A free mind?

No one knows what goes on in a newly-born baby's field of awareness. But with the first words a baby learns, we are already feeding in into her/his mind a previously formed view of the world. Then a child begins to ask questions, which are her/his tools for exploring the mysterious world into which s/he is plunged. It is then that we commit against the child the gravest sin. We blunt those wonderful explorative tools by giving the child ready-made answers that we expect the child to accept without question. It is no wonder then that very few persons exceptionally manage to break through those shackles and think for themselves. Most of us remain enslaved to what we were taught as children.

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If I were God I'd sue the writers of all Holy Scriptures for giving me a bad name.

Philosophy begins in awe

"Philosophy begins in wonder." This is how it is commonly put. But it does not do Plato's thought full justice. In expressing this sentiment Plato used the word thaumazein. It would be truer to Plato's insight to say tha philosophy begins in awe -- in the sense of awe at that which is beyond understanding and beyond language, but which we must even aspire to understand and ever labour to clothe in language -- that which is within us, which is our very reality, but which is ever beyond us, but which yet we will ever yearn for and must ever stretch out to reach -- only then are we what we are meant to be. This is the whole of metaphysical reality and is what metaphysics is all about.