teaching that every fact of nature was used to illuminate it.

His Content
Jesus content was God-centered. His aim was to empower his learners in
the development of character. His Scriptural resources included the Law of
Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

His Methods
Christs methods differed markedly to those used by the rabbis of his
days. His methods were based on His own brand of psychology of learning. He
believed that through sympathy, faith, and love, students could be deeply
affected and changed. He also appealed to their will. The following methods are
extracted from Youngbergs discourse on education.
1. Christ taught with simplicity and earnestness, as one having authority.
His instruction was direct. His illustrations were appropriate. He left no doubt
that He understood His subject thoroughly.
2. Jesus goals differed from that of the other teachers also. He did not seek
to gratify curiosity or satisfy selfish ambition. And He gave no credence to
distinctions of caste, creed, rank, or nationality. Friends and enemies, neighbors
or strangers, He entertained all alike. He presented lessons appropriate to their
circumstances. His goal was to promulgate truth to as many as would receive it.
3. Jesus was an alert and sensitive tutor. He observed the learners
readiness, took them through the instructional process and facilitated their
response.
4. Jesus teaching style was personal. He addressed the concrete
experiences of the people. He taught so that his listeners, whether rich or poor,
would feel His identification with their interests.
5. Jesus used parables and stories to arouse interest. He presented truth in
an attractive yet enigmatic manner that compelled the learner to strain, and
grapple to find meaningan achievement any teacher could covet.
6. Jesus used miracles to heal and relieve suffering to illustrate to His
listeners that He came to save and not destroy, to bring spiritual restoration and
physical renewal. This was by far his favorite method of instruction.
7. Jesus used His words and expressions to convey truth in a very
powerful way. He used synthetic, synonomous, and antithetical parallelism;
alliterations, epigrams, paradox, and hyperboles to drive his message across to
the learners. The Beatitudes are an example of synthetic parallelism in which the
second part of each verse completes the meaning of the first. Matthew 6:29 is an
example of hyperbole: If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out . . .
8. Jesus practiced modeling. He taught what He was and what He lived. I
have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you (John 13:15;
1 Peter 2:21). In the process of communicating the Gospel to humankind, an
essential element was the Teacher Himself. Through personal contact and
identification with His class He offered Himself as the Way.
9. He used questions and answers to provoke reflection, and He also
prompted His audience to ask questions.
10. He personalized his instruction to the nature of the learner. For
example, He dealt differently with John, Judas, James, and Peter.
In the final analysis, concludes Youngberg, the greatness of Jesus teaching
can only be compared to the greatness of His own mission and the magnitude of
the commission given to His disciples. Marquis cited in Youngberg (1994) points
out that Jesus remarkable achievement is that every one of His disciples, with
the exception of Judas, became a great teacher himself, and spoke to his
generation with a moral authority rarely known among men. Judging by results,
it is not too much to say that Jesus turned out of His school the greatest
generation of teachers the world has ever known.

The Aims of Seventh-Day Adventist Education

The ultimate aim of Seventh-Day Adventist education is to encourage
students to be children of God whereby they are prepared to function
successfully and joyously in this present world with the anticipation of greater
service in the world to come. The more specific goals are intellectual, vocational,
aesthetic, physical, social, religious, and moral.
The specific aims of Seventh-Day Adventist education include: (1) the
building of character, (2) the Bible as a foundation for every course, (3) regular
courses in Bible in all schools, (4) building schools in rural environments, (5)
encouraging students to do missionary work, (6) combining agricultural and
industrial work with scholarship, (7) emphasizing labor and missionary work
rather than sports and entertainment, (8) thorough scholastic training, (9)
democratic school administration, (10) the production of men and women who
are willing to do what is right.

Are Seventh-Day Adventists Unique in Their Idea That the Church Should Be
Concerned with Both the Temporal and Spiritual Aspects of Mans
Life?
Seventh-Day Adventists are not unique in their idea that the Church
should be concerned with both the temporal and spiritual aspects of mans life.
This concept originated with the Judeo-Christianculture.
Aspects of Jewish education that Christianity borrowed incrementally
include, but are not limited to: (1) the family as the first school and center of
education, (2) labor, study, and meditation as part of the educational process; (3)
teaching methods such as songs, poetry, rites, symbols, nature, art, story telling,
celebrations, the use of mnemonic devices, memorization, modeling; (4) the
content of education: the transmission of faith and cultural heritage, character
building, the Word of God, the development of the mental, moral, spiritual,
social, and physical powers; (5) the outcome of education: fitting the child to be a
servant of God and of humanity; (6) cooperation of the home, congregation, and
the school. All of these demonstrate a deep concern for the whole person.
Christian schools added other concepts based on the example of Jesus
Christ the Master Teacher who taught the essential principles of life relevant to
the kingdom of God. They added also the lessons taught from the cross:
forgiveness, assurance, provision, substitution, mastery of the spiritual, mental,
and volitional powers over the physical powers, victory, and submission. These
deal with the spiritual aspect of humans life.
The first church schools were established by the early church fathers.
These schools confined education to priests, nobles, and a very few laymen of the
higher classes. The church schools of the early church fathers were reshaped
during the Renaissance into European universities. For example, during the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Germany experienced a great growth of
university activity, in both the increase in student enrollment and the founding
of many new schools. These schools taught church doctrines (De Lamar, 1981,
p. 37).
The great Reformation movement saw the birth of common schools
advocated by Martin Luther. The invention of the printing press prepared the
way for popular education. The Reformation first utilized the press on a large
scale, and gave a powerful impulse to common schools (Schaff, 1910, p. 512).
The church in Geneva made provision for the establishment of schools,
and specifically for a college to teach the children, so as to prepare them for the
ministry as well as for the civil government (De Lamar, 1981, pp. 118-119).
These schools served the purpose of both educational and religious centers to the
reformers
Schools were also established by the Jesuits. Their aim was to educate
and spiritually train the youth of the church (Ibid, p. 178).
In the new world, pioneers of the church were responsible for the
establishment of the great majority of colonial colleges and many other
institutions. Sponsored by the church, these grew up rapidly during the
westward expansion.
The main objectives of these educators were to inculcate into youthful
minds particular views with regards to the nature of humans and the universe as
well as specific knowledge and values.
Today, church schools flourish everywhere. The Seventh-Day Adventist
Church has the largest educational system in the world, second to the Roman
Catholic Church.
Content-Centered Approach Versus Child-Centered Approach to Education
The content-centered approach to education is posited in philosophical
views such as idealism, realism, and neo-scholasticism; and in the educational
theories of essentialism and perennialism; whereas the centered-learner
approach is evident in pragmatism, existentialism, humanism, and
progressivism
.
The Child-Centered Educational Approach
According to the child-centered approach, education is characterized by
reference to the nature of the individual to be taught. This approach, it is
believed, recognizes the value of the individual. The child-centered approach to
education has the following features:
The curriculum. The curriculum emerges from the needs, pressing
questions, experiences, and interests of the child. McNeil (1985) postulates that
the curriculum should provide personally satisfying experiences for each
individual. He further states that the goals of education are dynamic personal
processes related to the ideals of personal growth, integrity, and autonomy.
Healthier attitudes toward self, peers, and learning are among their expectations.
The ideal of self-actualization is at the heart of the child-centered curriculum. The
humanists, pragmatists, and existentialists hold that since the needs of the
learners change, the curriculum should change and expand to meet their needs.
To the pragmatists, the educational process should enable the child to manage
change in a healthy manner and to adapt to the constantly changing world of the
present and future. Education is thus continuous throughout life, fluid, dynamic,
and open-ended. To existentialists, students choice is the deciding factor in
selection of subject matter which is presented according to students affective
development.
The role of the teacher. The child-centered educational approach holds
that the teacher is a facilitator, a guide, an advisor, and a fellow traveler. McNeil
(1985) states that the teacher must provide warmth and nurture emotions while
continuing to function as a resource center. The teacher motivates students
through mutual trust. The teacher encourages a positive-student relationship by
teaching out of her own interests and commitments while holding to the belief
that each child can learn. Coercive methods and manipulations have absolutely
no place in the child-centered approach to education.
Methods. A variety of methods suitable to the developmental level of the
learner and the subject matter are favored. According to the pragmatist, the
learner-centered curriculum necessitates team teaching and interdepartmental
offerings. Projects are preferred to lectures. The classroom is a scientific
laboratory to put ideas to the test and to verify them. Individualized instruction
is considered appropriate to meet the individual needs of the child. Classroom
activity should focus on solving problems, rather than on artificial methods of
teaching subject matter. Humanists and progressivists favor integrated methods
of teaching. Cooperative learning strategies, active involvement of students
learning, freedom of movement among students are methods deemed
appropriate to child-centered education.
Assessment. The child-centered evaluator emphasizes process rather than
product or content. Activities are considered worthwhile if the affective needs of
the child are included in them, and if these activities contribute to the
development of values.
The social atmosphere of the school. A child-centered educational
approach dictates that schools are democratic and cooperative communities.
Student councils are usually found in such communities.
The Content-Centered Educational Approach
The content-centered approach is characterized in terms of the social or
other goals external to the individual. This approach, it has been argued by some,
leads to the totalitarian theories of education. The academic-orientation to
education is an example of the content-centered approach and has the following
features:
The curriculum. The subject matter, not the child, stands at the center of
the educational endeavor. McNeill (1985) postulates that the curriculum is the
vehicle by which learners are introduced to subject matter disciplines and to
organized fields of study. The organized content of subject matter is viewed as a
curriculum to be pursued rather than as a source of information for dealing with
local and personal problems. The curriculum is seen as the best way to develop
the mindthat mastery of the kind of knowledge commonly found in such a
curriculum contributes to rational thinking. Knowledge is universally consistent,
therefore, certain basic subject matter should be taught to all people. According
to essentialists and perennialists, at the elementary level, the curriculum should
emphasize the mastery of the 3 or 4 Rs. The mastery of reading, writing,
arithmetic, and religion would eliminate the necessity for basic English at the
college level, and would eradicate functionally illiterate graduates of high
schools. For the realists, the curriculum is reduced to knowledge that can be
measured.
The role of the teacher. The teacher is the focus of classroom activity. He
knows what the student ought to learn, and has the responsibility of presenting
the subject matter in logical sequence. The teacher is an enforcer of discipline to
create an atmosphere where learning can take place, and mental discipline is
developed.
Methods. Memorization, drills, problem-solving, computation, and
scientific methods, are chosen methods to enhance learning. Methods used by
the realists include lectures, field trips, demonstrations, sensory experiences,
inductive reasoning, film, filmstrips, record, television, and other audio-visual
aids which might serve in the place of direct sensory experience. The library is
the center of activity.
Assessment. At the classroom level, the means of evaluation vary
according to the objectives of the different subject matters. Value is placed on the
learners use of given processes and modes of thought as well as knowledge of
facts and themes. Logical rigor and experimental adequacy are highly prized
(McNeil, 1985, pp. 72-73).
The climate of the school. The environment is structured and regimented.
There is no emphasis on the social and affective dimension of the learner.
Authoritarianism permeates the climate of the school.
Curriculum and Teaching Method of the (A) Idealist, (B) Realist,
and (C) Pragmatist
The Curriculum of the Idealist
The idealist concentrates on the mental development of the learner. The
curriculum emphasizes the study of the humanities. The proper study of
mankind, history, and literature are the center of the idealist curriculum. Literary
pieces considered the masterworks of humanity occupy an important place in the
ideal curriculum. Pure mathematics is also included in the curriculum as it is
based upon universal a priori principles and provide methods of dealing with
abstractions. The library is the center of activity in the idealist school. Because the
idealist holds that certain truths are universal and permanent, it means that there
can be change or innovation in the curriculum. The subject matter for the school
is that which is concerned with the ideal person and ideal society. The
curriculum does not deal adequately with social policy.
The teacher occupies a crucial position in the idealist school. The teacher
serves as a living example of what the student can become intellectually, socially,
and ethically. The teachers role is to pass on the knowledge of reality as he or
she stands closer to the Absolute than do the students.
The Teaching Method of the Idealist
Idealists rely on lectures and discussions. Students also learn by imitating
the teacher or some other person who is closely attuned with the Absolute.
Idealists also rely heavily on deductive logic. The idealist has little uses for field
trips and sensory data.
The Curriculum of the Realist
The primary aims of education are to teach children the laws of nature
and those values that will lead to the good life. Of course, the good life is that
which conforms to the natural law. The realist views the curriculum as reducible
to knowledge that can be measured. The curriculum includes science in all of its
many branches. The study of science will teach students the underlying order of
the universe. Other subjects included in the curriculum are mathematics and the
social sciences. According to the realist, mathematics represents a precise,
abstract, symbolic system for describing the laws of the universe. The social
sciences are seen as dealing with the mechanical and natural forces which bear
on human behavior.
In the idealist school, the teacher occupies a vantage point and her role is
that of a guide. She is to introduce the students to the regularities and rhythm of
nature so that they may comprehend the natural law. The knowledge
transmitted by the teacher should be free of biases and of her personality. To
remove teacher biases from factual presentations, the realist recommends the use
of teaching machines. Teaching is best when it is most objective, abstract, and
dehumanized.
The Method of the Realist
The method of the realist involves teaching for the mastery of facts in
order to develop an understanding of the natural law. This is best accomplished
by using drills and exercises. Learning is enhanced through direct or indirect
sensory experiences such as field trips, the use of films, filmstrips, records,
television, radio, etc.
The realist favors the use of inductive logic, but is opposed to
individualized instruction, pleasurable hours on the playing field or the self-
expression of art and music.
The Curriculum of the Pragmatist
According to the pragmatist, the curriculum should be learner-centered. It
should change as the needs of the learner varies. Because reality is constantly
changing, the curriculum should be built around natural units which grow out of
the pressing questions and experiences of the learner. The school experience is a
part of life rather than a preparation for life. Thus, the function of the school
should be to teach students to manage change and adapt in a healthy manner.
The process of learning is more important than the content. To the pragmatist,
since the only human reality is experience, schools should carefully define the
nature of experience and establish certain criteria for judging. Education is a
continuous, fluid, dynamic, and open-ended, lifelong process that should
contribute to the childs continuing growth. Schools should be democratic
communities in which students participate in the decision-making process in
anticipation to their future participation in the decision-making process of the
larger society.
The Method of the Pragmatist
The learner-centered curriculum necessitates team teaching and
interdepartmental course offerings. Projects are preferred to lectures.
Methodology centers around giving the student a great deal of freedom of choice
in seeking out the experimental learning situations that will be most meaningful
to them. The classroom becomes a scientific laboratory where ideas are tested to
see if they are capable of verification. Problems selected for solving must be the
real problems of the child. The problem-solving method is rooted in the
psychological needs of the student rather than the logical order of the subject
matter. This method helps students use intelligence and the scientific method in
the solution of problems that are meaningful to them. Field trips have definite
advantages over reading and audio-visual experiences, since the student has a
better chance to participate in first-hand interaction with the environment.

PHILOSOPHY

What is Philosophy?
Philosophy has its roots in two Greek words: Philos (love)
and Sophos (wisdom). Etymologically, philosophy means the love or the pursuit
of wisdom. It is the organized system of knowledge resulting from the persistent
attempt of mans intellect to understand and describe the world in which we live.
It involves an effort to solve fundamental problems, to gain a comprehensive
view of the universe, and to find answers to questions on the origin, nature, and
destiny of matter, energy, life, mind, good, and evil.
W. T. Jones has given the following definition of philosophy:
Philosophy is the eternal search for truth, a search which inevitably fails
and yet is never defeated; which continually eludes us, but which always
guides us. This free, intellectual life of the mind is the noblest inheritance
of the Western World; it is also the hope of our future (Klemke, 1986, p.
11).
 Philosophy is that careful, critical, systematic work of the intellect in the
formulation of beliefs with the aim of making them represent the highest of
probability, in the face of the fact that adequate data are not obtainable for
demonstrable conclusions.
Philosophy is the love of wisdom and the relentless inquiry after truth. As
such, it attempts to enable humans to seek consistently and coherently after the
illusion and integrated wholeness of self, society, and the world in a meaningful
pattern.
Philosophy is an activity that involves three aspects: synthesizing,
speculating, prescribing, and analyzing.
Philosophy is also an attitude that involves self-awareness,
comprehensiveness, penetration, and flexibility.
Philosophy is a body of content which deals with the nature of reality (the
metaphysical question); the nature, origin, methods, and limits of human
intelligence (the epistemological question), the beliefs about values (the
axiological question).
The Aims and Tasks of Philosophy
The aims of philosophy are:
1. The critical scrutiny of our beliefs and convictions. We should be willing
to examine and appraise critically our most cherished beliefs and convictions.
2. The bringing to light of our hidden assumptions and presuppositions.
As long as we are unaware of our assumptions, we are not intellectually free. We
are enslaved to them and to all of the consequences they entail.
3. The quest for a genuinely worthwhile life. For Socrates the only
worthwhile life for a human being is what he called the examined life. The
unexamined life is not worth living.
4. The effort to keep alive our sense of wonder about the world. This sense
of wonder and desire to learn, to know, to contemplate the mysteries of life and
the universe has given rise to philosophy, science, religion, art, and culture.
5. The posing of certain questions which are not dealt with by other
disciplines. Some of these questions cannot be answered by observation,
experimental procedures, or by formal or linguistic determinations. Some of
these questions are general and have very little practical utility, or are such that
there are no obvious and standard procedures or techniques for answering them.
To lead a worthwhile life, one must be willing to reflect on ones personal
cultural beliefs and values, try to understand self and others. To examine these
beliefs and values and those of others, one needs to exercise ones ability to be
skeptical of those various beliefs and values, to ask evidence or reasons for them,
to dig out their assumptions and implications and to look at them with a critical
eye. It involves understanding and being true to oneself.
Metaphysical Questions
 Metaphysics is the area of philosophy that deals with the nature of reality.
It asks the question, What is ultimately real? Metaphysical questions may be
divided into four categories: (1) cosmology, (2) theology, (3) anthropology, (4)
ontology.
1. Cosmology. Cosmology deals with the problems pertaining to the
natural world in general. It consists of studies and theories about the origin of
nature and the development of the universe as an orderly system.
2. Theology. Theology has to do with problems about the existence and
nature of God. It answers questions such as: Is there a God? If God exists, what
are His attributes? Are there such beings as angels, the Holy Spirit, and Lucifer?
Why does evil exist? Is the existence of evil in the world compatible with the
existence of an all-powerful and supremely benevolent God?
3. Anthropology. Anthropology deals with problems pertaining to human
beings. The main questions of concern are: Does the self exist in any real,
substantial way as a unitary, continuous entity? If so, is it a special mental, non-
material substance? Or is what I call my self identical with my body or some part
of my body, for example my brain? Why is the relationship between mind and
body? Which is more fundamental, mind or body? What is mans moral status?
Is man born good or evil? To what extent is man free? Does man have a soul?
Ontology. Ontology is also synonymous with general metaphysics. It is
concerned with broad questions such as, What kinds of things are real? Is there
a material world? Is basic reality found in matter or is it found in spirit or
spiritual energy? Is it composed of one or two or many elements? Is reality
orderly and lawful in itself, or is it merely orderable by mankind? Is it fixed and
stable? Does it change its central features? Is this reality friendly, unfriendly, or
neutral in regards to humanity?
Are Most Philosophers Atheists?
There is a misconception that most philosophers are atheists. I refute this
misconception on the ground that an examination of the lives, work, and
philosophy of some of the great philosophers will reveal that they discovered a
divine pattern in the world and believed that a creator made the universe and
sustains it. I will present only a few of these great philosophers as summarized
by Thomas (1998) and will parallel some of them with truths found in the Bible.
Socrates, the philosopher of the ancient world, repudiated the idea of
polytheism, commonly embraced by the Athenians, and proposed the idea of
monotheismthe belief in one God. The belief in one God is reflected in the Jews
concept of God. Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4).
According to Plato, every temporal objective in this world is the copy of
an eternal idea that exists in the mind of God. Thus, you and I are human copies
of the divine idea of man. This philosophy seems to harmonize with the Genesis
Biblical truth that humans were made in the image of God. Every good deed is a
representation of the eternal idea of goodness. The Bible says that every perfect
and good gift comes from the Father above.
 Aristotles prolific pen produced thousands of books covering the entire
field of religion, science, and the arts.
Thomas Aquinas was consumed with the wonder and mystery of the
world. At the age of five, he asked the question, what is God? And he spent the
rest of his life in an effort to find the answer. Aquinas believed that the highest
good of man is to strive toward the perfection of God. Jesus invites us to be
perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Augustine believed that the material exists in time but the ideal exists in
eternity. God exists out of time just as He exists out of space. Your conception of
time is relative to your position in the universe.
Bishop Berkeley postulated that if it were not for the mind of God, objects
would disappear when we cease to think about them.
For Voltaire, the book of nature revealed the majesty of God. The splendor
of creation revealed the creator. The same theme is found in Psalms 19.

Justification of Philosophy in Our Age of Science

One of the aims of philosophy is to pose and attempt to answer questions
which are not dealt with by other disciplines. Questions which may not have
practical utility, but which have profound impact on the quality of human lives.
One of these disciplines which does not deal with these questions is science.
Since scientists deal strictly with problems which they can potentially
solve with demonstrable conclusions, this approach has left large fields
uncultivated and neglected (the rearing of children, the conduct of business and
family, interpersonal relationships, politics, psychology, history, law, etc.).
Philosophers seek to provide answers to these problems although an element of
conjecture may remain in whatever conclusion is reached. Philosophy is thus
necessary because it provides a basis for actions which arise from lifes
situations. Philosophy becomes the lamp that enlightened our darkened path.
Moreover, innovations in science itself such as in vitro fertilization,
euthanasia, cloning, genetic engineering have given rise to new ethical concerns.
Professions affected by these innovations, and by extension the judicial system,
have not been able to keep up with these innovations and are left with
innumerable questions which need to be answered. The most controversial issue
in recent years has been the cases involving Dr. Kevorkian who is now in prison
because he assisted patients to die. This case represents a good argument for the
justification of philosophy in this age of science.
Additionally, an examination of some aspects of the work of science and
philosophy will show that the two must coexist in order for human beings to
arrive at a more objective and comprehensive knowledge.
The aim of science is to uncover new facts. The aim of philosophy is to
reorganize our prevailing beliefs in such a way as to incorporate those new facts.
 To observe processes and construct means is science. To criticize and
coordinate ends is philosophy.
Science is analytical description. Philosophy is synthetic interpretation.
Research is increasing rather than decreasing the need for philosophical
work. The more science we have, the more philosophy we need. Science gives us
knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
Relationship Between Science and Philosophy
Science and philosophy are inextricably connected. Every science,
postulates Thomas (1998), begins as philosophy and ends in art. It arises in a
hypothesis and flows into achievement. Philosophy provides to science the
consciousness needed to make it useful to humanity. The aim of science is to
uncover new facts. The aim of philosophy is to reorganize our prevailing beliefs
in such a way as to incorporate those new facts.
Both science and philosophy use logic in their critical work of the intellect.
Logical reasoning and dialectical clarification of meaning are as necessary to
science as to philosophy. Philosophy and science share certain methods of
investigation.
Science is far from being self-sufficient with regards to methods, and
science certainly is not inherently capable of dealing with the whole range of
human experiences.
Definition of Terms
Metaphysics. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the
nature of realitywhat is ultimately real. Metaphysics means beyond physics,
and represents the speculative and synthesizing activities of philosophy which
provides the theoretical framework that allows scientists to create world views
and develop hypotheses that can be tested according to the basic assumptions.
Thus, theories of science are related to theories of reality.
Epistemology. Epistemology is that branch of philosophy which studies
the nature of truth and the sources and validity of knowledge. It seeks to answer
such questions as: What is true? and How do we know? The study of
epistemology deals with such issues as the criterion of knowledge, the possibility
of knowledge, the sources of knowledge, the grounds of knowledge, and the
right to believe.
Axiology. Axiology is the branch of philosophy that seeks to answer the
question: What is of value. It is concerned with questions pertaining to the
nature of value judgements, those which are ethical and aesthetical in character.
Values deal with what a person or a society conceives of as being good or
preferable.
Idealism. Idealism is the metaphysical view that ideas are the only reality.
It denies the existence of material things.
Realism. Realism is the metaphysical view that physical objects continue
to exist when not perceived.
 Pragmatism. It is the philosophical position that practical consequences
are the criteria of knowledge, meaning, and value. It rests on the assumptions
that the world of experience, accessible to scientific enquiry, is all we can know
and propositions and acts have meaning only in terms of their verifiable, public
consequences.
Scholasticism. It is a Medieval intellectual movement that used rational
processes to prove existing truth. It was the attempt to rationalize theology in
order to buttress faith by reason. The essence of scholasticism is rationalism.
Idealism: Ultimate Reality Is Non-Material and Mental
Truth to the idealists lies in the realm of ideas. Ideas, they postulate,
preceded matter. Thus ideas have intrinsic value, while matter has extrinsic
value. Some idealists have identified an absolute mind or absolute self, who is
constantly thinking these ideas. George Berkeley, a Christian idealist, identified
the concept of absolute self with God. Therefore, God is the ultimate reality.
I agree with the idea that God is the ultimate reality. He is the one whose
thoughts originated all things. God spoke and the world came into existence.
Everything in the universe has its source in the mind of God.
I also agree that ideas such as truth, beauty, and honor are absolute as
they are embodied in the person of God. These ideas are unchangeable as God is
unchangeable.
The Correspondence Theory of Truth Versus The Coherence Theory of Truth
To test truths proponents of these theories take two different routes. The
proponents of the Correspondence Theory of Truth use facts or reality to test
truth, while proponents of The Coherence Theory of Truth use other judgments
that have been previously accepted as true to test truth.
Both have their limitations. The Correspondence Theory of Truth works
well when one deals with physical objects, moods, emotions, hope, ambition,
fears, moral truths. Critics of this theory argue that we may not be able to
compare our ideas with reality because we only know our own experiences and
cannot get outside of our experiences to compare these ideas with reality in the
truest sense. It is also argued that things our senses perceive are clear and
accurate which may not necessarily be so. Critics also point out that there are
ideas that have no concrete evidence outside the area of human thought, with
which we can make valid comparison.
Critics of the Coherence Theory argue that false systems of thought can be
just as internally consistent as true systems of thought. A distinction would
therefore have to be made between what is consistently true or erroneous.
The Criterion for Knowledge
The area of philosophy which deals with knowledge is epistemology.
What is knowledge? Knowledge is that which is absolutely certain as
opposed to probable knowledge. It is that which is significant and informative as
opposed to knowledge which is trivial. Knowledge is more than or opposed to
belief.
The criterion for knowledge deals with what constitutes genuine
knowledge as opposed to opinion or belief. So what is the criterion for
knowledge? The traditional answer is found in what is known as the justified-
true-belief account. According to John Hospers cited in Klemke (1986), we know
a proposition to be true or to be knowledge if it meets the following three
requirements:
1. It must meet the truth requirement. The proposition we hold must be
true. This is the objective requirement.
2. It must meet the subjective requirement. We must believe that the
proposition is true.
3. It must meet the evidence requirement. We must have adequate
evidence to support the proposition.
The Sources of Knowledge
There are five sources of knowledge, namely: the senses, revelation,
authority, reason and intuition.
1. The senses. Knowledge is obtained through the senses of seeing,
hearing, smelling, feeling, and it is built into the very nature of human
experience. Sensory knowledge is universal and forms the basis of our
knowledge. It is incomplete and undependable.
2. Revelation. This is revealed knowledge. It is of prime importance,
especially in the field of education. It differs from all other sources of knowledge
by presupposing a transcendent, supernatural reality that breaks into the natural
order. Truth obtained through revelation is believed to be absolute and
uncontaminated. However, it can be distorted in the process of human
interpretation. It must be accepted by faith and cannot be disproved or proved
empirically.
3. Authority. Authoritative knowledge comes from the experts. It is only
as valid as the assumptions on which it stands.
4. Reason. Knowledge can be arrived at through the use of reason or
deductive reasoning. The view that reasoning or logic is the central factor in
knowledge is known as rationalism.
5. Intuition. It is the faculty of knowing without the use of rational
processes. It is the most personal way of knowing. It is immediate cognition or
sharp insight. It occurs beneath the threshold of consciousness
World Views
Definition
A world view is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be
true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold consciously or
subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of our
world. (Sire, 1988).
 Sire (1994) refers to a world view as a unifying system of thoughts which
function as the glue that holds together our melting pot society, providing a
systematic way of looking at the world and conditioning how we interpret the
meaning of daily life.
Essence of World Views
Christian Theism
The essence of Christian Theism is that a supreme being called God exists.
He is the creator, in control of humans destiny, and humans are accountable to
Him. He gives meaning to life and is personal in His relationship and dealings
with humans. He is worthy of worship because in His creation He has made
provisions to take care of all humans needs.
Deism
Deism admits the existence of a creator God as the first-cause, but denies
revealed religion based on the light of nature and reason. God does not possess
the attributes supported by Christian Theism and is not interested in His
creation. The universe is seen as the giant clock and human beings are part of the
clockwork of the universe.
Naturalism
God does not exist. Matter is all that exists. The world can be explained in
scientific terms without recourse to a supernatural being.
Existentialism
Man is a useless passion, a body of feelings.
Secularism
God is dead. Only the present counts. Eat, drink, and be merry for
tomorrow you die.
Humanism
Man is the measure, the ultimate being. He is the standard by which
values are to be determined. He is the complete authority and all reality and life
centers around him.
Pragmatism
The basic doctrines are: If it works, use it. Where there is a will, there is
a way. Results are what count. The test for truth is the individual himself.

Positivism
Knowledge is what can be measured empirically. Reality is what the
senses perceive.
Pluralism
There is diversity in this world. Unity can be achieved. Right is relative.
Only the transcendent realm is absolute.
Hedonism
The goal of life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
 PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS

The Philosophical Positions of (A) Idealism, (B) Realism, (C) Pragmatism

The Philosophical Position of Idealism
The philosophical position of idealism is that:
1. Reality is essentially mental and spiritual and not physical.
2. Nothing is real except that which exists in the mind.
3. Ultimate reality lies in a realm transcending phenomena.
4. The essential nature of reality lies in consciousness or reason.
5. Actions should attempt to approximate some preexistent idea of right
conduct.
The Philosophical Position of Realism
This philosophical position holds that:
1. The real world exists independently of any experience to it.
2. Propositions are true only if they can correspond with the known facts,
laws, and principles of the objective world external to us. Ontology and
metaphysics are still necessary.
3. The universe is composed of matter in motion.
4. It is the physical world in which we live that makes up reality. We can,
on the basis of our experiences recognize certain regularities in it which we
generalize about and call laws.
5. The vast cosmos rolls on despite man. Matter continues in motion
whether man concerns himself with it or not.
6. The orderly nature and composition of the world exist independent of
consciousness, but which man has come to know a great deal about.
What Is Pragmatism?
Stumpf (1966) stated that Pragmatism emerged at the end of the
nineteenth century as the most original contribution of American thought to the
enterprise of philosophy. This movement was given its initial theoretical
formulation by Charles S. Peirce; it was given wide and popular circulation
through the brilliant and lucid essays of Williams James; and it was methodically
implemented into the daily affairs of American institutions by John Dewey. What
united these men was their conviction that there must be a close connection
between thinking and doing. The pragmatist philosophers saw little value in
modes of thinking that did not somehow make a difference in daily life. At the
same time, they concluded that behavior that did not rest upon thought was
lacking an important ingredient. For the original pragmatists, therefore, the term
practical meant the way thought works in action.
Thomas (1988) states that Pragmatism is an American philosophical
movement resting on the assumptions that the world of experience, accessible to
scientific enquiry, is all we can know and that propositions and acts have
meaning in terms of their verifiable, public consequences.
William James defined pragmatism as the attitude of looking away from
first things, principles, categories, supposed necessities, and of looking toward
last things, fruits, consequences, and facts.
The Philosophical Position of Pragmatism
1. Where there is a will, there is a way.
2. Mans time is best spent solving todays problems.
3. The truth is what is practical, because the truth is what works
4. Truth cannot be known in a closed system with any experience on the
other side; therefore, truth is determined by experimentation.
5. Cosmological reality has been undergoing change over the past
centuries.
6. Reality is not fixed, but is in a constant state of flux as mans experience
broadens.
7. The seeking of knowledge is a transaction between man and his
environment.
The Seeking of Knowledge as a Transaction
A transaction usually occurs between two parties. The parties involved in
the seeking of knowledge are man and the environment. Man has an active and
exploratory mind rather than one that is passive and receptive. Man produces
knowledge as he interacts with the environment. Man acts upon the environment
and then undergoes certain consequences. He learns from this transactional
experience with the world around him. This knowledge, which man acquires, is
thus rooted in experience and is therefore a transaction.
The Core of Idealism
Idealism is at its core an emphasis on the reality of ideas, thoughts and
mind, rather than stressing material objects and forces. Idealism emphasizes
mind as being basic or prior to matter, and even contends that mind is real, while
matter is a by-product of the mind.
Dichotomous Reality of the Idealist
To the idealist, reality is divided into two parts. There is a world that man
perceives through his senses. This is the world of the apparentthe world that is
readily seen, the world of objects. But more important, there is the world of
reality that we perceive through our mind. The world of the mind focuses on
ideas and these eternal ideas precede and are more important than the physical
world of sensation. Some idealists have postulated an absolute mind of self, who
is constantly thinking these ideas. George Berkeley, a Christian idealist,
identified the concept of absolute with God. God is the Absolute Self or Absolute
Mind.
New Realism Versus Critical Realism
The new realist and the critical realist can be distinguished based on their
view of knowledge. The new realist holds a presentational view of knowledge,
whereas the critical realist holds a representational view of it.
The position of the new realist is that we know the real object as it exists.
When one perceives something, it is the same thing that exists in the real world.
This mind becomes the relationship between the subject and the object. This is
the presentational view of knowledge.
The critical realist takes a different view of knowledge, one which seems
better able to account for errors in perception. The critical realist felt than man
could not know the world directly, but only through certain vehicles or essences.
Thus, objects are not present to consciousness but are represented. Their position
is a representational view. This means that although something exists in reality,
our knowledge is not of it, but a representation of it.
What Is Sense Realism?
Sense realism or scientific realism holds that reality is found in the forces
and laws of nature. The ultimate aim of the sense realists was to develop a
natural society by working in accord with the laws of nature. They aimed at the
discovery and utilization of the secrets of nature for the real and practical
benefits they could bring to man in the everyday work of the world. They also
believed that the operations of the inner processes of the mind were also a part of
the laws of nature.
Bishop Berkeleys Idea of Reality - My Position
Bishop Berkeley set out to deny the existence of matter. He postulated that
to be is to be perceived (Stumpf, Socrates to Sartre, p. 290). This would mean
that if something were not perceived, it would not exist. According to Stumpf,
Berkeley, in His New Theory of Vision, argued that all our knowledge depends
upon actual vision and other sensory experiences. In particular Berkeley argued
that we never sense space or magnitude; we only have different visions or
perceptions of things when we see them from different perspectives. Nor do we
see distance; the distance of objects is suggested by our experience. All that we
see are the qualities (such as color, texture, odor, etc.) of an object that our faculty
of vision is capable of sensing. Berkeley argued that size, shape, and motion
abstracted from all other qualities are inconceivable (p. 291).
Berkeleys view is similar to that of idealism which holds that ordinary
objects exist only when perceived. For Berkeley, the whole problem turned on
how we interpret the word exists. An object, such as a chair, exists in a real
physical sense only when someone is thinking of it. The only place the chair
exists permanently is in the Supreme Mind (God) which is always conscious of it.
The chair exists in the mind of God which serves a storage place. The chair only
exists when God allows us to perceive it, since matter, like all reality is
essentially mental. God is thus the Ultimate Reality, and not material things.
According to Stumpf, Berkeleys view undermined the position of philosophical
materialism and religious skepticism. He went on to say that, building upon
Lockes empiricism, Berkeley made the decisive point that the human mind
reasons only and always about particular sense experiences, that abstract ideas
refer to no equivalent reality.
In a sense, I agree with Berkeleys view that God is indeed the Ultimate
Reality, and that matter came forth as a result of the outworking of Gods mind.
He spoke and the world came into existence. He is the Creator God. Not only is
He Ultimate Reality, but in a very real sense, human beings can know God
through His creation. Furthermore, as Christians, life only has purpose and
meaning as we fulfill Gods plan for our individual lives. Human eternal destiny
is tied up and dependent on the Ultimate Reality.
I disagree with Berkeleys position that matter exists only as we perceive
them. Although a blind person cannot see objects, yet these objects exist
independently of his sight. As a matter of fact, the blind person may collide with
an object he cannot see and feel its impact. Matter is real, but it is not that which
is ultimately important, for at the second coming of Jesus Christ, the world and
all that are therein will perish in a lake of fire.
Berkeleys viewpoint raises the questions of knowledge and whether truth
is independent of human experience. He postulated that the human mind
reasons only and always about particular sense experiences, that abstract ideas
refer to no equivalent reality. I would argue that:
1. There is knowledge that is independent of human awareness. Such
knowledge is called a priori knowledge. The human mind, for example, reasons
about God, the Ultimate Reality, yet no one has ever seen God. But this same
God, Christians believe, has been manifested in the flesh in the person of Jesus
Christ. This abstract idea has an equivalent in reality.
2. There is knowledge that requires human experience or verification. This
is called a posteriori knowledge. For example, someone may say it is raining. To
know whether it is raining outside, one would have to look out and put ones
hand out of the window to verify that it is raining.
I would further argue that human reasoning does not always dependent
upon sense experience. Knowledge can originate from many sources such as
revelation, reason, and intuition.
The rationalists maintain that mankind has the power to know with
certainty various truths about the universe which the senses alone cannot give, as
sensory experiences must be organized by the mind into a meaningful system
before it becomes knowledge.
Knowledge can be derived from intuition. Intuition is the act or faculty of
knowing without the use of rational processes. It is immediate cognition or sharp
insight. Intuition occurs beneath the threshold of consciousness. It is a very
personal way of knowing.
Knowledge obtained from divine revelation presupposes a transcendent
supernatural reality that breaks into the natural order. Truth gained through this
source is believed to be absolute and uncontaminated. However, it is realized
that revealed truth can be distorted in the process of human interpretation.
What Is Scholasticism?
During the Medieval period, there arose a problem of relating philosophy
and theology. Medieval thinkers expressed this problem as the relation between
faith and reason. The viewpoints of Plato and Aristotle seemed to be at odds
with the accepted Medieval Christian Faith. Stumpf (1966), states that St. Thomas
Aquinas brought together in a formidable synthesis the insights of classical
philosophy and Christian Theology. He clarified the precise questions involved,
acknowledging alternative solutions offered by different authorities, and
answering the major objections of the Aristotelian-Christian solution. In this way,
Aquinas perfected the scholastic method (p. 186). His Suma
Theologicapurported that a person should acquire as much knowledge as
possible through the use of human reason, and they rely on faith in that realm
beyond the scope of human understanding. This philosophy of Aquinas is called
Thomism. It is the official position of the Roman Catholics.
The term scholasticism, thus refers to the intellectual activity carried on in
the Medieval cathedral schools, and its proponents were called doctors scholastici.
Stumpf goes on to explain that scholasticism came to refer to the dominant
system of thought developed by doctors in the schools and to the special method
they utilized in teaching philosophy. Scholastic philosophy was an attempt to
put together a coherent system of traditional thought rather than a pursuit of
genuinely novel forms of insight. The content of this system was for the most
part a fusion of Christian Theology and the philosophies of Plato and especially
Aristotle. Most distinctive in scholasticism was its method, a process relying
chiefly upon strict logical deduction, taking on the form of an intricate system
and expressed in a dialectical or disputational form in which theology dominated
philosophy (p. 186). The essence of scholasticism is thus rationalism.
Am I an Idealist, a Realist, or a Pragmatist?
I hold philosophical views from these three schools of thought. As an
idealist, I believe that God is the Ultimate Reality and that matter is a by-product
of Gods mind. Psalms 33:6 says: By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. It was the Word of
God that provided the creative energy that brought the world into existence.
I also believe that the a priori concepts of truth, beauty, and honor are
absolute. All of these concepts are manifested in God who is absolute truth,
beauty, honor, and goodness. To apprehend the reality of ideas, human beings
rely on the intellect and reasoning. This position is congruent with that of Ellen
G. White who states that every human being created in the image of God is
endowed with a power akin to that of the creatorindividuality and the power
to think and to do. . . She also postulates that higher than the human thought
can reach is Gods ideal for His children.
Idealism holds that the teacher is the center of the educational process and
the person closest to Absolute Reality. I believe that Jesus, the Master Teacher, is
the center and object of Christian education and that by knowing Him, the gap
caused by sin can be bridged and I can enjoy fellowship again with God.
Furthermore, by imitating the Master Teacher, my character will be made in the
likeness of the Divine. God is the Ideal who does not change. His standards are
universal and have universal applications.
I am also a realist because I hold the view that education should be
concerned with the actual realities of life in all its aspect. Newmann and Whelage
cited in Sergiovanni (1998) state that authentic student learning is the result of
active engagement of the student with the material of the curriculum.
Authenticity calls for student accomplishment to reflect (1) the construction of
knowledge, (2) through disciplined inquiry, (3) to produce discourse, products,
and performances that have meaning beyond success in school. In other words,
for education to be valid, it must be contextualized. It must relate to the actual
realities of life in all its aspects. Problems and concepts presented in the
classroom must be similar to those students have encountered, or are likely to
encounter, in life beyond the classroom. There must be a connection between the
classroom and reality.
Like the sense realist, I believe that education should aim at encouraging
students to work in accord not only with the laws of nature, but with the moral,
mental, and spiritual laws of God. Ellen G. White supports this view when she
states that: To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral is to place oneself
out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin. (White,
1903, p. 100).
John Lockes notion of the mind as a tabula rasa is particularly relevant to
the concept of the training of the young. I believe that the formative years of
children, from one to seven, are very important and that parents should dedicate
time and energy in fashioning their impressionable minds. Since children acquire
the contents of the mind through experience, parents should expose them to
what is lovely, pure, virtuous, and true. Therefore, they should guard jealously
their childrens avenues to the soul. Parents should introduce children to the love
of God as reflected and demonstrated in their own lives and as revealed in
nature. Mrs. White admonishes that:
So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be
placed where this wonderful lesson shall be open before
him. Let him behold the glorious scenes painted by the great
Master Artist upon the shifting canvas of the heavens, let
him become acquainted with the wonders of earth and sea,
let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing
 season, and, in all His works learn of the Creator (White,
1903, pp. 100-101).
God Himself is a realist in that He was concerned with the reality of
humanitys sinful condition and had already established a plan before the fall to
redeem it so that, in the fullness of time Christ came born of a woman, born
under the law to die for sinners.
I am also a pragmatist. I believe that knowledge is rooted in experience.
At the spiritual level, I believe that my knowledge of God is grounded in the
experience I have with Him. At the educational level, I believe that students learn
best when they interact with the material presented to them, especially in
meaningful projects and simulations. My learning style reflects the following
pragmatic characteristics:
1. I have a reputation for saying what I think, simply and directly.
2. What matters most to me is whether something works in practice.
3. When I hear about a new idea or approach, I immediately start working
out how to apply it in practice.
4. I accept and stick to laid down procedures and policies so long as I
regard them as an efficient way of getting the job done.
5. In discussions, I like to get straight to the point.
6. In meetings, I put forward practical, realistic ideas.
7. I can often see better, more practical ways to get things done.
Like the pragmatist, I believe that (1) education is a lifelong process, (2)
we will continue to learn even in the new earth, and (3) teachers must instill into
students a love for lifelong learning. I also believe that education should be
learner-centered and that the curriculum and my teaching methods and
strategies should be adapted to the needs of students.

Every Rational Person is a Philosopher

I agree that every rational person is a philosopher. The following
arguments will support my claim:
1. E. G. White states: Every human being, created in the image of God is
endowed with a power akin to that of the Creatorindividuality, power to think
and to do. . . This statement is supported by Genesis 1:27, NKJV: So God
created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them. This implies that every human being is endowed with
mental faculties such as the ability to think, to reason, to think symbolically and
abstractly, to discover, etc.
2. Every rational person who lives must at some point reflect on problems
such as the existence of God, the existence of evil, immortality, etc., and must
arrive at answers that will satisfy his own longings and desire. This is the work
of a philosopher.
 3. Every rational person must decide what is good, what is of value, what
ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is the correct standard of
conduct. This is the work of a philosopher.
4. Every rational person will be faced with situations when she must
critically scrutinize beliefs and convictions and change them in the light of
evidence, discussion, and criticism. This is the work of a philosopher.
5. Every rational person wants to know more about the external world in
which he lives and how his action affects the world around him. This is the work
of a philosopher.
6. Every rational person wants to know how to live a better, worthwhile
life. This is the work of a philosopher.
7. Every rational person searches for truth, meaning, and purpose for
existence. This is the work of a philosopher.
8. Every rational person wants to know more about oneself and human
nature in general in order to deal better with the complexities and great issues of
life. This is the work of a philosopher.
9. Every rational person wants to keep in touch with new developments in
the field of science and technology and connect them with ones own search for
meaning and understanding. This is the work of a philosopher.
10. Every rational person is naturally curious and is sometimes struck by
what she considers odd or strange or mysterious to comprehend. This desire to
learn, to know, to contemplate the mysteries of life and the universe is also the
work of a philosopher.

GOD

Logical Arguments for the Existence of God

All human beings at one time or another in their existence must face the
problem of the existence of God. Is there a god? Are there any good reasons to
believe that a god exists? If so, what are they? If there is no god, are there any
good reasons to reject the belief? If so, what are they? The answer to these
questions has profound consequences for our lives.
 Since the existence of God cannot be proven by experimentation, how can
one settle this problem? Philosophers say that this issue must be settled on the
basis of reason and logical arguments.
The arguments which will be used will be those proposed by traditional
Christian Theists. There are several theistic arguments for the existence of God,
the most familiar ones being: (1) the ontological argument (a priori argument),
(2) the cosmological argument (first-cause argument), (3) the teleogical argument
(design argument), (4) the moral argument, (5) the natural law argument.
The two arguments chosen for exposition are the cosmological and
teleological arguments.

The Cosmological Argument

Cosmology is the branch of philosophy dealing with the origin and
general structure of the universe. The cosmological argument is considered a
posteriori argument because it is based upon some feature of the commonly
experienced world. The research done suggests that this argument emphasizes
two aspects: (1) the impossibility of infinite regress, and (2) the finitude of
something implies an infinite cause.
The impossibility of infinite regress. Thomas (1998) states that the basis for
the cosmological argument is the observation of some particular feature of the
universe such as motion or even the mere existence of any individual. The
argument maintains that every event must have a cause, and that cause in turn,
must have a cause, and so on. If there were no end to this backward progression
of causes and effects, then their succession would be infinite. But an infinite
series of causes and events (or infinite regress) is impossible and unintelligible.
Therefore, there must be a first cause which is itself uncaused. This first-cause is
called God. Therefore, God exists.
The finitude of something. Klemke (1986) postulates that the nerve of
[cosmological] argument is as follows:
Something exists and it is finite.
The finite is not the cause of itself.
Neither can the finite in its whole or essential being be the effect of
another finite entity.
Therefore the proper cause of this something is infinite, and this infinite
being necessarily exists, and is God (p. 247).
The word finitude, meaning limitation, dependency, etc.) presupposes
infinitude as the source of its limitation and the support of its dependency. The
finitude of human beings and the universe must be explained, or else human
beings and the universe are without any purpose. Klemke argues that limitation
either argues purpose or is ultimately inexplicable. Retreating into inexplicability
would be hazardous and would imply irrationality. Thus, we have no choice but
to believe that there is a purpose. This purpose is the purpose of an unlimited,
all-inclusive being who of necessity is prior to the limited, exclusive, and
dependent. Such a being is God. Therefore, God exists.
The Teleological Argument
Teleology is the doctrine that final causes exist. It is also the study of the
evidences of design or purpose in nature. The teleological argument is also
considered an a posteriori argument. It rests on the observation that the entire
universe exhibits orderliness and purpose. Klemke (1986) states that many things
or events occur in an orderly fashion, for example, the behavior of the planets in
our solar system. Many other things are correlated with one another in a way
that is purposeful. Among these there is an adaptation of means to ends, as in the
intricate structure of the human eye. It is the purposiveness of organisms and of
life itself which requires an explanation. They could not have come by accident
or chance. They must be a result of some greater plan.
This argument, Thomas (1998) maintains, is structured on the method of
analogical reasoning. The analogy, he says, is this: the universes is like an orderly
machine or clock, and as machine or clock has a machine maker or clock maker
to explain its existence, so too must the universe have an author. This author is
God. Therefore, God exists.
Who Is God?
Since it has been established that God exists, the second question, If so,
what is the nature of that being? What are the attributes of God? must be
answered. This section will deal with conceptions of God from the Biblical and
Christian Theism perspectives.
Conceptions of God deal with His nature and attributes. Ones conception
of God determines ones relationship with Him and others; the value one places
on self, on earthly endeavors, and on others; and how ones life fits in the great
scheme of Gods plan.
God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush as I am who I am.
This
denotes self-existence. God exists by a power inherent within Himself. He is the
Alpha and Omega. He has no beginning and no end.
He is the Ultimate Reality, the being perfect in wisdom, power, and
goodness. He is the self-conscious unity of all reality. The universe is the content
of His consciousness.
God is an autonomous being. He possesses ontological self-sufficiency
and creative genius. He is self-existent.
God is eternal, immortal, and immutable. God is everlasting. The Bible
says that God alone possesses immortality. Immortality is synonymous with
unending existence, deathlessness, or incorruptibility. He alone possesses
endless life inherently. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is unchangeable.
God is the Creator. He is the source of life and existence. He created the
universe. By virtue of His creative power, He is sovereign and ruler of the
universe. His sovereignty implies that nothing is beyond His ultimate interest,
control, and authority.
God is transcendent or beyond us and our physical existence. Human
beings cannot make physical contact with Him, yet can access Him through
prayer.
God is immanent. He is with us through His Holy Spirit, influencing and
affecting our actions, affairs, and outcomes.
God is good. He cares for us. His benevolence is displayed throughout His
creation. He is also holy. He cannot bear any resemblance of evil, nor can evil
exist in His presence.
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God is all-powerful as
demonstrated by His creative power and sovereignty. He is all-knowing,
infinitely wise, and is in all places at the same time.
God is a spirit and is holy. Although God is real, he is not present in
material form and therefore not visible to human beings. God is absolutely
spiritually pure, commanding adoration, worship, and praise from all creatures
in the universe.
Definition of Terms
God is infinite. This means that God is beyond scope, beyond measure. No
other being in the universe can challenge Him in His nature. All else is
secondary. He is alone the be-all and end-all of existence. He is the source of all
life and existence.
God is personal. God is not mere force or energy or existent substance.
God is endowed with personality. He possesses self-reflection, self-
determination, self-consciousness. He knows Himself to be. He thinks and acts.
Because God is personal, human beings, made in the image of God, endowed
also with personality, can relate to Him in a personal way.
God is triune. This is a great mystery that cannot be fully explained and
comprehended by finite minds. Within the one essence of the Godhead [Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4)] , there are three distinct
persons who are neither three gods on the one side, not three parts or modes
on the other. These three persons are coequally and coeternally God (Heb. 1:3,
John 1:1-3; Gen. 1:1, 2 Cor. 3:14-18).
Why Do I Believe in a God I Cannot See - My Response to an Atheist
I feel under no obligation to establish Gods existence to an atheist because
Gods existence cannot be proven, neither be demonstrated for it is unsupported
by reason, science, or logic. Neither can His existence be disproved. There is no
philosophical argument that I can use to prove Gods existence, since serious
flaws have been found in the traditional cosmological, ontological, and teleogical
arguments. They argue that these arguments are emotive.
Consider the first-cause or ontological argument. According to William
James cited in Gardner (1983), there is nothing logically absurd about an infinite
regress. An endless regress is absurd only to someone who finds it ugly or
disturbing. According to James, the proof by first cause may be emotionally
satisfying in its escape from the anxiety generated by an infinite regress, but
clearly it is logically flawed.
The teleogical argument has also been declared to be originating from a
strong emotional power. That is, the emotion one feels when one considers the
grandeur and majesty of nature. Emotion is not reason. James postulates that the
teleogical argument has been weakened by evolution. He goes on to say that it is
no longer possible to think of the wondrous structure of a human eye, or even
the patterns of such lifeless things as galaxies and solar systems, as having
histories analogous to the making of a watch.
Speaking of the big bang theory, he posits that the argument that God had
to fine-tune the fireball to create a cosmos capable of producing intelligent life is
compelling only to those who shrink from contemplating an infinity of lifeless
universes, who find it more comforting to suppose that a superior intelligence
guided our big bang to form the universe as it did. He goes on to show that it is
easy to turn the design proof upside down and argue that the chaos and evil in
the world suggest the nonexistence of God.
The ontological argument, it is argued, proves nothing, but it serves to
deepen a believers understanding of God. James postulates that In every proof
I find an explicit or implicit emotional leap that springs from a desire or a fear or
both, a leap that occurs at some point between the proofs links. As fully rational
arguments, instances of what Kant called pure reason, the proofs are invalid
(Gardner, 1983, p. 204). Yet my answer to the atheist will be based on purely
emotive reasons.
My belief in Gods existence is based on faith. The Bible gives no
argument for Gods existence. It simply asserts that: In the beginning God . . .
Neither did Jesus try to defend Gods existence. Gods reality is taken for
granted, never defended. According to Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of
what we hope for and certain for what we do not see. (NKJV). Now the
question is this: What prompted me to make this leap of faith as Kierkegaard
put it?
Back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, I suffered from chronic depression
caused by an undiagnosed severe hormonal imbalance, also because I was living
conditions over which I felt had no control. I was angry. I even received shock
therapy in 1979. This depression lasted for several years, during which time I
was treated by a psychiatrist and then a psychologist. My illness manifested itself
among other things by an obsession with death, anguish, and panic. As it is
commonly known, young persons never think of their death as a reality. But this
depression placed me in contact with my own mortality and finality. The
thought that I could cease to exist became unbearable to me, and I turned to God
for salvation although I was born into the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and
had already been baptized at the age of 12. This was the moment of my leap of
faith.
As Stephens cited in Gardner (1983) points out, there is however, one fact
about which both atheists and theists can agree. For many people, he continues,
perhaps most people, there is a deep ineradicable desire not to cease to exist.
Perhaps, this desire, this fear of falling into what Lord Dunsay once called the
unreverberate blackness of the abyss, is no more than an expression of genetic
mechanisms for avoiding death. Or is it more? He goes on to say, it is easy to
understand why any person would think death finaleverything in our
experience indicates itbut I share with Unamuno a vast incredulity when I meet
individuals, seemingly well adjusted, who solemnly assure me they have
absolutely no desire to live again. He asks the question: Do they really mean it?
Or are they wearing a mask which they suppose fashionable while deep inside
their hearts, in the middle of the night and in moments of agony, they secretly
hope to be surprised some day by the existence and mercy of God?
Faith, I agree, is an expression of feeling, of emotion, not of reason. But,
does this lower faith? Stephens, says no. Emotion more than reason, certainly as
much as reason, distinguishes us from the beasts. And he quotes Unamuno who
said: More often I have seen a cat reason, than laugh or weep. Yes, I have
watched my desk calculator reason more often than laugh or weep (p. 213).
I made this leap of faith back in the 1980's because I had reached rock
bottom. I was in despair and I needed God to escape from my unbearable
anguish. I posited God because I needed Him in order to live. Without Him I
would have surely sunk into the abyss and lost my sanity or die.
There are moments in life, when reason alone is not sufficient. One must
rely on ones heart to decide. I agree with William James when he says: When
we are confronted with live options, and when there are insufficient grounds for
deciding rationally, we have no other way to decide except emotionally (p. 218).
Who can deny, Stephens affirms, that when a momentous decision is thrust upon
us, and the head cannot decide, the heart must take over? There is nothing
irrational or absurd about letting the heart take over. It saved my life and gave
me a purpose for living. As James says: Belief in God and immortality are
unsupported by logic or science, but because they are live options we cannot
avoid an emotional decision (p. 219).
I, then say like James and Unamuno that I have no basis whatever for my
belief in God other than a passionate longing that God exists and that I and
others will not cease to exist. Because I believe with my heart that God upholds
all things, it follows that I believe that my leap of faith, in a way beyond my
comprehension, is God outside of me asking and wanting me to believe, and God
within me responding. This has been said a thousand of times before by theists.
Let us listen to how Unamuno says it:
Wishing that God may exist, and acting and feeling as if He
did exist. And desiring Gods existence and acting
 conformably with this desire, is the means whereby we
create Godthat is, whereby God creates Himself in us,
manifests Himself to us, opens and reveals Himself to us.
For God goes out to meet him who seeks with love and by
love, and hides Himself from him who searches for Him
with the cold and loveless reason. God wills that the heart
should have rest, but not the head, reversing the order of the
physical life in which the head sleeps and rests at time while
the heart wakes and works unceasingly. And thus
knowledge without love leads us away from God; and love,
even without knowledge, and perhaps better without it,
leads us to God, and though God to wisdom. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God (p. 222)!
This is enough. No more can be said, except that I have the right to
believe!

CREATION

The Nature of Human Beings

The purpose of this essay is to distinguish human beings being from
animals. However, the writer, being sensitive to gender bias terms, will use terms
such as people, humanity, human beings, humankind, human species instead of
man. The writer takes such an approach because history has shown that women
have been considered physically, mentally, spiritually, and professionally, etc.
less than men. Indeed, when women are referred to in literature, they are usually
placed together with the imbeciles and dumb animals. From whence come all
kinds of abuses perpetrated against women.
This essay is seen as an opportunity to establish that men and women are
special and are of a higher nature and order than dumb animals, and have
essentially the same human nature, although having different gender. Thus, all
arguments presented in this essay are applicable to men and women.
The main questions are: What are human beings? Are they animals? The
writer refutes the commonly accepted belief that human beings are just animals
of a higher order. For sure, says Klemke (1986), there are many animals which
are stronger than human beings are; viruses are more fertile, cockroaches more
highly adapted, stones more durable, and so on. But these characteristics do not
make them superior to human beings. So what differentiates people from
animals? What makes human beings superior creatures? The writer proposes six
dimensions that set humanity apart from and above the animal kingdom: (1) the
personal dimension, (2) the spiritual dimension, (3) the mental dimension, (4) the
social dimension, and (5) the moral dimension, and (6) the physical dimension.
The Personal Dimension
Humankind did not spring out of nature by some natural evolutionary
process, for according to Genesis, the creation of human beings is attributed
directly to God. Men and women were created and formed by Him (Gen. 1:27;
2:78). Because human beings were made in the image of God, they
possess personality akin to the Creator.
James Sire reminds us that personality has two basic characteristics: self-
reflection and self-determination God displays both these characteristics. God is
self-conscious. He knows Himself to be. He thinks and He acts.
That people are made in the image of God means they are like God.
Human beings are personal because God is personal. Because God is self-
conscious, they are self-conscious. They know themselves to be, and they make
decisions uncoerced. They possess self-determination. They act according to their
own character and their own nature.
God is transcendent, therefore human beings exhibit transcendence. They
dominate their environment. Human beings are unique, display unique
identities, and behave in unique ways.
Only human beings and God display emotion. They can express sadness,
love, anger, etc. As Unamuno put it: More often I have seen a cat reason, than
laugh or weep. Yes, and I have watched my desk calculator reason more often
than laugh or weep (Gardner, 1983, p. 213).
The Spiritual Dimension
According to Dr. Jack J. Blanco, men and women were created with a
spiritual dimension akin to the Creator. They were called to be holy as He is
holy. The term spirituality means holiness, holy living, godliness, walking with
God, discipleship. They emphasize commitment and a deepening relationship
with God and Jesus Christ guided by Scripture. This relationship with God is
demonstrated in reverence and praise in the act of worship. Human beings reach
out to something infinitely greater and better than themselves, in their
conscience, and their capacity for worship.
J. M. Houston states that, True spirituality engenders fellowship, the
communion of the saints, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. It means
godliness and spiritual friendship reflected in the horizontal as well as the
vertical dimension of existence. It means the embodiment of the love of God in
the human for Him and for others. (J. M Houston, Spirituality, Evangelical
Dictionary of Theology, pp. 1046-1050).
 Human beings have a conscience that can be influenced by the prompting
of the Holy Spirit and that leads them to do what is right. They develop a moral
code, values, and principles by which to live.
Human beings have an eternal destiny with God. They alone are
candidates to immortality.

The Mental Dimension

Human beings have an amazing mental life and are distinct from other
creatures. They are the only beings created with the ability to think, to reason, to
reach decisions, to make choices and take action. Humans have consciousness,
thought, and appreciation. They think in abstract symbols, consciously set goals,
make plan to reach, initiate work to carry them out, and find joy and satisfaction
in their accomplishments. They have skills and have knowledge. They alone can
appreciate the aesthetic beauty of nature and the arts.
Humans are educable. Animals are dumb and stupid creatures that
function by instinct and are not educable. Park cited in Thomas (1998) states:
Man is the only educable human being, the horse, the dog, and the lower
creatures are trained, not educated. Apparently the lower creature frames to
itself no goal to be reached, no intellectual or moral ends to be attained, no
development to be secured. There is inherited instinct but not conceptual
reasoning.
He goes to say that Man is the only educable being because only he has a
sufficient measure of self-activity to attain by effort rational ends self-consciously
conceived. Man therefore is the only fit subject for education. The self-activity of
man conditioning his education is the clearest expression in the limits of time of
the immanent and transcendent self-activity of reality.
The Social Dimension
Humans were created for companionship. According to Dr. Blanco, the
expression, It is not good that man should be alone (Gen 2:18) included all
human beings, not just Adam. While the context of Genesis 2:18 is Creation Week
and the relationship of a man and a woman as husband and wife, the principle
found in this verse applies to all human beings, regardless of their status (Adult
Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, the Nature of Man. April to June, 1999, p. 22).
God did not create human beings to be alone and certainly not to ever feel
lonely. He created us for companionship either through the marriage
relationship, family, friendships, or all three. Human beings find happiness in
giving and joy in loving and being loved.
The Moral Dimension
Human beings were created to reflect Gods ethical and moral nature.
Human beings have a God-given moral sense to determine right and wrong, and
a conscience to prick them when they stray. Human beings have a sense of
accountability as well as free choice. The totality of their response to this
awareness of accountability, constitutes their character, and indicates the extent
to which they are moral responsible individuals.
Character building is thus one of the most important goals of education
and religion.
The Physical Dimension
Human beings are the only creatures formed or molded by the hands of
God according to a preconceived design. Then God breathed life into this clay
model of Adam, and he became a living being. (Gen. 2:7). Imagine for a moment,
says Dr. Blanco, the awesome sight of the Creator God working the wet clay with
His hands, and then with His mouth, breathing His life into Adams nostrils.
What an amazing sight!
The molding of Adam and Eve implies a personal and intimate
involvement of God with His creation. It implies, love, care, and solicitude. What
a loving God we serve! Human beings are the only creatures who stand erect and
who possess manual dexterity.
These six dimensions prove that human beings are not animals and that
they should not be classified in the animal kingdom. Rather they should be in the
kingdom humanity, as C. J. Thomas stated.
Definition of Terms
God created the cosmos ex nihilo. God created the entire universe out of
nothing. He spoke the universe into existence. The universe came into being by
His word. Mrs. White states that: The creative energy that called the world into
existence is the world of God. The universe was not created out of Himself or
some preexistent chaos. If the cosmos was preexistent, it would be as eternal as
God.
God created the cosmos as a uniformity of natural causes in an open
system. This means that the cosmos shows order and purpose. It was not created
to be chaotic. The universe exhibits orderliness and regularity and reflects Gods
character. We can expect the sun to rise every day.
The system is open. The system is not programmed or predetermined.
God is constantly involved in the unfolding pattern of the ongoing operation of
the universe. The course of the worlds operation is open to reordering by God or
man. The world was dramatically reordered in the Fall and is continually being
reordered as human beings effect changes in the environment.

Scientific Principles that Lend Support to the Theory of Creation

The two scientific principles that lend support to the theory of creation are
the conservation of mass energy and increasing entropy. Both principles belong
to the law of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is the science concerned with
the relations between heat and mechanical energy or work, and the conversion of
one into the other.
 The first law of thermodynamics--the conservation of mass energy
supports the idea that nothing is being created or annihilated in the present order
of things. The second law of thermodynamcisincreasing entropyis essentially a
confirmation of the universal lay of decay and death in accordance with the
Biblical version of the doctrine of creation. Entropy is the tendency toward
disorder and randomness. This means that there is a tendency from the highly
organized downward toward the less organized. Never is there an increase of
order without an outside force. Evolution is thus a contradiction of increasing
entropyproceeding from chaos, disorder and randomness to orderliness, from
nothing to something and from ignorance to intelligence.
Comparison of the Approach of Adventist Scientists and Worldly Scientists
Points of Agreement
The Adventist and worldly scientists agree that there are developmental
patterns in plant and animal life.
Adventist and worldly scientists adhere strictly to the laws of evidence as
they proceed with their search into the ways of nature.

Points of Disagreement
Adventist and worldly scientists disagree on the theory of origin.
Adventist scientists believe in the doctrine of special creation, while worldly
scientists believe in the theory of evolution.
Furthermore, Adventist scientists are impelled by humane, professional,
and religious motives as they pursue their discipline. Worldly scientists have no
such concerns.
Natural law to Adventist scientists is a reflection of the divine law and, in
a limited sense, an indication of what God is.
Adventist and worldly scientists have different motives for pursuing their
study. The assumption which led to the formulation of their hypothesis or the
theory by which their data are interpreted may be also fundamentally different.
What Do the Fossil Records Indicate?
Fossils are remnant, impression or trace of an animal or plant of a post
geological age that has been preserved into the earths crust.
If evolution were a fact, the fossil evidence would reveal a gradual
changing from one kind of life into another, and would have to be the case
regardless of which variation of the evolutionary theory is accepted. Also, if
evolution were founded in fact, the fossil record would be expected to reveal
beginnings of new structures in living things. There should be at least some
fossils with developing arms, legs, wings, eyes, and other bones and organs.
If living things were created the fossil records would not show one type of
life turning into another. They would reflect the Genesis statement that each
different types of living things would reproduce only according to its kind (Gen.
 1:11). Also, if living things came into being by an act of creation. There would be
no partial, unfinished bones or organs in the fossil record. All fossils would be
complete and highly complex, as living things are today.

A Comparison Between What Evolution Predicted and What Creation

Predicted in Fossil Record
Prediction of Predictions of Creation Facts as Found in the
Evolution Model Model Real Word

Life evolved from non- Life comes from 1. Life comes only from
life by chance chemical previous life; originally previous life.
evolution created by an intelligent 2. No way to form
(spontaneous Creator. complex genetic code
generation). by chance.

Fossils should show: Fossils should show: Fossils show:

1. Simple life forms 1. Complex forms 1. Sudden appearance
originating suddenly appearing of complex life in
gradually; in great variety; great variety;
2. Transitional forms 2. Gaps separating 2. Each new kind
linking previous major kinds; no separate from
ones. linking forms. previous kinds; no
linking forms.

New kinds arising No new kinds gradually No new kinds gradually

gradually; beginnings appearing; no appearing, although
of incomplete bones incomplete bones or many varieties; no
and organs in various organs, but all parts incompletely formed
transitional stages. completely formed. bones or organs.

The Significance of Einteins Theory

Einsteins famous theory E=MC2 is a valid argument in favor of the
doctrine of special creation. This formula states that energy equals mass times the
speed of light squared. In essence, the formula states that matter can be produced
from energy just as tremendous energy can be produced from matter. The atomic
bomb proves the latter and the act of creation is proof of the former. This formula
supports the idea that God is a source of limitless energy. It demonstrates the
omnipotence of God, and it represents the most awesome transformation of
energy into matter that this world will ever see. This formula implies that a
source of limitless energy would have the raw material to create the substance of
the universe
This view is supported by Scripture. Psalms 33:6: By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His
mouth. This view is supported by Ellen G. White who states: The creative
energy that called the world into existence is the Word of God. This word implies
power: It begets life (p. 126). It was the Word of God that provided the creative
energy that brought the world into existence out of nothing.
Cloning
It is the production of a new individual from an existing one through an
asexual process. Genetic material from the first individual is used to create a new
one that has the same genetic makeup as the original.
The potential cloning of human beings has raised many issues and
concerns in recent times. Some of these issues have been expressed as noted
below:
1. The concern of justice. This concern is related to the reproductive
technologies which allow childless couples to reproduce artificially. The United
Church of Christ Committee on Genetics expressed its concerns in these words:
When the world groans with hunger, when children are stunted from chronic
malnutrition, when people die of famine by the thousands every daywhen this
is the reality of the world in which we live, the development of any more
technologies to suit the desires of those who are relatively privileged, secure, and
comfortable seems to fly in the face of fundamental claims of justice. For this
reason, in spite of our empathy with couples who might seek cloning in order to
have children of their own, we oppose cloning and say enough to
technologies that are privileges of the rich in the Western world.
2. Individuality and uniqueness. Would a clone be considered a full
human being created in the image of God and entitled to all human and civil
rights?
3. The legal concerns. How would society deal with property rights and
inheritance with clones?
4. Safety concerns. The current state of technique of nuclear transfer
cloning is far too imprecise to meet minimal expectations of safety that should be
met before they are applied to human beings. In discussing the sheep work, it
was indicated that it took 277 attempts until success was achieved. A question
arises as to what happens to the results of those unsuccessful attempts.
5. Psychological harm to the child. The United Church of Christ
Committee on Genetics raised this concern. It is possible that a child produced by
cloning would suffer from an overwhelming burden of expectations. Anyone
wanting to create such a child would have a prior knowledge of what this childs
genes could become and would in part make the decision to clone on the basis of
that knowledge. That prior knowledge could create a weight of expectation
against which such a child would have to define his or her own identity.
Precisely because genetic determinism is so widespread in contemporary
culture, this weight of expectation would likely be inconsistent with the freedom
necessary for each person to develop an individual identity.
6. Genetic Makeup. Many observers believe that it is beneficial for
children to have the genetic resources of two adults that are recombined to form
a genotype that is unique and yet tied genetically to both adults. This assures
that in terms of nuclear DNA, the child is related to both adults yet different
from either. If children were produced by nuclear transfer cloning, their nuclear
DNA would not have this relatedness and this difference.
7. Human embryo research. Whether such research is permissible
ultimately raises the question of the theological and moral status of the human
pre-embryo. The human embryo, it is believed, in due great respect, consistent
with its potential to develop into full human personhood.
The eighth concern was expressed by the Jewish community.
8. Procreation integrity. Cloning interferes with the process of procreation
itself. The normal sequence of egg and sperm uniting and forming a new life is
abolished and the egg becomes a vehicle for the parasitic parental DNA.
Basically, sexual reproduction is replaced by a new version of parthenogenesis.
9. Cloning is playing God. Dr. Richard Seed said of human cloning earlier
this year: God made man in his own image. God intended for man to become
one with God. Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA are the first serious steps
in becoming one with God. Guardian, 2 December 1998.
10. Cloning of non-humans. Other concerns are raised regarding cloning
of non-human mammalian species. The United Church of Christ Committee on
Genetics stated that: We are concerned that the use of nuclear transfer of
cloning, together with other genetic and reproductive technologies, will
contribute to a diminished regard for hon-human species. In particular, we
lament the attitude that hon-human species have no inherent dignity or
significance beyond their usefulness to human beings.
11. Larger issue. Max Stackhouse, an ordained United Church of Christ
minister who teaches Christian ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary says:
The larger issue is, should humans have control over the totality of their own
destiny, and whether for religious, theological, or moral reasons there should be
limits?