Purpose is popular.  How times have changed.  And science can't take the credit.  People can. But is responsibility popular?  Is it obvious to you that purpose and responsibility are very nearly the same thing?

Probably not. (But correct me by commenting below!) As a result, I can't help but notice that this emergence of purpose into consciousness has not yet got very far.  Let me explain.

Purpose is like a three-sided coin.

On one side, purpose is More...

Colin Wilson's 'The Outsider' was a great read.  But that was 1956.  Then human experience and purpose were subjects of novels, not a focus for everyday living.  Purpose has now invaded the blogosphere.  

That means it is rising in human consciousness.  It also means that an awareness that you must choose your purpose and have freedom to apply your will to it and be creative in achievement—all this is emerging too. 

Who would've thought it?

These notions have crept up so surreptitiously that you probably think it was always like this.

But it wasn't. More...

The problem with freedom of belief is that scientists now think they have the answer. Theories are now given the status of truth. So subjugation by the church has been replaced by subjugation by science and ideology.  

One superstition is replaced by another. As a result, the battle to promote beliefs in education is intense.

But the flag I want to wave is emblazoned with freedom. So let's see where that takes us in regard to education.

My starting point is that the emerging 21st Century enlightenment must help us all move away from superstitious dependence on ideologies and theories. (Of course, they must not be rejected because of their misuse by many, anymore than the Church should be rejected because of its misuse by many.)

I look to an era of freedom of thought and, at a personal level, I suspect that this cannot be separated from freedom of belief. We think and think and think, and then we come to believe. Strangely, More...

Science has beliefs and people believe in science. Should they? Is this what was meant by freedom of belief? 

Wasn’t that one of the basic freedoms we learned at school?  Or was that freedom of speech? Or thought? Or worship?  But then speech and thought and worship are all close companions to beliefs.

I am a champion of freedom of belief and freedom of thought. So I am sensitive when these freedoms are under threat. And they are. Freedom of belief is not being threatened from the pulpit or by church-backed governments these days.  We have moved on.  Instead, it is under threat from science and politics.

Let’s leave political ideology for the moment, where people demand that politicians proclaim beliefs and they hypocritically comply.  This is so obvious and silly. 

Let’s focus on science instead. Whiter than white and disdainful of political shenanigans, science has become the new political correctness. More...

Elinor Ostrom asked the question: How do you get social problems fixed?  Through the power of government?  Wrong.  Through the power of the individual?  Right.

But don't we want government to fix things?  We may: but that is often abdicating our responsibility—especially when our eyes show us that political intrusion only makes things worse, wastes money, and disrupts our freedom.  And it saps our own power.  The power that we each have as individuals.

Don't social solutions need the coercive imposition of organization?  No.  They can be based on intelligent and cooperative effort byMore...